Professor Peter Sedgwick

Overview

My teaching and research spans Philosophy & Literature, Visual Culture, Cultural Theory, History of Ideas, and Modern European Philosophy. I began my academic studies with a degree in History of Ideas (i.e. the history of thought). From there I developed an interest in the intersections between European Philosophy, English Literature and Critical and Cultural Theory. This interest led me to study for a PhD (under the supervision of Professor Christopher Norris) which traced the geneaologies of influence between literary and philosophical texts. Since then, I have written on a wide range of topics: key issues in modern European thought, aspects of health care, cultural theory, Nietzsche's philosophy (especially in its relation to economy and selfhood, justice, the literary and bio-politics), philosophy and literature, and visual culture. I have always felt that there is a deep kinship between literary and philosophical thinking. This is one of the key reasons why, after around 25 years teaching in Philosophy, I migrated back to English Literature in 2018.

I have an abiding interest in photography. My recent research reflects this by fusing literary-philosophical elemets with a 'creative-critical' dimension in order to theorise contemporary visual culture. My most recent book, Hypermodernity and Visuality (2019) blends philosophical and creative writing with my own photographic work. I am currently further developing the approach elaborated in this book in a monograph-length project entitled Memories of the Dead.

I have published the following books:

Hypermodernity and Visuality (Rowman & Littlefield, 2019).

Nietzsche's Justice (McGill-Queen's University Press, 2013).

Nietzsche's Economy (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007).

Descartes to Derrida: An introduction to Modern European Philosophy (Blackwell, 2001).

I am also co-author/co-editor with Andrew Edgar of Cultural Theory: The Key Concepts (Routledge, 1999, 2nd edition 2008), co-author with Andrew Edgar of Cultural Theory: The Key Thinkers (Routledge, 2002), and author of Nietzsche: The Key Concepts (Routledge, 2009).

For other selected writings click on the 'Publications' tab.