Biography
I am Professor of French at University College Cork and Editor of the peer-reviewed journal Modern & Contemporary France. I warmly welcome all inquiries, especially from current or prospective students at any level, other researchers, the media and members of the general public.
Research Interests
My research focuses on 'political technologies' across the following four principal areas:
1. Modern and contemporary French philosophy, theory and literature
I have published extensively on the work of Jacques Rancière and will be in conversation with him on 12th November 2024. I am currently writing a new history of French thought over the last four decades, under contract with Reaktion.
2. Queer theory
In 2022, I published Hatred of Sex (Lincoln NE: Nebraska University Press / Provocations), with Tim Dean.
3. The psychedelic humanities
I published an open access book chapter conceptualising patient autonomy in psychedelically assisted psychotherapy and an open access article on Henri Michaux’s self-experiments with mescaline. I recently (2022-3) served as Co-Editor of the Frontiers in Psychology Series on the Psychedelic Humanities and have just completed a monograph on the political implications of the psychedelic renaissance. The best introduction to my work in this area is this podcast of a conversation with Oshan Jarow (September 2023). I am a member of the Drug Science Medical Psychedelics Working Group.
4. Policing the digital: ‘conspiracy (theory)’ and ‘disinformation’
Together with collaborators at KCL, Warwick and NYU London, I am developing new critical and policy-focused work on the role which the label 'conspiracy theory' increasingly plays within the policing of digital 'disinformation'.
1. Modern and contemporary French philosophy, theory and literature
I have published extensively on the work of Jacques Rancière and will be in conversation with him on 12th November 2024. I am currently writing a new history of French thought over the last four decades, under contract with Reaktion.
2. Queer theory
In 2022, I published Hatred of Sex (Lincoln NE: Nebraska University Press / Provocations), with Tim Dean.
3. The psychedelic humanities
I published an open access book chapter conceptualising patient autonomy in psychedelically assisted psychotherapy and an open access article on Henri Michaux’s self-experiments with mescaline. I recently (2022-3) served as Co-Editor of the Frontiers in Psychology Series on the Psychedelic Humanities and have just completed a monograph on the political implications of the psychedelic renaissance. The best introduction to my work in this area is this podcast of a conversation with Oshan Jarow (September 2023). I am a member of the Drug Science Medical Psychedelics Working Group.
4. Policing the digital: ‘conspiracy (theory)’ and ‘disinformation’
Together with collaborators at KCL, Warwick and NYU London, I am developing new critical and policy-focused work on the role which the label 'conspiracy theory' increasingly plays within the policing of digital 'disinformation'.
Research Grants
| Project | Funding Body | Start Date | End Date | Award | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Psychoactive Supper | Art & Humanities Research Council | 01-MAY-17 | 01-OCT-17 | €20,000.00 | |
| Queer Theory in France | Art & Humanities Research Council | 01-OCT-12 | 30-SEP-15 | €200,000.00 | |
| The Ends of Autonomy | Other: Not Listed | 01-SEP-19 | 31-AUG-20 | €19,000.00 | |
| Establishing the Psychedelic Humanities | Other: Not Listed | 01-SEP-22 | 31-AUG-23 | €4,000.00 |
Publications
Books
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2022) | Hatred of Sex. Oliver Davis & Tim Dean (2022) Hatred of Sex. Lincoln NE: University of Nebraska Press. [Details] | |
| (2014) | Jacques Rancière : Eine Einführung. Oliver Davis (2014) Jacques Rancière : Eine Einführung. Vienna: Turia + Kant. [Details] | |
| (2013) | Rancière Now. Oliver Davis (2013) Rancière Now. Cambridge: Polity. [Details] | |
| (2010) | Jacques Rancière. Oliver Davis (2010) Jacques Rancière. Cambridge: Polity. [Details] | |
| (2006) | Age Rage and Going Gently: Stories of the Senescent Subject in Twentieth-Century French Writing. Oliver Davis (2006) Age Rage and Going Gently: Stories of the Senescent Subject in Twentieth-Century French Writing. Amsterdam: Rodopi. [Details] |
Book Chapters
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2023) | 'Autonomy and autoheteronomy in psychedelically assisted psychotherapy' Oliver Davis (2023) 'Autonomy and autoheteronomy in psychedelically assisted psychotherapy' In: New Interdisciplinary Perspectives On and Beyond Autonomy. London: Routledge. [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2019) | 'Prison everywhere? The imbrication of coercive and pastoral governance in the regulation of 'chemsex' and new psychoactive substances' Oliver Davis (2019) 'Prison everywhere? The imbrication of coercive and pastoral governance in the regulation of 'chemsex' and new psychoactive substances' In: Susannah Wilson (eds). Prohibitions and Psychoactive Substances in History, Culture and Theory. London: Routledge. [Details] | |
| (2019) | 'Glearning from Jacques Rancière' Oliver Davis (2019) 'Glearning from Jacques Rancière' In: Stephen Cowden & David Ridley (eds). The Practice of Equality: Jacques Rancière and Critical Pedagogy. Bern: Peter Lang. [Details] | |
| (2013) | 'Desublimation in Education for Democracy' Oliver Davis (2013) 'Desublimation in Education for Democracy' In: Christina Howells & Gerald Moore (eds). Stiegler & Technics. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. [Details] | |
| (2012) | 'Eastwood reading Beauvoir reading Eastwood: combative self-assertion in Gran Torino (2008) and Old Age [1970]' Oliver Davis (2012) 'Eastwood reading Beauvoir reading Eastwood: combative self-assertion in Gran Torino (2008) and Old Age [1970]' In: Ursula Tidd & Jean-Pierre Boulé (eds). Existentialism and Contemporary Cinema: A Beauvoirian Perspective. Oxford: Berghahn. [Details] | |
| (2009) | 'Guillaume Dustan's autopornobiographie: Is there room for trash in the queer subcultural archive?' Oliver Davis (2009) 'Guillaume Dustan's autopornobiographie: Is there room for trash in the queer subcultural archive?' In: Helen Vassallo & Paul Cooke (eds). Alienation and Alterity: Otherness in Modern and Contemporary Francophone contexts. Bern: Peter Lang. [Details] | |
| (2004) | 'Theorizing Writerly Creativity: Jung with Lacan?' Oliver Davis (2004) 'Theorizing Writerly Creativity: Jung with Lacan?' In: Post-Jungian Criticism: Theory and Practice. Albany: SUNY Press. [Details] |
Edited Books
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2023) | New Interdisciplinary Perspectives On and Beyond Autonomy Oliver Davis & Chris Watkin (Ed.). (2023) New Interdisciplinary Perspectives On and Beyond Autonomy London: Routledge. [Details] | |
| (2019) | Freedom and the Subject of Theory: Essays in Honour of Christina Howells Oliver Davis & Colin Davis (Ed.). (2019) Freedom and the Subject of Theory: Essays in Honour of Christina Howells Oxford: Legenda. [Details] |
Peer Reviewed Journals
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2023) | 'Henri Michaux's program for the psychedelic humanities' Davis O; (2023) 'Henri Michaux's program for the psychedelic humanities'. Frontiers in psychology, 14 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2021) | 'Anthropotechnical Practising in the Foam-World' Oliver Davis (2021) 'Anthropotechnical Practising in the Foam-World'. Angelaki: Journal of Theoretical Humanities, :109-123 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2020) | 'Review essay: Luca Provenzano, Beyond the Matraque: State Violence and Its Representation during the Parisian 1968 Events' Oliver Davis (2020) 'Review essay: Luca Provenzano, Beyond the Matraque: State Violence and Its Representation during the Parisian 1968 Events'. H-Diplo Electronic, 916 [Details] | |
| (2019) | 'Theorizing the advent of weaponized drones as techniques of domestic paramilitary policing' Oliver Davis (2019) 'Theorizing the advent of weaponized drones as techniques of domestic paramilitary policing'. Security Dialogue, 50 (4):344-360 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2018) | 'The Anti-Police of Mai '68 Fifty Years On' Oliver Davis (2018) 'The Anti-Police of Mai '68 Fifty Years On'. Modern and Contemporary France, 26 (2) [Details] | |
| (2018) | 'Managing (in)security in Paris in Mai 68' Oliver Davis (2018) 'Managing (in)security in Paris in Mai 68'. Modern and Contemporary France, 26 (2):129-143 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2016) | 'Mettray revisited in Jean Genet's Le Langage de la muraille' Oliver Davis (2016) 'Mettray revisited in Jean Genet's Le Langage de la muraille'. French History, 30 (4):546-566 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2015) | 'Leading by example: A queer critique of personalization and coercive community governance in Act Up-Paris’s operation against the bareback writers' Oliver Davis (2015) 'Leading by example: A queer critique of personalization and coercive community governance in Act Up-Paris’s operation against the bareback writers'. Sexualities, 18 (1-2):141-157 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2015) | 'Bareback Sex and Queer Theory Across Three National Contexts (France, UK, US)' Oliver Davis (2015) 'Bareback Sex and Queer Theory Across Three National Contexts (France, UK, US)'. Sexualities, 18 (1-2) [Details] | |
| (2012) | 'Queer Theory's Return to France' Oliver Davis & Hector Kollias (2012) 'Queer Theory's Return to France'. Paragraph, 35 (2) [Details] | |
| (2012) | 'Didier Eribon, restive rationalist: the limits of sociological self-understanding in Retour à Reims' Oliver Davis (2012) 'Didier Eribon, restive rationalist: the limits of sociological self-understanding in Retour à Reims'. French Cultural Studies, 23 (2):117-126 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2011) | 'Re-visions: remarks on the love of cinema: An interview with Jacques Rancière by Oliver Davis' Oliver Davis & Jacques Rancière (2011) 'Re-visions: remarks on the love of cinema: An interview with Jacques Rancière by Oliver Davis'. Journal of Visual Culture, 10 (3):294-304 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2010) | 'The Radical Pedagogies of François Bon and Jacques Rancière' Oliver Davis (2010) 'The Radical Pedagogies of François Bon and Jacques Rancière'. French Studies, 64 (2):178-191 [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2002) | 'The Author at Work in Genetic Criticism' Oliver Davis (2002) 'The Author at Work in Genetic Criticism'. Paragraph, 25 (1):92-101 [Details] |
Articles
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2020) | Neoliberal Captialism's Bureaucracies of 'Governance'. Oliver Davis (2020) Neoliberal Captialism's Bureaucracies of 'Governance'. Articles [DOI] [Details] | |
| (2013) | Jacques Rancière et l'art contemporain : un échange d'histoires d'amour et de tyrannicide / Jacques Rancière and Contemporary Art: Swapping Stories of Love and Tyrannicide. Oliver Davis (2013) Jacques Rancière et l'art contemporain : un échange d'histoires d'amour et de tyrannicide / Jacques Rancière and Contemporary Art: Swapping Stories of Love and Tyrannicide. Articles [Details] | |
| (2009) | Rancière and Queer Theory: on irritable attachment. Oliver Davis (2009) Rancière and Queer Theory: on irritable attachment. Articles [Details] |
Blog
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2022) | The time we need must always be taken; never wait for it to be given. Oliver Davis (2022) The time we need must always be taken; never wait for it to be given. Blog [Details] |
Encyclopedia Entries
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2008) | Guillaume Dustan. Oliver Davis (2008) Guillaume Dustan. . Encyclopedia Entries. [Details] |
Review Articles
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2018) | 'reading for understanding is problematic': Panagia's Rancière's sentiments. Oliver Davis (2018) 'reading for understanding is problematic': Panagia's Rancière's sentiments. Review Articles [Details] |
Note
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2016) | Resiling from Resilience. Oliver Davis (2016) Resiling from Resilience. Note [DOI] [Details] |
Interview
| Year | Publication | |
|---|---|---|
| (2012) | Five questions for Jacques Rancière. Oliver Davis & Jacques Rancière (2012) Five questions for Jacques Rancière. Interview [Details] |
Professional Activities
Professional Associations
| Association | Function | From / To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Association for the Study of Modern and Contemporary France | Ex officio (as journal editor) member of the Executive Committee | 01-SEP-21 / | |
| Society for French Studies | Member | 01-JAN-10 / |
Employment
| Employer | Position | From / To | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Warwick University | Assistant Professor of French Studies | 15-AUG-06 / 14-AUG-10 | |
| Warwick University | Associate Professor of French Studies | 15-AUG-10 / 14-AUG-15 | |
| Ecole Normale Supérieure | Maître de langue | 01-SEP-05 / 31-JUL-06 | |
| Warwick University | Professor of French Studies | 01-AUG-20 / 30-SEP-24 | |
| Warwick University | Reader in French Studies | 15-AUG-15 / 14-AUG-20 |
Education
| Year | Institution | Qualification | Subject | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2008 | Warwick University | PCAPP | Academic and Professional Practice | |
| 2000 | University of Oxford | M.St. | European Literature (French) | |
| 1999 | University of Oxford | BA (Hons.) | Philosophy and French | |
| 2003 | University of Oxford | D.Phil. | French |
Journal Activities
| Journal | Role | To / From | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Frontiers In Psychology | Series Editor | 01-MAY-22 - 01-AUG-24 | |
| Modern And Contemporary France | Editor | 01-SEP-21 - |