Dr Ansgar Allen
School of Education
PhD Programme Director
Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy
+44 114 222 8085
Full contact details
School of Education
The Wave
2 Whitham Road
91Ö±²¥
S10 2AH
- Research interests
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Based on the idea that academic form restricts (and is often in ironic relation to) academic content, my writing experiments with style, ranging from more standard academic tropes to the fictive and fragmentary.
As well as the usual research outputs (peer-reviewed papers), I have written three academic books (, 2014, Palgrave MacMillan; , 2017, Mayfly Books; , 2020, MIT Press), co-written a textbook (, 2017, SAGE), and have published several novels and experimental texts (see below, but also , 2020, Schism Neuronics), as well as a range of book chapters, reviews, encyclopaedia entries, blogs, and media articles listed .
Research interests include the role of ancient Cynicism as an ‘educational philosophy’, the function of contemporary cynicism in education, and the construction of the Western educated subject.
My research traces the development of educational subjectivities, including the history of our commitment to the supposed inherent value of education and the importance of being ‘educated’. In my writing and teaching, I study the unquestionable goods of education, remaining open to the possibility that education in all its forms (even where it appears most benign) is a form of violence.
Current research projectsInterrogating education through fiction
This is an ongoing project in which educational ideas are encountered and explored in the contexts of theoretically driven literary fiction. The object of critique is typically at the intersection of pedagogy (the teaching of dependent personalities) and andragogy (the self-cultivation of adults in educated society).
These fictions include a foray into the darker side of educational relations in (2021, Boiler House Press), pursuit of the idea that education might function as an intoxicant in (2022, Anti-Oedipus Press), an exploration of the continued influence of priestly ideas in secular contexts in (2023, Schism2), and interrogation of some of the institutions that anchor educated culture, such as museums in (2022, Equus Press), and the institution of the library in The Sick List. Other texts include a re-enactment of the destruction of humanist culture in (2022, Schism Neuronics), a satire in part of the promise of liberation by reading in (2021, Schism Neuronics), and an exploration of the limits of research in the dystopian novella (2020, Schism Neuronics).
- Publications
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Books
- Cynicism. MIT Press.
- Education and Philosophy: An Introduction. SAGE Publications.
- The Cynical Educator. Leicester: Mayfly.
- . Palgrave Macmillan.
Journal articles
- Decapitation theory and university management: some notes towards the derangement of academic life. Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization.
- . Studies in Philosophy and Education, 43(2), 127-140.
- . Research in Education.
- . Oxford Review of Education.
- Barthes, anti-intellectualism, and the academy. Ephemera: Theory and Politics in Organization.
- . Sociological Review, 70(6), 1181-1198.
- . Angelaki, 24(5), 61-72.
- The culture of education: Ancient cynicism and 'the scandal of the truth'. Materiali Foucaultiani, 7(13-14), 75-92.
- Beckett and the plight of the educator. Other Education, 7(2), 88-96.
- . Confero, 6(1).
- The end of education? Nietzsche, Foucault, Genealogy. Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 25(1), 47-65.
- Awaiting Education: Friedrich Nietzsche On the Future of Our Educational Institutions. Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 24(3), 197-210.
- Education, Mastery and the Marquis de Sade. Other Education, 2, 39-55.
- . Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 24(2), 239-254.
- The Cynical Educator. Other Education: The Journal of Educational Alternatives, 4(1), 4-15.
- . History of the Human Sciences, 27(5), 26-53.
- . Power and Education, 5(3), 262-267.
- . American Educational Research Journal, 50(2), 216-250.
- Editorial: Radicalism, Education and Political Practice. Power and Education, 3(5), 262-267.
- . British Journal of Sociology of Education, 33(5), 641-659.
- Life without the 'x' factor - meritocracy past and present. Power and Education, 1(4), 4-19.
- . British Journal of Educational Studies, 59(4), 367-382.
- . Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 19(3), 367-383.
- The Foucauldian Peacekeeper: on the dispersion of power and the futility of change. Power and Education, 3(5), 226-237.
- Towards an experimental education criticism: eleven notes in place of a manifesto. CounterText.
Chapters
- Psychology and Education: Unquestionable Goods In Tony Williams , Tom Billington , Dan Goodley & Tim Corcoran (Ed.), Critical Educational Psychology (pp. 16-25). Chichester: Wiley.
- The Idea of a World University In Murphy M (Ed.), Social Theory and Educational Research, volume 4: Governance and Management: Performativity, audit cultures and accountability (pp. 23-38). London: SAGE.
Book reviews
- . Discourse: Studies in the Cultural Politics of Education, 44(1), 162-172.
- . Pedagogy, Culture and Society, 30(4), 613-616.
- . British Journal of Educational Studies, 67(3), 411-413.
- . British Journal of Educational Studies, 66(2), 284-285.
- . POLICY FUTURES IN EDUCATION, 15(6), 803-804.
- Against Value in the Arts and Education.
- Book Review: A Companion to Foucault. Journal of Philosophy of Education (online reviews).
- . BRITISH EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH JOURNAL, 40(5), 908-909.
- . British Journal of Educational Studies, 62(3), 355-357.
- . BRITISH JOURNAL OF EDUCATIONAL STUDIES, 62(2), 225-226.
- The Cambridge Introduction to Michel Foucault. Power and Education, 3(1).
- Why Foucault? Review Essay. Pedagogy, Culture & Society, 315-320.
Dictionary/encyclopaedia entries
- Schooling. In The SAGE Encyclopedia of Children and Childhood Studies SAGE Publications .
- . In Encyclopedia of Educational Philosophy and Theory Springer Singapore.
- Michel Foucault. In Encyclopedia of Educational Theory and Philosophy SAGE Publishing.
- Cynicism. MIT Press.
- Teaching activities
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I teach across a range of programmes in the School of Education, in areas including history and philosophy of education, continental philosophy, educational and social theory, educational politics, childhood studies, academic writing and research methodology.
I welcome applications to study for doctoral research degrees, in particular from those wishing to undertake research in the areas of educational philosophy, history and theory, and for students wishing to embark upon a PhD by Practice in the areas of creative-critical writing and theory-fiction.
- Professional activities and memberships
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Editorial and professional roles:
- Co-editor of , an imprint of Punctum Books
- Editorial Board Member and Book Reviews Editor
- Editorial Board Member
- Editorial Board Member
- Advisory Board Member
- Branch Secretary
- PESGB Large Grants committee member (2016-18)
- Docent in Philosophy of Education, University of Helsinki
- External Examiner, MA in Philosophy of Education, University of Winchester
In addition to the conference circuit (in the areas of education, utopian studies and literary theory), I have been invited to participate in discussion and speak in a range of academic and non-academic contexts, including the World Forum for Democracy (Strasbourg, France), the International Conference on Reimagining Schooling (Thessaloniki, Greece), the Society for the History of Children and Youth (London, Canada), the Qingshan Education Bureau (Wuhan, China), the German-British Association (Berlin, Germany), the European Network on Neoliberal Education Policy (York, UK), ESRI (Manchester, UK), the Social Theory Group (Manchester, UK), various PESGB seminars across the UK, and the 91Ö±²¥ Education Collective.
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