Cardiff School of English Communication and Philosophy

PhD Research

The research entitled ‘The Dionysian, Kairos and Utopia’, is extension of my MA dissertation about the Dionysian and Apollinian worldviews in relation to music in Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy.

The overall aim of the project is to demonstrate that a Nietzschean self-overcoming, Dionysian individual is – by way of music – able to create Kairotic fissures which are pre-figuratively Utopian. Divided into three main chapters, I critically discuss the work of Nietzsche, Ernst Bloch and Theodor Adorno.

Supervisor: Dr. Andrew Edgar

Research Interests

Primarily Friedrich Nietzsche and Critical Theory, in particular Ernst Bloch, Walter Benjamin, Theodor Adorno and Herbert Marcuse.

Academic background

MA Ethics and Social Philosophy – Cardiff University (ENCAP), 2009-2010

BA Spanish – Cardiff University (EUROS), 2005-2009

Publications

''Dave Chappelle's Block Party: Marcuse and Hip Hop'' - Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics, 2013 (pending)

''Don Quixote contra Faust: Ernst Bloch's Abstract or Concrete Utopia'' - Utopian Studies, 2013 (pending)

‘‘Black Swan: Dionysus dances with Apollo’’ – Philosophy Now, Issue 86, September/October 2011

Conferences, Symposia and Seminars

International Utopian Studies Society, July 2012, Catalonia: ‘‘Ernst Bloch and Utopia''

Gregynog Student Colloquium, March 2012, Wales: ‘‘Ernst Bloch: Abstract or Concrete Utopia?’’

Gregynog Student Colloquium, March 2011, Wales: ‘‘Nietzsche, Music and Language’’

Teaching

First Year Philosophy Undergraduate Tutor, 2012/13

Trainee facilitator with The Philosophy Foundation: http://www.philosophy-foundation.org/home 

Links

I am the First Year Philosophy Undergraduate's Tutor -  as well as Part-Time PhD - representative for 2012/13. Please feel free to contact me via e-mail if you have any queries.