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ag e o f c r i t ic i sm t o w h ic h
e v e r y t h i n g m u s t s u b m i t.
Immanuel Kant
Philosophy MAs
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
www.kingston.ac.uk/crmep
Philosophy MAs
Careers
We expect our graduates to progress to research degrees in European
philosophy and critical theory, or to careers in media/journalism, publishing,
the arts, education and public policy.
Below are some examples of recent graduate destinations:
Tom Ackers: studying on The Independent Study Programme at the
Whitney Museum, New York
Michael Sperlinger: assistant director of the arts agency Lux (London)
Marta Kuzma: director of the Office of Contemporary Art Norway (Oslo)
Louise Hanson: PhD at Brasenose College, Oxford
Anda Klavina: curator at the Latvian Centre for Contemporary Art (Riga)
Kate Parker: director of City Projects (London)
Diarmuid Hester: PhD in English at the University of Sussex
Ccile Malaspina: PhD at the University of Paris VII
Ian Cuslidge: computer-game designer
Pavel Khazanov: won full-funded place in Comparative Literature at the
University of Pennsylvania
Yesim Yaprak Yildiz: researcher with Amnesty International in London
Dustin McWherter: lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, the American
University of Beirut
Paul Pieroni: curator at Space Studios (London)
Alastair Morgan: lecturer in mental health at University of Nottingham
Stewart Martin: senior lecturer in modern European philosophy, aesthetics
and art theory at Middlesex University after completing a PhD at the CRMEP
Dr Andrew McGettigan: freelance researcher and now a leading
commentator on UK Higher Education, completed a PhD at the CRMEP.
Course content
The programme combines a grounding in philosophical aesthetics in the
modern European tradition with study of contemporary art theory. Following a
compulsory module on Kant and the aesthetic tradition, you will choose three
further modules from a range of options. Canonical authors studied include
Adorno, Derrida, de Duve, Duchamp, Greenberg, Heidegger, Kant and
Merleau-Ponty. The course engages with some of the most influential texts in
modern and contemporary art theory from Kant and Schiller via Greenberg
and Adorno to Rancire and Deleuze framed in terms of fundamental
conceptual problems inherited from the German idealists. It provides a clear
overview of philosophical approaches to modern art, distinguishing between
aesthetic, Romantic and Modernist problematics. Modules include the
study of works by prominent contemporary authors such as Gilles Deleuze,
Jacques Rancire, Jean-Franois Lyotard, Rosalind Krauss, Benjamin
Buchloh and many others.
Course content
This programme offers an opportunity to explore the philosophical aspects
and significance of contemporary critical theory as understood on the
programme, critical theory refers to those traditions of 20th-century European
thought within which philosophy opens out onto critical diagnoses of the
historical present. You will study the two main traditions of critical theory the
Frankfurt School and French anti-humanism and their background in Kant,
Hegel, Marx and in 19th-century European philosophy more generally. The
course also includes work by thinkers who have become influential only in
the last two decades Giorgio Agamben, Alain Badiou, Judith Butler, Gilles
Deleuze, Felix Guattari, Antonio Negri and Jacques Rancire.
Core modules
Kant and the Aesthetic Tradition provides an introduction to the tradition
of philosophical aesthetics through a detailed study of its founding text, Kants
1790 Critique of the Power of Judgement. After an introductory week on
Humes Of the Standard of Taste, a detailed study of Part 1 of Kants Critique
of the Power of Judgement (main topics: judgement, subjective universality,
taste, the beautiful, the sublime, genius) will be followed by a discussion of its
reception by Nietzsche and Heidegger on the one hand and by 20th-century
formalist thinkers on the other.
The Philosophy Dissertation aims to provide an opportunity for intensive
and detailed research-based study (12,000 to 15,000 words) of your chosen
topic under the guidance of an appropriate supervisor. You will be required
to attend research skills seminars on constructing a proposal, editing and
composition, referencing, and online and electronic research methods; you
will also make an oral presentation of your dissertation proposal.
Option modules
Art Theory: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Contemporary
Romantic Philosophy of Art
Plasticity and Form
Critique, Practice, Power
Freud and Lacan
German Critical Theory
Hegel and his Legacy
Kant and his Legacy
Marx and his Legacy
Nietzsche and Heidegger
Recent French Philosophy
Recent Italian Philosophy
Topics in Modern European Philosophy
Please note that this is an indicative list of modules and is not intended as a
definitive list. For more information on the modules offered, please visit our
course webpage.
Core modules
Critique, Practice, Power gives a historical and philosophical introduction
to the two main 20th-century traditions of critical theory: the Frankfurt School
and French anti-humanism. After several works devoted to Kants conception
of freedom and practical philosophy, the module focuses on competing
conceptions of critique, practice and empowerment in Marx, Lukcs, Adorno
and Horkheimer, Althusser, Foucault and one or two more-recent thinkers (eg
Badiou or Rancire).
The Philosophy Dissertation aims to provide an opportunity for intensive
and detailed research-based study (12,000 to 15,000 words) of your chosen
topic under the guidance of an appropriate supervisor. You will be required
to attend research skills seminars on constructing a proposal, editing and
composition, referencing, and online and electronic research methods; you
will also make an oral presentation of your dissertation proposal.
Option modules
German Critical Theory
Hegel and his Legacy
Freud and Lacan
Marx and his Legacy
Art Theory: Modernism, Avant-Garde, Contemporary
Kant and his Legacy
Kant and the Aesthetic Tradition
Nietzsche and Heidegger
Plasticity and Form
Recent French Philosophy
Romantic Philosophy of Art
Topics in Modern European Philosophy
Please note that this is an indicative list of modules and is not intended as a
definitive list. For more information on the modules offered, please visit our
course webpage.
www.kingston.ac.uk/crmep
www.kingston.ac.uk/crmep
Teaching staff
Eric Alliez is professor of contemporary French philosophy and also teaches
at the University of Paris 8, Saint-Denis. Previously the chair of aesthetics at the
Akademie der Bildenden Kuenste, Vienna (200003), he has recently completed
the third and final volume of his aesthetic project on 20th-century French art,
Dfaire limage (Undoing the Image). He is known internationally for his work on
the French sociologist Gabriel Tarde and philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Flix
Guattari. He has co-ordinated the translation of two of Guattaris books into
English, along with an accompanying volume of critical essays.
tienne Balibar holds the Anniversary Chair in Modern European Philosophy
at Kingston University; he is also visiting professor at Columbia University,
New York. His books translated into English include: Reading Capital (with
Louis Althusser) (1965), On the Dictatorship of the Proletariat (1976) and
Race, Nation, Class: Ambiguous Identities (1991, with Immanuel Wallerstein),
Masses, Classes, Ideas (1994), The Philosophy of Marx (1995), Spinoza and
Politics (1998), Politics and the Other Scene (2002) and We, the People of
Europe? Reflections on Transnational Citizenship (2004). Forthcoming in 2014
are: Citizen Subject, Extreme Violence and the Problem of Civility (the Wellek
Library Lectures) and The Proposition of Equaliberty.
Howard Caygill worked in the History Department at Goldsmiths before
joining the CRMEP in January 2010. His research interests include
contemporary European philosophy, recent Italian philosophy, Kant, ethics,
theories of resistance, Benjamin, Levinas, Kafka, philosophy and psychiatry.
He is the author of Levinas and the Political, Walter Benjamin, A Kant
Dictionary, and On Resistance: A Philosophy of Defiance.
Peter Hallward taught in the French Department at Kings College London
(19992004) and joined the CRMEP in 2005. His research interests include
political philosophy, recent and contemporary French philosophy (especially
Sartre, Foucault, Deleuze, Badiou, Rancire), contemporary critical theory,
politics and postcolonial theory. His books include Damming the Flood:
Haiti and the Politics of Containment, Out of this World: Deleuze and
the Philosophy of Creation, Badiou: A Subject to Truth, and Absolutely
Postcolonial. He is a member of the Radical Philosophy editorial collective and
he is currently finishing a book entitled The Will of the People.
Catherine Malabou worked in the Philosophy Department at Paris X and as
a visiting lecturer in several universities in the US before joining the CRMEP
in January 2010. Her research interests include contemporary French
philosophy, Hegel, philosophy and science, deconstruction, psychoanalysis,
plasticity, sexual difference, neuroscience, life and affect. Her books include
The Future of Hegel, What Should We Do With Our Brain?, Plasticity at the
Dusk of Writing, Changing Difference and The New Wounded. She is currently
working on a book about the meaning of life as a political and scientific concept.
Peter Osbornes research interests are in Kant, Hegel, Marx and first-generation
Frankfurt critical theory (Adorno and Benjamin); temporality and philosophy of
history; transdisciplinarity; abstraction; aesthetics, art theory and cultural theory.
His books include The Politics of Time: Modernity and Avant-Garde (1995;
2011), Philosophy in Cultural Theory (2000), Conceptual Art (2002), Walter
Benjamin: Critical Evaluations in Cultural Theory (2005), Marx (2005), El arte ms
all de la esttica: Ensayos filosficos sobre el arte contemporneo (2010) and
Anywhere or Not at All: Philosophy of Contemporary Art (2013). A member of
the editorial collective of the journal Radical Philosophy since 1983, he was also
principal investigator on the AHRC-funded research project, Transdisciplinarity
and the Humanities (with Eric Alliez and Stella Sandford), 201113.
Stella Sandford is reader in modern European philosophy. She is one of the
leading feminist philosophers in Britain and works on philosophy of sex and
gender, 20th-century French philosophy and psychoanalysis. Her book Plato
and Sex was published in 2010 and she has recently completed an English
edition of tienne Balibars book on John Locke, Identit et difference, as
well as working on the transdisciplinarity of the concept of gender and on
the relation between feminst theory and philosophy. She is a member of the
Radical Philosophy editorial collective.
Research in philosophy
Research areas related to these courses (and to the work undertaken at the
CRMEP more generally) include:
modern European philosophy from the late 18th century to the present;
Kant, Hegel and German idealism;
Marx and Marxism;
Frankfurt School of critical theory;
philosophies of time and history;
conceptions of transdisciplinarity;
aesthetics, art theory and cultural theory;
philosophical and political approaches to contemporary art;
contemporary French philosophy (Sartre, Foucault, Deleuze and Guattari,
Badiou and Rancire);
recent Italian political philosophy (Agamben, Negri and Virno);
globalisation, postcolonial theory, contemporary politics;
contemporary philosophies of sex and gender;
philosophical approaches to psychoanalysis; and
philosophies of the brain.
Research seminars, conferences and workshops
CRMEP organises regular research seminars and two or three conferences or
workshops each year. Examples of recent events are shown below.
10 public lectures on philosophy, politics and the arts in collaboration with
the London Graduate School, Kingston University and Art & Philosophy at
Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts, London
Psyche and Philosophy, one-day conference organised with Universit de
Paris 8 with Howard Caygill, Philippe Cabestan and Jean Oury.
Performance and Labour: A Symposium, organised in conjunction with the
Department of Art History at University College London (UCL) speakers
included Randy Martin (New York University)
Time and Temporality, After Phenomenology, one-day conference with
Catherine Malabou (CRMEP), Peter Osborne (CRMEP), Jean-Michel
Salanskis (University of Paris X)
One-day conference on Foucaults recently translated Government of Self
and Others, and a two-day conference on Transdisciplinarity in French
Thought, 1945 to the Present: From Structure to Rhizome with Peter
Osborne, Etienne Balibar, Stella Sandford, Guillaume Colett, Jean-Marc
Lvy-Leblond, Alain de Libera, Franois Cusset, Michle Riot-Sarcey,
Andrew Barry, and ric Alliez
Recent seminars have welcomed speakers such as: Giorgio Agamben
(University of Paris VIII); Barbara Cassin (CNRS); Roberto Esposito (University
of Naples); Donna Haraway (University of California, Santa Cruz); Kojin
Karatani (Tokyo University); Quentin Meillassoux (cole Normale Suprieure);
Isabelle Stengers (Universit Libre de Bruxelles); Slavoj Zizek (Institute for
Social Studies, Ljubljana).
For further information about CRMEP, please visit www.kingston.ac.uk/crmep
Student feedback
Philosophy MAs
Torbjrn Eftestl
As with many of my fellow philosophy students, I chose Kingston University
because the Centre for Research in Modern European Philosophy is
located here. After studying here for a few months, I would not hesitate in
recommending it to anyone interested in this subject. The staff, who are
internationally renowned philosophers, are brilliant and enthusiastic. And
not only do they show enormous competence and fervour for their teaching
and research, but they are also very welcoming and warm people. My fellow
students are from all over the world, with diverse interests and experiences,
which is something that contributes a great deal to the exciting, friendly and
open-minded atmosphere I find here at CRMEP.
Entry requirements
Applicants should normally hold a good (upper-second or first-class honours, or
the equivalent) undergraduate degree in philosophy or related subject (including
but not limited to art history, fine art, gender studies, history, humanities,
literature, politics, etc). Applicants with other qualifications will be considered on
an individual basis. Applicants for MA Contemporary European Philosophy are
required to have a good knowledge of French (UK A-level or equivalent).
Cecile Malaspina
If you are thinking of studying modern and contemporary philosophy, the
CRMEP is one of the most rewarding places to do so. Besides the many UK
students who find their way there, the number of overseas students pays
tribute to the relevance of international philosophical research going on at
this institution. I always felt inspired and motivated by the tutors and fellow
students I encountered, and I have maintained an ongoing connection with
many of the people I met through the CRMEP. The standard of work expected
of you may initially leave you short of breath, but your achievements will feel
like genuine ones. The programme will challenge you to push beyond your
comfort zone, and to chart your own path down what Hegel called the
highway of despair.
Dr Luke Skrebowski
Studying for both an MA and a PhD at the CRMEP has proved central to my
intellectual development and strongly informed the character of my ongoing
work. The quality and commitment of the Centres staff and the rigour and
depth of their teaching are exemplary.
International students
All non-UK applicants must meet our English language requirements. For
this course it is IELTS of 6.5 overall, with special conditions for students who
require a Tier-4 student visa. Please make sure you read our full guidance
about English language requirements on our course webpage, which includes
details of other qualifications that will be considered.
Attendance/delivery
The approximate annual schedule (for a full-time student) is as follows:
Late September: autumn term classes begin
Early January: coursework for autumn term courses due
Late January: spring term classes begin
Early May: coursework for spring term courses due
Early June: presentation of MA dissertation proposal
Late September (all MAs except CEP) or March (MA CEP): submission of
MA dissertation
Duration
MA CEP: 18 months full time or 3 years part time
Other MAs: 1 year full time or 2 years part time
Assessment
Work will be assessed through essays, written assignments, presentations
and a dissertation.
Related courses
Philosophy & Political Economy MA
Criticism, Literature, Theory MA
Location
Located beside the River Thames, Kingston University is within the
London travel-pass zone. Easily accessible from surrounding areas such
as Surrey and Middlesex, its local train stations (Kingston; Surbiton) are
also only 25 minutes from London Waterloo.
Further information
Admissions Office (Postgraduate Courses)
Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences
Kingston University
Penrhyn Road
Kingston upon Thames
Surrey KT1 2EE
T: +44 (0)20 8417 2361/2378
F: +44 (0)20 8417 2292
E: fasspostgrad-info@kingston.ac.uk
www.kingston.ac.uk/postgraduate
Contact details
Please contact the Facultys Admissions Office with any further queries.