Graeme Kirkpatrick

I did my PhD at Birkbeck in London on analytical philosophy of mind and principles of explanation in the human sciences. Before that I studied political philosophy at York and Peace Studies at Bradford. I've been working at Manchester since 2004. In 2015 I was Professor of Media Arts, Aesthetics and Narration at the University of Skövde in Sweden and in Spring of that year I was visiting Professorial Fellow of the Digital Cultures Research Programme of the Australian Research Council University at Flinders University in Adelaide.

The main focus of my work is on the relationship between modern, capitalist societies and the kinds of aesthetic experience most often associated with art. I'm particularly interested in the role of critique and of criticism in mediating these two aspects of modern life and in thinking through associated questions of social change and civilizational transformation. I've published extensively on media and technology with these questions in mind, including three books about the aesthetics, history, and sociology of the computer game; two on the philosophy and sociology of technology, and one critical study of digital technology design. My current focus is on the idea of critique, what it has meant to think critically in the past, and what it can mean today.

My research is informed by a longstanding interest in Marx and Marxism, and in varieties of critical and post-critical theory. I draw on the ideas of a range of thinkers within these traditions, especially Marx, Adorno, Sartre, Foucault, and Rancière, and my ongoing projects involve studies of specific concepts associated with these thinkers. Building on my earlier work on technology design and computer games, I'm  investigating the specific challenges faced by critique in digital culture, while assessing the merits, omissions and exaggerations of 'post-critical' theory. I'm also working on aspects of the sociology of art (especially art criticism), utopianism as an alternative to critique in politics, and a study of the varieties of critical praxis in and around the contemporary university.

I've supervised 8 PhDs to successful conclusion and been involved (as co-supervisor or invited external supervisor) in a further 5. All of my PhD students have gone on to successful careers, usually in academia.

I welcome new applications in the areas of Marx and Marxist theory; critical social theory; art and society; critique and post-critical theories; video game theory, and the sociology of intellectuals and activists.