Professor Simon Tormey

BA PhD (Wales)

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Simon Tormey is a political theorist based in the School of Social and Political Sciences. Prior to his appointment at Sydney in 2009 he was Professor and Head of the School of Politics and International Relations and founding Director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) at the University of Nottingham UK. He was educated at the University of Wales, Swansea receiving his doctorate in 1991. He was a Research Scholar and Lecturer at the University of Leicester before joining Nottingham in 1990. In 2005 he was awarded a personal chair (‘professorship’) in Politics and Critical Theory.

Simon is the author of numerous books and articles including Making Sense of Tyranny: Interpretations of Totalitarianism (Manchester University Press, 1995), Politics at the Edge (co-edited with C Pierson) Agnes Heller: Socialism, Autonomy and the Postmodern (Manchester University Press, 2001), Anti-Capitalism (Oxford: Oneworld, 2004 – revised edition 2013), and Key Thinkers from Critical Theory to Post-Marxism (London: Sage, 2006). He has published articles in journals such as Radical Philosophy, Thesis Eleven, The Journal of Political Ideologies, Political Studies, Critique of Anthropology and Historical Materialism. His work has been translated into Chinese, Korean, Indonesian, Turkish, Polish, Italian, French, Hungarian and German. His current writing project concerns the contemporary crisis of representative politics, and whether this presages the onset of new styles of modes of mobilisation, organisation or governance.

Simon is co-editor of ‘Reappraising the Political’ a monograph series with Manchester University Press (with Jon Simons - Indiana). For many years he was an editor of Contemporary Political Theory, one of the leading theory journals in the world.

Simon is currently on sabbatical leave until March 2014

Among his current research and teaching interests are:

• Global Civil Society/Alter-Globalisation – The theory and practice of transformative movements; social forums; Deleuze, Guattari and rhizomatic politics; social movements; indigeneity and the anthropology of stateless societies.
• Contemporary Political Theory and Global Politics – theories/critics of totalitarianism/modernity/postmodernity; concepts of democracy/representation/difference/identity. The idea of ‘development’; theories of ‘Global Justice’.
• ‘Critical Theories’ – Neo and Post-Marxisms; the work of the Budapest School; Castoriadis; Laclau & Mouffe; Zizek. French thought after 1968; Postcolonial theory (Spivak, Bhabha, Wittgenstein); critical pedagogy and education (‘global citizenship’; ‘global dimension in HE’/the RAE etc.)

He welcomes applications from students looking for honours, masters or PhD supervision on any of the themes above – though please note that he will be on leave until March 2014.