About — Conor Heaney

‘Stupidity and Study in the Contemporary University’. [Centre for Critical Thought Postgraduate Seminar Series.] University of Kent, Canterbury, October 2017

'Fuck Excellence: Constructing a Joyous Pedagogy'. [Intervention at Joyful Ontologies, hosted by the Social Theory Centre and the Warwick Performance and Politics Network.] University of Warwick, September 2016 (with Hollie Mackenzie).

'Learning, Exchange, and Play III'. [Full day workplayshop event.] University of Kent, Canterbury, September 2016 (with Hollie Mackenzie).

''Change Life! Change Society! These precepts mean nothing without the production of an appropriate space' (Henri Lefebvre)' [Short invitation presented at Rediscovering the Radical: Theatre and Social Change, hosted by Collective Encounters and the Department of Applied Theatre at the Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts with Unity Theatre.] Liverpool Institute of Performing Arts, September 2016.

'What's Your Story?' [Alternative learning space installed at Gregynog Ideas Lab V Summer School. Part of seminar series on '(Un)making the Neoliberal Subject'.] Newtown, Wales, July 2016 (with Phil Gaydon and Erzsébet Strausz).

'Ontologies of Transformation: Three Articulations of Creative Practice' [Conference paper presented at Critical Edge Alliance (CEA) Conference Innovative and Critical Approaches to Higher Education in the 21st Century. Part of panel on 'Rethinking Progressive Education in a Neoliberal World'.] Roskilde University, June 2016 (with Erzsébet Strausz and Joel Lazarus).

'Popular Culture as Pedagogy: Breaking Bad, Neoliberalism, and Freedom' [Conference paper presented at the European Workshops in International Studies (EWIS) hosted by the European International Studies Association. Part of panel stream 'Popular Culture and World Politics: Time, Identity, Effect, Affect'.] University of Tübingen, April 2016 (with Conor Crummey).

'The Classroom as a Space of Encounters: Doing Pedagogy Differently' [Conference paper and film screening. Presented at Undisciplined Environments: International Conference of the European Network of Political Ecology, hosted by ENTITLE. Part of panel on 'The Affective in Political Ecologies: Arts as Ways to Cultivate Resistances'.] Royal Institute of Technology (KTH), Stockholm, March 2016 (with Hollie Mackenzie).

'Learning, Exchange, and Play II' [Conference long installation organised for Transforming Moments: Dissonance, Liminality and Action as Learning Experiences.] University of Kent, Canterbury, January 2016 (with Hollie Mackenzie).

'Towards a Deleuzian Onto-Pedagogy of Difference' [Conference paper and film screening. Presented at Social Class in the 21st Century, hosted by the Amsterdam Centre for Globalisation Studies. Part of panel on 'The Neoliberal University: Gender, Class & Sexuality'.] University of Amsterdam, October 2015 (with Hollie Mackenzie).

'Learning, Exchange and Play: Practicing a Deleuzian Pedagogy' [Workshop organised for Techniques of Art and Protest, hosted by the PLANK Research Network.] King's College London, September 2015 (with Hollie Mackenzie and Dr Iain MacKenzie).

'Rethinking Reciprocity' [Conference paper presented at the Warwick Graduate Conference in Legal and Political Theory. Part of panel on 'Global Justice'.] University of Warwick, February 2015.

'The Academic, Ethics, and Power' [Conference paper presented at Engaging Foucault, hosted by the Institute for Philosophy and Social Theory. Panel on 'Refiguring the Intellectual'.] University of Belgrade, December 2014.

'What is the University today? A Genealogy and Critique' [Conference paper presented at Protest, hosted by the Glasgow College of Arts. Panel on 'Youth in Revolt'.] University of Glasgow, May 2014.

I am currently a Lecturer in Liberal Arts & Politics Education in the Liberal Arts Department at King’s College London (as of Jan 2019). I convene and teach on “Politics in Theory and Practice” (within the Department of Political Economy) and take seminars for “Translation Across Disciplines.” I am also the Major Advisor for the Politics pathway.

I am also a PhD candidate in Social & Political Thought at the University of Kent, Canterbury, where I held a Kent 50th Anniversary Scholarship (2015-2018). My thesis was entitle Rhythmic Ecology: Mindscaping the Rhythms of Everyday Life, and was supervised by Dr Iain MacKenzie and Dr Charles Devellennes. I submitted my thesis in September 2018 and am passed my viva with no corrections on 1st March 2019, and will graduate in July 2019. During my time as both a Graduate Teaching Assistant and Assistant Lecturer at the University of Kent (Sept 2018 - Dec 2018), I taught on modules in political thought across all levels (“Introduction to Political Thought” and “Modern Political Thought). I also gave lectures for the Liberal Arts program on Neoliberalism (for the module “Understanding the Contemporary”) and The Postmodern and the Postindustrial (for the module “Roots of Transformation”).

My PhD research was an examination of the relationship between contemporary capitalism and mental health, or more precisely, an examination of our contemporary “mental environment” or “mental ecology.” Methodologically, in my PhD I also seek to articulate and contribute to reviving rhythmanalysis as a mode of analysis and practice.

I also (try to) research and maintain an interest in the following areas:

Gilles Deleuze (ontology, ethics); Félix Guattari (ecology, schizoanalytics, molecular revolution); Bernard Stiegler (organology, memory studies)
Critical and experimental pedagogy (Paulo Freire, bell hooks, etc.)
Foucauldian analytics
Aesthetics, popular culture, and the transformative social potential of cultural participation, communication, and production
Normative political theory, critical international relations theory, critical security studies
Feminism

I received an MPhil in Philosophy from the University of Warwick - where I specialised in political philosophy, 20th century Continental philosophy, and the phenomenological tradition - and where I held an AHRC Research Masters Preparation Scholarship (2013-2015). My thesis was supervised by Professor Keith Ansell-Pearson and was titled An Empiricist Mode of Existence: Deleuze, the 'New Materialisms', & an Art of Organising Encounters. Prior to this, I received a BA in Politics, Philosophy & Economics from Queen's University Belfast (2010-2013).

I do Outreach work related to Political Theory and teach on undergraduate political theory modules. I am also a member of the European International Studies Association (EISA) and the International Studies Association (ISA).