Dr Chris Allsobrook
Faculty of Humanities
Department of Politics
Post Doctoral Researcher
Biographical
Dr Christopher Allsobrook holds a BA (Hons.) in Politics and Philosophy and an MA in Philosophy, from Rhodes University in South Africa. He completed his DPhil in Philosophy, at the University of Sussex, UK, in 2011, on fundamental methods of justification for social and political criticism, focusing specifically on relations between ideology critique, in the work of Karl Marx and Theodor Adorno, and genealogy, as developed by Friedrich Nietzsche and Michel Foucault.
His main research is in normative problems of justification (both epistemological and ethical) in social and political theory, in 19th and 20th century German philosophy, and in criticism of liberal political discourse on agency, sovereignty, rights and development. Other academic interests include phenomenology, post-structuralist methodology, Ancient Philosophy, philosophy of religion, philosophy of science, post-colonial theory, feminism, and global political economy.
Publications
‘Contingent Criticism: Bridging Ideology Critique and Genealogy’ in Nietzsche, Power and Politics, eds. H Siemens & V Roodt, Walter de Gruyter, NY: 2009.
‘Critique and Crisis’ in Studies in Social & Political Thought, 2009, Vol. 16 (1).
‘True Ideology, Groundless Critique?’ in Studies in Social & Political Thought, 2011, Vol. 18 (2) (forthcoming).