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Staff Profile

Dr David Ventura

Leverhulme Early Career Fellow

Background

I am a philosopher with expertise in twentieth-century Francophone thought. Having studied for a BA in Politics with History at Exeter University and an MSc in Political Theory at the London School of Economics, in 2020 I completed a PhD in Philosophy at Royal Holloway, University of London. My doctoral thesis articulated a critical notion of 'temporal ethics' with reference to the thought of Henri Bergson, Emmanuel Levinas, and Gilles Deleuze, and the philosophy of time remains a central aspect of my research.

In 2023, I joined Newcastle Philosophy as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow to carry out research on the relation between time and race through an engagement with the works of the Martinican writers Édouard Glissant and Frantz Fanon.

Research

Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship Project (2023-26)

My Leverhulme project, titled 'Thinking the Racialisation of Time with Édouard Glisant,' considers how lived experiences of time are specifically affected by histories of racialised othering, and particularly the historical legacy of transatlantic slavery. Focusing primarily on the literary and theoretical works of Édouard Glissant, but also drawing on other thinkers who explicitly think time in relation to these histories — including Frantz Fanon, Sylvia Wynter, Saidiya Hartman, and Christina Sharpe — my research seeks to diagnose and challenge the main temporal configurations that effectuate and sustain systems of racism in today’s world.

As part of this project, I have produced a series of publications on these philosophical figures, including, most recently:

With German Primera (Brighton University), I am also co-editor of a forthcoming special issue in the journal Paragraph on the theme "Temporalities of Refusal: Fugitivity, Imagination, Radical Futurities."

In addition, as a Leverhulme Fellow, I have co-organised two research events at Newcastle:



Teaching

In 2024/25, I will be sole convenor for PHI2016 - Race, Empire and Political Philosophy, a module studying a range of philosophical figures who centre questions of racial and colonial injustice in their thinking of politics.

At Newcastle, I have also contributed to teaching on the following modules:

  • PHI9001- MLitt Research Assignments: Sessions on Édouard Glissant and Sylvia Wynter (2023/24)
  • PHI1002 - Philosophy and Religion: Sessions on Decolonial Philosophy of Religion, Frantz Fanon, and Sylvia Wynter (2022/23)

Prior to joining Newcastle, I taught several undergraduate courses at King's College London and Royal Holloway, University of London, including modules on the philosophy of race, phenomenology, nineteenth and twentieth-century continental philosophy, and political philosophy. At King's, I won two awards for my contributions to teaching.

Publications