Dr. Stella Gaon 
Associate Professor, Political Science Department
BA Hons, MA (Concordia), PhD (U of T)
Office: McNally North 402
Email: stella.gaon@smu.ca
Phone: (902) 420-5843
Teaching Focus
History of political thought, 18th and 19th century political philosophy, democratic theory and cosmopolitanism, theories of the state, Marxist political theory, political ideology.
Current Research
My research is aimed at reformulating the normative grounds of critical political theory following contemporary continental critiques of modern political thought. I am interested primarily in questions concerning political action and political critique, particularly as these relate to the political-philosophical theme of "otherness" and the possibilities for emancipatory change.
I bring a range of social and political-philosophical resources to bear on these questions, including Frankfurt School critical theory, post-Marxist critical theory, post-structural social and political thought, critical legal theory, psychoanalysis, critical race theory and feminist studies. These approaches intersect with respect to the question of how to understand the moral grounds and effective possibilities of critique in the wake of the current crisis of ethical and political legitimacy.
I am currently developing these themes in two book-length studies: Risking Deconstruction: Critical Theory and the Politics of Educational Thought , and Beyond Legitimacy: Politics, Law and the State .
Significant Career Contributions
Lead organizer and chair of Democracy in Crisis: Violence, Alterity, Community, an international, interdisciplinary workshop. Sponsored by the SSHRC and Saint Mary's University, in collaboration with the University of King's College. Held at Saint Mary's University, June 22-24, 2007.
Co-coordinator of the public lecture series, Trust in Freedom of Expression, sponsored by the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Public Affairs, and mounted in collaboration with Saint Mary's University. Fall 2007.
Lead organizer and director of a series of inter-university, interdisciplinary, faculty seminar sessions in social and political thought. Held at Saint Mary's University in May 2005, August 2005, and May 2006.
Recent Publications
Books
Editor, Democracy in Crisis: Violence, Alterity, Community . Manchester University Press, 2009.
Articles (Peer-Reviewed)
Articles (Non-Refereed)
“From Communication to Mediation.” Review of Jürgen Habermas: Democracy and the Public Sphere , by Luke Goode. The Review of Politics 69, no. 3 (2007): 480-84.
“Renovating Critical Theory.” Review of Democracy, Power, and Legitimacy: The Critical Theory of Jürgen Habermas , by O. Payrow Shabani. The Review of Politics 66, no. 2 (2004): 342-45.
Review of Just Cause: Freedom, Identity, and Rights , by Drucilla Cornell. Review of Constitutional Studies/Revue d'études constitutionnelles 8, no. 1 (2003): 101-103.
Review of Revolutionary Social Transformation: Democratic Hopes, Political Possibilities and Critical Education , by Paula Allman. Philosophy in Review/Comptes rendus philosophiques XX, no. 3 (2000): 81-82.
Book Sections
“Introduction.” Democracy in Crisis, Violence, Alterity, Community . Ed. S. Gaon. Manchester University Press, 2009.
“Alterity as democracy-to-come.” Democracy in Crisis, Violence, Alterity, Community . Ed. S. Gaon. Manchester University Press, 2009
"Ethics." Critical Concepts: An Introduction to Politics. 3rd edition. Ed. Janine Brodie and Sandra Rein. Scarborough, Canada: Prentice Hall, 2005.
Conference Papers
“Why Must I: A Freudian response to the question of ethical-political responsibility in deconstruction . ” Presented at the Freud after Derrida , International, Interdisciplinary Mosaic conference, Oct 6-9, 2010, University of Manitoba, Winnipeg
“This resistance which is not one. Presented at the 2nd “Derrida Today” International Conference , July 19-21, 2010, Goodenough College, Bloomsbury, London, UK
“Democracy: Its premise and promise, its crisis and its critique.” Presented at the Problems of Democracy: Probing the Boundaries 1st Global Conference , April 30- May 2, 2010, Prague, Czech Republic.
“Words are Things too: A Post-Marxist, Materialist Analysis of the Political.” Presented at the 60th Annual Political Studies (PSA) Annual Conference , in conjunction with the British International Studies Association (BISA) Poststructural Politics Working Group (PPWG), March 29 -April 1, 2010, Edinburgh, Scotland, UK.
"Two Sides of the Same Sword: The Uses and Abuses of Human Rights Rhetoric.” Presented at the Annual Meeting of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature (IAPL), Brunel University, London, UK, June 1-7, 2009.
“Democracy in Crisis: Violence, Alterity, Community. Introduction.” Canadian Political Science Association annual meeting, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, June 4-6, 2008.
“Why are Human Rights Right ? The Fundamentalist and Nationalist Character of International Human Rights.” Global International Studies Conference, University of Ljubljana, Ljubljana, Slovenia, July 23-26, 2008.
"Re-evaluating the Value of Difference: Democracy as the Praxis of Cr itique." Immigration, Minorities, and Multiculturalism in Democracies. Public Conference, Fairmont Queen Elizabeth, Montréal, Quebec, October 25-27, 2007.
"Alterity as the Democracy to Come." Democracy in Crisis: Violence, Alterity, Community. Saint Mary's University, June 22-23, 2007.
"Derrida's desire... for justice." Following Derrida: Legacies, Mosaic conference. University of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada, October 4-7, 2006.
"Politicizing Textuality: The Mutual Mediation of Politics and the Literary." Annual meeting of the International Association for Philosophy and Literature. University of Freiburg, Freiburg, Germany, June 5-10, 2006.
"Materializing the Other: The Alterity of Rhetoric and the Rhetoric of Alterity." European Consortium for Political Research conference, Political Theory section. Corvinus University, Budapest, Budapest, Hungary, September 8-10, 2005.
"Globalizing Democracy? Human Rights, Citizenship, and the Cosmopolitan Ideal." Annual meeting of the Canadian Political Science Association . Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities of Canada, University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, June 2-4, 2005.
"Globalization, Democratization and the Promise of Cosmopolitical Right: The Danger of Justice without Exception." Annual meeting of the British International Studies Association. University of Warwick, Coventry, UK, December 20-22, 2004.
"Beyond Sovereignty: Sociality and Solidarity in a Community of the Question." Contemporary Governance and the Question of the Social. University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, June 11-13, 2004.
"(De)Constructions of Diversity: From Difference to différance ." Annual conference of the Political Studies Association. University of Leicester, Leicester, UK, April 15-17, 2003.
Awards and Distinctions
Grant in Aid of Research, SMU Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (2009)
Aid to Research Workshops and Conferences, SSHRC (2007).
Grant in Aid of Research, SMU Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research (2004).
Grant Notley Memorial Postdoctoral Fellowship, University of Alberta (2002).
A bibtex copy of this list can be found here
This page last modified Thursday, 29-Mar-2012 15:43:21 ADT