from toronto

Hi all, i am entering my second year as a PhD student in political science at York University, majoring in political theory. My (tentative) dissertation explores the role of the imagination within politics, as both constitutive and continuously escaping, the dominant political sphere. i am interested in how the symbolic-imaginary is managed, both within the history of political though (particularly Aristotle and Kant as two pillars of metaphysics and reason) and in contemporary political theory, especially the work of Cornelius Castoriadis. I hope to move from established thought to a conception of bodily processes as forming our conceptions of space and of alterity, and as de-stabling the privileged site of the rational subject. My written work intuitively goes toward a more performative approach to texts, exploring synaethesia and poetics as style, one that also posits the centrality of the body for examining theories about and practices of politics. I look forward to meeting you all in one month! Laura