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Staff Profile

Dr David Ventura

Associate Researcher

Background

I'm a scholar with expertise in Caribbean philosophy and literature and twentieth-century continental thought. In 2023, I joined Newcastle as a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow to research the relation between time and racialisation in the works of Édouard Glissant and Frantz Fanon. Briefly stated, my research engages these and other Black radical thinkers to pose two interrelated questions: how does the history of transatlantic slavery continue to structure lived experiences of time in today’s world, and how might we practically refuse the alienating effects of such structuration?

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, alongside 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 have also co-edited a special issue in the journal Paragraph on the theme "Temporalities of Refusal":

In addition, as a Leverhulme Fellow, I co-organised two major 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 (2023–26)
  • 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