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Staff Profile

Dr Stephen Overy

Head of Philosophy

Background
I'm Head of the Philosophy Unit, chair of the philosophy Learning and Teaching Committee, and am leader of the interdisciplinary 'Global Challenges' Module. I also work with our Philosophy Degree Programme Director Dan Koczy on admissions.

My research interests are in psychoanalysis - particularly Freud - and the 'Philosophers of desire': Delezue and Guattari, and Lyotard's work in the 60's and 70's.

I was appointed to a teaching fellowship in Newcastle in 2016, having been an undergraduate and postgraduate in the philosophy department here. I specialise in philosophy of the unconscious and desire, situating the work of a line of thinkers from Kant to Deleuze in relation to its implications for materialism.

I have previously held a number of administrative roles, including:

Participation coordinator

Employability lead

Student Mentor Team lead

Facilitator of the Staff-Student Committee

Chair of Board of Studies

I was promoted to lecturer in 2019, and became Head of Unit in 2021.
Research

My research interests are in libidinal philosophies of drive and desire and their relation to materialism, considering a line of philosophers comprising Kant, Schopenhauer, Nietzsche, Freud, Lacan, Deleuze and Guattari, and Lyotard.

Much of my work has been in interdisciplinary collaborations between music and philosophy including: illustrations of the concept of desire in popular music (with Dr Kenneth Smith, Liverpool); and cybernetics and electroacoustic composition (with Dr Kelcey Swain, Bristol).

Publications