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Greg Bird is a contemporary social and political theorist with a focus on contemporary biopolitical thought. His first book Containing Community (SUNY Press) won the Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy Annual Book Award (2017). He and Giovanni Tusa are the co-editors of Dispositif: A Cartography (MIT Press 2023). He has published several articles and chapters in English and Italian, including in international journals such as the European Journal of Social Theory, Configurations, Angelaki, and Human Studies. He has published two co-edited books and four co-edited special journal issues.
Since graduating from his PhD, Greg has held various advisory and administrative roles in the Italian Thought, which is an international scholarly network dedicated to contemporary Italian Philosophy, especially biopolitical theory. He sits on multiple international editorial boards connected to this network, and he has held visiting researcher positions in Rome (Roma Tre), Pisa (Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa), and Naples (Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane in Naples) in Italy. He also frequently travels to Lisbon where he is an associate researcher with colleagues at the Nova Universidade de Lisboa and Univesidade Aberta.
Degrees: BAHon, Sociology & Employment Relations, University of Toronto; MA, Work & Society, McMaster University; PhD, Sociology, York University.
His current research consists of theoretical and concrete explorations of the role of “dispositifs” (or “apparatuses”) in contemporary social and political theory. This project has two parts.
First, he is writing a series of essays and articles that examine the genealogy of dispositif thinking in 20th and 21st social theory. These essays focus on the role of dispositifs in the central writings of such theorists as Judith Butler, Roberto Esposito, Michel Foucault, and Achille Mbembe. This part of the project draws extensively from his co-edited anthology Dispositif: A Cartography (2023).
Second, he is embarking on a multi-year study of the Dispositif of Fordism. This research draws from theoretical literature on neoliberalism, post-Fordism, neocolonialism, and biopolitics, historical studies of Fordism, biographical accounts of Henry Ford, and archival research into the Ford Motor Company. The goal of this research is to provide a new perspective on the role of the Dispositif of Fordism in the first half of the twentieth century. This research will focus on the company’s “Sociology Department,” the Americanization of mass production, the Fordlândia offshore rubber plantation in the Brazilian Amazon, the production of Fordist company subjects, and the original founder’s morals and racism.
2017 Symposium Book Award (Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy) for Containing Community (SUNY Press, 2016)
Wilfrid Laurier University Early Career Research Award (2020)
Merit Award, Wilfrid Laurier University (2017, 2019, & 2020)
I am willing to supervise graduate students who are working on contemporary or classical social and political theory, biopolitics, settler colonialism, global migration, labour studies, and the sociology of work.
Solo Author Books
Bird, Greg. 2016. Containing Community: From Political Economy to Ontology in Agamben, Esposito, and Nancy. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 249 pp.
Edited Books / Anthologies / Special Journal Issues
Bird, Greg and Giovanbattista Tusa (eds.). 2023. Dispositif. A Cartography. Cambridge, Massachusetts: MIT Press, 456 pp.
Ironstone, Penelope and Greg Bird (eds.). 2020. “Our COVID Conjuncture: Critical Essays on the Pandemic.” Special Issue: Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies 41 (Fall 2020), 198 pp.
Bird, Greg and Penelope Ironstone (eds.). 2020. “Writing in the Midst of the COVID-19 Pandemic: From Vulnerability to Solidarity.” Special online issue Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies (March 2020). https://www.utpjournals.press/journals/topia/covid-19-essays
Bird, G. and H. Lynch (eds.). 2019. “The Politics of Life: Rethinking Resistance in the Biopolitical Economy.” Special Issue of European Journal of Social Theory 22:3 (August 2019).
Bird, Greg, Daniela Calabrò, and Dario Giugliano (eds.). 2018. Unlimit: Rethinking the Boundaries Between Philosophy, Aesthetics and Arts. Milan, Italy: Mimesis International, 242 pp.
Bird, Greg and Jon Short (eds.). 2013. “Roberto Esposito, Community, and the Proper.” Special Issue of Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities 18(3). Reprinted as G. Bird and J. Short. 2015. Community, Immunity, and the Proper: Roberto Esposito, (eds.), New York: Routledge, 190 pp.
Journal Articles
Bird, G. 2020. “What is Quarantine: Cruise Ships, Lepers & the Temptation of Christ,” Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, 41: 50-60.
Bird, Greg and Heather Lynch. 2019. “Introduction to the Politics of Life: A Biopolitical Mess,” European Journal of Social Theory 22:3, pp. 301-316, 2019. (Co-authors)
Bird, G. 2018. “Dwelling in the Proper: May 68, Political Economy, and Identity Politics,” Shift: International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 2(1): 31-43.
Bird, Greg and Jon Short. 2017. “Cultural & Biological Immunization: A Biopolitical Analysis of Immigration Apparatuses,” Configurations: A Journal of Literature, Science, and Technology, 25(3), 301-326.
Bird, Greg. 2013. “Roberto Esposito’s Deontological Communal Contract,” Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 18:3: pp. 33-48. Reprinted in G. Bird and J. Short (eds). 2015 Community, Immunity, and the Proper: Roberto Esposito, G. Bird and J. Short (eds.), New York: Routledge, pp. 32-47.
Bird, Greg and Jon Short. 2013. “Community, Immunity, and the Proper: An Introduction to the Political Theory of Roberto Esposito,” Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 18:3: pp. 1-12. Reprinted in G. Bird and J. Short (eds). 2015. Community, Immunity, and the Proper: Roberto Esposito, New York: Routledge, pp. 1-12.
Bird, Greg. 2009. “What Is Phenomenological Sociology Again?” Human Studies: A Journal for Philosophy and the Social Sciences, 32:4, pp. 419-439.
Bird, Greg. 2008. “Community Beyond Hypostasis: Nancy Responds to Blanchot,” Angelaki: Journal of the Theoretical Humanities, 13:1, pp. 3-26.
Book Chapters
Bird, Greg. 2018. “The Biopolitical Economy of Guest Worker Programs,” in Biopolitical Governance: Race, Gender and Economy, H. Richter (ed.), London: Roman & Littlefield, pp. 99-120.
Bird, Greg. 2018. “Debt and the Proper in Agamben and Esposito,” in Roberto Esposito: Thinking Biopolitics and Philosophy, A. Calcagno and I. Vitiasova (eds.), Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, pp. 47-64.
Bird, Greg. 2018. “Destabilizing Borders,” Introduction to Unlimit: Rethinking the Boundaries Between Philosophy, Aesthetics and Arts, G. Bird, D. Calabrò and D. Giugliano (eds). Milan, Italy: Mimesis International, pp. 9-13.
Bird, Greg. 2017. “Biopolitica o immunità” translated by Sabino Paparella in Effeto Italian Thought, E. Lisciani Petrini and G. Strumiello (eds.), Marcerata, Italy: Quodlibet, pp. 207-217.
Bird, Greg. 2015. “Ripensare il proprio da Agamben a Esposito,” in Differenze italiane: Politica e filosofia: mappe e sconfinament, D. Gentili and E. Stimilli (eds.), Rome: Derive Approdi, pp. 213-225.
Translations
Stimilli, Elettra. “The Italian Laboratory: Rethinking Debt in Viral Times” (translation of Italian essay “Il laboratorio Italia”. Ripensare il debito ai tempi del virus”) in European Journal of Psychoanalysis (special online issue) April 2020.
Stimilli, Elettra. “Being in Common at a Distance” (translation of Italian essay ”Essere in commune a distanza”) published in Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, March 23, 2020.
Nancy, Jean-Luc. “Unlimited” (translation of French essay “Illimite”), Boundlessness: Rethinking the Boundaries Between Philosophy, Aesthetics and Arts, G. Bird, D. Calabrò, and D. Giugliano (eds). Milan, Italy: Mimesis International (2018), pp. 15-21.
Esposito, Roberto. “Postdemocracy and Biopolitics” (translation of Italian essay “Postdemocrazia e biopolitica”) to be published in special edition of European Journal of Social Theory 3:22 (2019).
Selected Editorials/Commentaries
Bird, G. Editorial. Cambridge Today. “Social Conservatives Taking Aim at School Board.” Letter to the Editor (October 21, 2022). https://www.cambridgetoday.ca/letters-to-the-editor/letter-to-the-editor-social-conservatives-taking-aim-at-school-board-5990745
Zine, J., Matthews, S., and Bird, G. 2020.“Criticizing Israel is not antisemitic — it’s academic freedom.” Article for TheConversation.ca (November 15) / translation “Critiquer Israël ne relève pas de l’antisémitisme, mais de la liberté académique.” Translation for TheConversation.ca (January 11, 2021).
Bird, Greg. 2020. “Biomedical Apparatuses or Conviviality?” Topia: Canadian Journal of Cultural Studies, March 23, 2020. 10.3138/topia.2020.covid-19.09 / Translated into Italian by Alessandra Gissi as “Apparati biomedici o convivialità?” Antinomie: scritture e immagini, April 3, 2020. https://antinomie.it/index.php/2020/04/03/apparati-biomedici-o-convivialita/
Bird, Greg. “What is the free speech debate all about?” Opinion Editorial. Waterloo Region Record (November 25, 2017).