Professor Saul Newman

Staff details

Professor Saul Newman

Position

Professor of Political Theory

Department

Politics and International Relations

Email

s.newman (@gold.ac.uk)

Goldsmiths Research Centres/Groups

Political theory, democratic governance and history of political thought.

Saul Newman is Professor of Politics. He joined the Department in 2006. His research work is largely in the area of continental political theory as applied to a study of contemporary forms of radical politics. He coined the term ‘postanarchism’ to describe new post-statist forms of political activism. His research has also led him to an exploration of sovereignty, political theology, democracy, post-secularism, human rights and statelessness, populism and ‘post-truth’. He has written extensively on these topics. He is also the recipient of a large EU Horizon research grant with the title: ‘Reclaiming Liberal Democracy in the Post-Factual Age’.

Academic qualifications

  • PhD in Political Science (University of New South Wales) 1998
  • BA (Hons) Political Science (University of New South Wales) 1994
  • BA Government, Philosophy, History (University of Sydney) 1993

Teaching and supervision

Saul Newman’s teaching expertise is in political theory, democratic theory and the history of political thought. He has taught the following modules:

• Political Theory and Ideologies (1st yr)
• Introduction to Political Philosophy (1st yr)
• Challenges to Democracy (2nd yr)
• Modern Political Theory (2nd yr)
• Continental Political Theory (MA)

Saul Newman’s general area of research expertise and supervision experience is in contemporary political and social theory, as well as radical political thought. He welcomes PhD applications in any of these areas. He has supervised PhD projects on: piracy, biopolitics and security; Alain Badiou and postanarchism; Marx and Foucault; anarchist theory; political theology; the politics of pornography; and Rojava.

  • BA Politics and International Relations
  • BA Politics
  • BA International Relations
  • BA PPE

Research interests

• Postanarchist theory
• Political theology
• Democratic theory
• Populism
• Post-truth discourse
• Max Stirner

Grants and awards

2022: Horizon RECLAIM consortium bid (Protecting and Nurturing Democracies call) – ‘The Future of Liberal Democracy in Europe’.

2021: Ulam (NAWA) Scholarship – Institute for Applied Social Sciences University of Warsaw

2018: Newton Fund Research Mobility Grant (CONFAP) Brazil

2007: British Academy Small Research Grant

Publications and research outputs

Book

Newman, Saul and La Torre, Massimo. 2024. The Anarchist before the Law. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 9781399513180

Newman, S. 2018. Political Theology: a Critical Introduction. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 9781509528394

Newman, Saul. 2015. Postanarchism. Cambridge: Polity Press. ISBN 9780745688732

Edited Book

Levy, Carl and Newman, Saul, eds. 2019. The Anarchist Imagination: Anarchism Encounters the Humanities and the Social Sciences. Abingdon: Routledge. ISBN 9781138781184

Edited Journal

Newman, Saul, ed. 2011. The Libertarian Impulse’, Journal of Political Ideologies, 16(3). 1356-9317

Newman, Saul, ed. 2010. The Libertarian Impulse, Journal of Political Ideologies, . 1356-9317

Book Section

Berry, Josephine. 2021. Spectatorial Splitting and Transcultural Seeing in the Age of Pandemics. In: Saul Newman and Tihomir Topuzovski, eds. The Posthuman Pandemic. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781350239081

Newman, Saul A. 2021. Contagious Politics: Posthuman anarchism. In: Saul Newman and Tihomir Topuzovski, eds. The Posthuman Pandemic. London: Bloomsbury Academic. ISBN 9781350239067

Newman, Saul. 2021. Political Theology. In: Gerard Delanty and Stephen P. Turner, eds. Routledge International Handbook of Contemporary Social and Political Theory. Abingdon: Routledge, pp. 550-560. ISBN 9780367629090

Article

Newman, Saul. 2024. Political Theology and the Anthropocene. Philosophy Today, 68(1), pp. 109-127. ISSN 0031-8256

Martin, James and Newman, Saul. 2023. Recontesting the Sacred: political theology as ideological method. Journal of Political Ideologies, ISSN 1356-9317

Newman, Saul. 2022. La Boétie and republican liberty: Voluntary servitude and non-domination. European Journal of Political Theory, 21(1), pp. 134-154. ISSN 1474-8851

Research projects

2022: EU Horizon RECLAIM consortium bid (Protecting and Nurturing Democracies call) – ‘The Future of Liberal Democracy in Europe’.

2022: Discourses of the Sacred: defining the post-secular political experience

Conferences and talks

2018: ‘Postanarchism and Critical Art Practices’, Museum of Contemporary Arts (MoCA) Skopje North Macedonia

2021: ‘La Boetie as a Republican Thinker’, Radical Republicanism in Early Modern Europe conference, KU Leuven

2021: ‘Political Theology: Thinking beyond Schmitt’, Universite di Magna Grecia (Catanzaro)

2021: ‘Post-truth and in the age of Covid-19’ Keynote address. Post-truth Politics workshop, University of Iceland, Reykjavik.

2020: ‘Against Method: Feyerabend and Postanarchism’, Bordering Cultures conference, Frankfurt (Oder).