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Greg Bird is a contemporary social and political theorist whose research focuses on biopolitics, continental philosophy, Italian thought and the commons. He is engaged in a multi-year project that investigates how the dispositif of the proper operates in capitalism. His first solo-author book, Containing Community (SUNY Press 2016), won the 2017 Symposium Book Award presented by the Canadian Society for Continental Philosophy. In this work, he examines the economic, ethical, ontological and political dimensions of this dispositif in the debate about community between Agamben, Esposito and Nancy. He has written a number of journal articles, book chapters, encyclopedia entries, and introductory texts in the areas of biopolitics, contemporary social and political theory, migration studies and phenomenology that have appeared in English and Italian. He also co-edited Community, Immunity, and the Proper: Roberto Esposito (Routledge 2015), Unlimit: Rethinking the Boundaries Between Philosophy, Aesthetics and Arts (Mimesis 2018), and a forthcoming issue of the European Journal of Social Theory (2019).
He serves on the international advisory board for the Italian Thought Network; he sits on the editorial boards for Materiali IT (Quodlibet), Shift/Philosophical Series (Mimesis International), and Shift: International Journal of Philosophical Studies; and he is the coordinator for Techne: Wilfrid Laurier University Biopolitical Research Group. He has held visiting research positions at Roma Tre (2018), the Scuola Normale Superiore di Pisa (2015), the Istituto Italiano di Scienze Umane in Naples (2014).
His degrees include:
- 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 dispositif of the proper. This research ranges from concrete investigations of how formal migration programs asymmetrically distribute and appropriate lives, theoretical accounts of how contemporary biopolitical philosophers address the biopolitical economy of life, up to his forthcoming research which will perform a genealogical examination of this dispositif by focusing on early modern political philosophy.
- Merit Award, Laurier (2014-2017)
- 2017 Symposium Book Award, Symposium: Canadian Journal of Continental Philosophy, for Containing Community (SUNY Press, 2016)
Greg is willing to supervise graduate students who are working on contemporary or classical social and political theory, biopolitics, 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
- 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, 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.
Forthcoming Articles/Chapters
- Bird, Greg. 2018. “Dwelling in the Proper: May 68, Political Economy, and Identity Politics,” Shift: International Journal of Philosophical Studies, 3: pp. tbd.*
- Bird, Greg. 2018. “Community,” Bloomsbury Handbook of Literary and Cultural Theory, J. R. Di Leo (ed.), London: Bloomsbury, pp. tbd.
Translations
- 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).
Contact Info:
E: gbird@wlu.ca
Office location: DAWB 5-136
Office hours:
Mondays and Wednesdays, 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.
Languages spoken: English, Italian
Personal website:
Techne: Wilfrid Laurier University Biopolitical Research Group