Social & Political Theory Cluster

Overview

The social and political challenges we face now are also theoretical challenges, demanding both critical awareness and normative judgement.

The climate emergency, war, revolution, inequality, intolerance, the abuse of power. These all pose normative questions: what is the right thing to do, what good can we hope to bring about, what evils must we avoid? And our attempts to answer these questions are also rational efforts to remove error, confusion, and bias.

At the same time, the very idea of rationality itself is, in complex ways, tied up with the ethical challenges we are tasked with addressing. Theorizing can serve our efforts to think clearly about pressing social and political challenges, invite us to consider our concepts critically, and assess whose interests they serve.

The Social and Political Theory Research Cluster brings together academics working in normative and critical theory. Researchers within this group are actively involved with national and international collaborators both in research studies and in research working groups. The Cluster members have extensive experience in research supervision, and publish in leading international journals and publishing houses.

Contact

For further information on current and future research activities of this group, key publications, and research supervision opportunities, please contact the convenors:

Dr Diana Stypinska: diana.stypinska@universityofgalway.ie

Dr Allyn Fives: allyn.fives@universityofgalway.ie

Cluster Members

1. Dr Allyn Fives
2. Dr Paul Michael Garrett
3. Dr Hanna-Kaisa Hoppania
4. Dr Su-Ming Khoo
5. Prof Niamh Reilly
6. Dr Kevin Ryan
7. Dr Stacey Scriver
8. Dr Alexander Stingl
9. Dr Diana Stypinska