Dan Taylor

(MENAFN- The Conversation) Senior Lecturer in Social and Political Thought, The Open University Profile Articles Activity

BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker 2023
Author of 3 books on British politics and political ideas
Trustee of Gateshead Carers Association and Fellow of the RHS
Researcher across England on community, connection and care

My job is to teach how to think about politics. I am honoured to work at the Open University, the UK's largest university and its most important one for social mobility. In my work, I come up with new ways to think about freedom, power and what we owe to each other. I'm interested in the ways that the past matters for understanding today's challenges. And it does.

I joined The Open University in 2020. Before that, I taught for four years at Goldsmiths, University of London, Lawrence University, the Mary Ward Centre, and the University of Roehampton. I have a PhD in Philosophy from Roehampton (2017) and an MA in Cultural Studies from Goldsmiths.

I might not be your conventional academic. I went to a non-selective state school in South London, lived for many years in social housing, and have taken a different path from friends and family where I grew up. Before I began teaching I worked for six years in disability, mental health and homelessness services in London. I'm committed to exploring how ways of seeing and doing might be transformed for the better. Knowledge is power.

Experience

• 2020–present Lecturer, The Open University
• 2016–2020 Lecturer, Goldsmiths, University of London
• 2019–2020 Adjunct Professor, Lawrence University
• 2013–2015 Associate Lecturer, University of Roehampton

Education

• 2017 University of Roehampton, PhD in Philosophy
• 2011 Goldsmiths, University of London, MA in Cultural Studies
• 2008 Goldsmiths, University of London, BA (Hons) in History and History of Ideas

Publications

• 2021 Spinoza and the Politics of Freedom, Edinburgh University Press
• 2016 Island Story: Journeys Through Unfamiliar Britain, Repeater
• 2013 Negative Capitalism: Cynicism in the Neoliberal Era, Zero

MENAFN12082025000199003603ID1109919568