Professor Matthew Festenstein

BA Cambridge, PhD Cambridge

Contact Details

Department of Politics, University of York, Heslington, York, YO10 5DD, UK
Derwent College , Room D/D203, Telephone: +44 (0)1904-433573

Email: mf517@york.ac.uk

Biography

Matthew Festenstein gained his PhD from Cambridge University in 1994. He was a lecturer in the Department of Politics at the University of Hull from 1993-99. In 1997, he published Pragmatism and Political Theory (Polity Press and Chicago University Press), which explored the significance of the pragmatist tradition for political philosophy.

He taught at the University of Sheffield from 1999-2006. While there, he published Negotiating Diversity: Culture, Deliberation, Trust (Polity Press, 2005), which dealt with the way the concept of culture is used in contemporary political philosophy, arguments for liberal multiculturalism, and the prospects for addressing the dilemmas of multicultural politics through deliberative or dialogic solutions. In addition, as co-editor, he published Richard Rorty: Critical Dialogues (Polity Press, 2001), another expression of the interest in pragmatism, Political Ideologies (Oxford University Press, 2005), and Radicalism in English Political Thought, 1550-1850: Tradition or Fabrication? (Cambridge University Press, 2007). Matthew arrived as Professor of Political Philosophy at York in 2006. He currently teaches undergraduate and postgraduate courses in a variety of aspects of political philosophy, including theories of global justice and continental European political thought. His research has been supported by grants from the Arts and Humanities Research Council and the British Academy.

Research Interests

Social and political theory

Pragmatism

Deliberative democracy

The politics of cultural diversity

Selected Recent Publications

‘John Dewey: Inquiry, Ethics and Democracy’, in The Oxford Handbook of American Philosophy, ed. C. Misak (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008)

‘Truth and Trust in Democratic Epistemology’, in Truth and Public Space , ed. R. Tinnevelt and K. Vanhemelryck (Springer, 2008)

‘Pragmatism’s Boundaries’, in Pragmatism and International Relations, ed. H. Bauer and E. Brighi (London: Routledge, 2008)

‘Scepticism, Practical Identity and the Politics of Culture’, in Multiculturalism and Moral Conflict, ed. M. Dimova-Cookson and P. Stirk ( London : Routledge, 2009)

‘Unravelling the Reasonable: Comment on Talisse’, Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, 45 (1), 2009, pp. 55-9

‘National Identity, Political Trust and the Public Sphere’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, 12 (2), 2009, pp. 279-96

Professional Activities

With Martin Smith (Sheffield ), Matthew edits Political Studies and Political Studies Review . He has acted as a panel assessor for the ESRC postdoctoral fellowships and open studentships competitions, and referees regularly for journals and publishers.

Supervision

Matthew welcomes research students in political theory, particularly in the areas of research interest listed above. He has successfully supervised students writing dissertations on a range of topics including liberalism, communitarianism and multiculturalism; theories of international justice; globalisation and the theory of ideology; deliberative and associative democracy; and theories of subjectivity in contemporary political philosophy.

His current research students include:

Ed Laws

Nick Gale

Department of Politics