• Comment: The citations do not show that Nichols currently qualifies for an article. Before resubmitting, I'd first try to find sources that show the subject's notability. Thanks! :) SirMemeGod  13:35, 9 October 2024 (UTC)

Robert Nichols
Known forPolitical Theory, Political Philosophy, Marxism, Colonialism, Dispossession
Academic background
Alma materUniversity of Toronto
Doctoral advisorJames Tully
InfluencesMarx, Foucault

Robert Nichols is a Canadian philosopher and political theorist, currently employed as Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz.[1]

Career

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Nichols received his PhD from the University of Toronto in 2010, where he was a Trudeau Scholar supervised by James Tully. He then spent two years as a Humboldt Scholar, studying under Rahel Jaeggi at the Humboldt University of Berlin. He was also a Fulbright Scholar at Columbia University in New York, and visiting faculty at the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

Nichols most important concepts are dispossession and recursion.[2] In his 2020 book, Theft is Property!: Dispossession and Critical Theory, Nichols argues that "dispossession has come to name a unique recursive process whereby systematic theft is the mechanism by which property relations are generated".[3] He characterizes this as a form of "recursion", explaining:

"Recursion is not... simple tautology. Rather than a completely closed circuit, in which one part of a procedure refers directly back to its starting point, recursive procedures loop back upon themselves in a “boot-strapping” manner such that each iteration is not only different from the last but builds upon or augments its original postulate. Recursion therefore combines self-reference with positive feedback effects. (If it has a geometric form, it is the helix, not the circle.)"

Nichols has also extended Indigenous critical theory to the study of prisons. In his 2014 article, "The Colonialism of Incarceration", Nichols argues that Indigenous peoples make unique contributions to carceral studies, since they raise concerns with the role of prisons in settler state control over territory.[4]

His work has been featured in a number of artistic exhibitions, including "A Species of Theft"[5] at as a featured speaker at the Berlin Biennale of Contemporary Arts.

References

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  1. ^ "Directory". histcon.ucsc.edu.
  2. ^ Bhandar, Brenna (2021). "Histories and Afterlives of Dispossession: Symposium on "Theft is Property"". Political Theory. 50 (3). doi:10.1177/00905917211035087.
  3. ^ Goren, Lilly. "New Books Network". newbooksnetwork.com. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  4. ^ "NYC Stands with Standing Rock". NYC Stands with Standing Rock. Retrieved 2024-10-09.
  5. ^ Gallery 400 (2022-05-10). "A Species of Theft - Gallery 400". Retrieved 2024-10-09.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)