German Primera Villamizar

I am a senior lecturer in the Department of Humanities at the University of Brighton, where I teach critical theory and political philosophy. My research interests include French and Italian contemporary philosophy and thought, Black studies, Biopolitics, police power, violence and resistance.  In my first book The political Ontology of Giorgio Agamben (London: Bloomsbury, 2019) I interrogate the relation between political ontology and violence. I am also interested in the ways in which forms of relational ontology underpin the history of contemporary critical theory and radical philosophy. I am currently working on a book in collaboration with Prof. Mark Devenney entitled Troubling Democracy: On practices of care, fugitivity, and refusal.

My recent publications include:

Marmont, G and Primera, G 'Propositions for Inoperative Life' in The Journal of Italian Philosophy, Vol 3, 2020

Primera, G  ‘Violence, Biopolitics and Resistance: The Meaning of Violence in the work of Giorgio Agamben’ in Gavin Rae and Emma Ingala eds. The Meanings of Violence: From Critical Theory to Biopolitics (Routledge: 2019). 

Primera, G and Lamb, M. 'Sovereignty between the Katechon and the Eschaton: Rethinking the Leviathan' in Telos: Critical Theory of the Contemporary N.187, 2019;

Primera, G. ‘Introduction to the Thought of Roberto Esposito’ in An Italian Philosophy Reader, eds. D. Rose and M. Lewis. London: Bloomsbury [forthcoming];

Primera, G. (2016) ‘Economic theology, Governance and Neoliberalism: The lessons of The Kingdom and the Glory’ in Praktyka Teoretyczna, Vol 2, 2016.

I have recently co-edited  a special issue for the Journal of Italian Philosophy entitled The Politics, Ethics and Aesthetics of Inoperativity

In previous years, I have written and published about neoliberalism, sovereignty and governmentality from the perspective of French Poststructuralism and Italian Thought. I have presented this work at specialised conferences in New York, Madrid, Bristol, Palermo and Brighton with some of the leading scholars in radical theory. Moreover, through my research on political violence and biopolitics, I have approached questions surrounding the notion of exclusion and its relation to liberal democracy. This work has allowed me to take part in post-marxist debates on Populism and radical democracy that have taken place in Buenos Aires (2015) and Brighton (2016 and 2017) within the framework of the project: Transnational Populist Politics.

Conference Presentations

• Political Theology and Inoperativity” in The Society for European Philosophy and Forum for European Philosophy Joint Annual Conference, Royal Holloway, London, August 26^th-27^th 2019

• ‘Logistics, Biopolitics and Ordering’ in Violence, Space and the Political, National University of Ireland. Galway June 7th – 9th 2018

• ‘The signature of Secularization: The profane philosophy of Giorgio Agamben’ in London Conference in Critical Thought, London South Bank University. London, June 30th - July 1st 2017

• 'Violence, biopolitics and resistance: the meaning of violence in the work of Giorgio Agamben’ In The Meaning of Violence: International Conference. Universidad Carlos III de Madrid. Madrid 7th -8th March 2017

• ‘Resisting Biopolitics: Destituent Power and inoperativity’ in British Political Studies Association Conference. Hosted by CAPPE, University of Brighton. Brighton, 21st -23rd March 2016.

• ‘Extrajudicial Killings in Colombia’ in Theorising Transnational Populist Politics. Buenos Aires, 30th September – 5th October 2015.

• ‘Disposable life and neoliberalism’ in Neoliberalism and everyday life, CAPPE Centre for Applied Philosophy, Politics and Ethics, University of Brighton. Brighton, September 2014.

• ‘The signature of Life: From Butler’s social ontology to Agamben’s politicization of ontology’ In Ontologies of Conflict, Critical Studies research Group. Brighton, June 2014.

• ‘Neoliberalism, Governmentality and Bare life: Homo Oeconomicus and Homo Sacer’ in Agamben, Capital, and the Homo Sacer Series: Economy, Poverty, People, Work. ACLA- New York University. New York, March 2014.

• ‘Agamben, the proper and the improper: understanding the scope of the inclusion- exclusion paradigm’ in Italian Biopolitical Theory: Life Power and Political Theology, University of West England. Bristol, 13-14 March 2014

• ‘Extra-judicial killings and bare life in Colombia’ in Understanding Conflict: Forms and Legacies of Violence, University of Brighton. Brighton, February 2014.