Overview
Gavin Walker is Professor of Comparative Literature and the current Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at Cornell University. Educated at Penn (BA, MA) and Cornell (PhD), he previously taught for 12 years at McGill University before returning to Cornell in 2023 as Professor of Theory.
Walker specialises in critical theory and the theoretical humanities, at the crossroads of philosophy, history, and literature, a combination that used to be called 'humane letters'. He is particularly interested in the logic of capital and its relation to representation (in politics and aesthetics) as well as the putative 'outside' to its logic, whether that is taken as the space of culture, the undecidability of language in and out of translation, the role of labour-power and the figure of the political subject within the concept of structure, or the volatility of the nation-form. His work investigates these questions across the domains of theory, philosophy, literature, the visual arts, history, and criticism, particularly in modern Europe, North America, and Asia.
In recent years, he has been a Visiting Researcher at Hitotsubashi University, Tokyo (2009-10), Mellon Graduate Fellow in Global Aesthetics at the Society for the Humanities (2010-11), Faculty Fellow of the Institute for the Public Life of Arts & Ideas, Montreal (2016-18), Visiting Professor at the Institute for Research in the Humanities at Kyoto University (2019), and Humanities Advisor for the Sundance Institute Humanities Sustainability Project (2022).
Walker is the author or editor of 8 books: The Sublime Perversion of Capital (Duke, 2016), Marx et la politique du dehors (Lux, 2022), and The Rarity of Politics: Passages from Structure to Subject (Verso, forthcoming), The End of Area (Duke, 2019, with Naoki Sakai), The Red Years (Verso, 2020), Foucault¡¯s Late Politics (Duke, 2022), ¡®Rons?¡¯ no buntai [Styles of ¡®the Debate¡¯] (H?sei, 2023, with Yutaka Nagahara), editor and translator of Kojin Karatani¡¯s Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility (Verso, 2020), and author of around 70 articles and chapters in critical theory, continental philosophy, literary criticism, and intellectual history. Walker is a frequent translator from French, Italian, and Japanese, including work by Alain Badiou, Etienne Balibar, Sandro Mezzadra, Kojin Karatani, Hiroshi Nagasaki, and many others.
One of the editors of the Historical Materialism Book Series (Brill/Haymarket), he is also on the editorial boards of Diacritics (Johns Hopkins) and positions (Duke), and the recipient of awards and fellowships from the Fulbright Foundation, the Mellon Foundation, the Japan Foundation (Canada, US, and UK), the Fonds qu¨¦b¨¦cois de recherche ¨C soci¨¦t¨¦ et culture, and the Social Â鶹ÊÓƵ and Humanities Research Council of Canada, including an Insight Grant (2016-2024). Walker served most recently in 2022 as an invited Humanities Advisor for the Sundance Institute Humanities Sustainability project, sponsored by the Sundance Institute and the National Endowment for the Humanities, working to prioritise the importance of the humanities for contemporary cultural production.
Research Focus
Critical theory; 19th and 20th century philosophy, literature, criticism, the arts and political thought; Marx and Marxism; cultural studies; nationalism and the national question; translation, globalisation and the postcolonial.
Languages
English, French, German, Italian, Japanese
Publications
Books:
The Rarity of Politics: Passages from Structure to Subject (London: Verso, forthcoming).
(Montr¨¦al: Lux ?diteur, 2022).
(Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2016).
, edited by Gavin Walker, a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 121, no. 4 (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2022).
edited by Yutaka Nagahara and Gavin Walker (Tokyo: H?sei University Press, Ohara Institute for Social Research, 2023).
, edited by Gavin Walker (London: Verso, 2020).
by Kojin Karatani, translated, edited and with an introduction by Gavin Walker (London: Verso, 2020).
, a special issue of positions: asia critique, edited by Gavin Walker and Naoki Sakai, vol. 27, no. 1 (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2019).
Articles and chapters:
in PMLA, vol. 140, no. 3, symposium on Marxism and the Interpretation of Culture at 40 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2025), 499 - 506.
"The Relapses of the Universal: Translation and the Language of the Political¡± in , edited by Gavin Arnall and Katie Chenoweth (New York: Fordham University Press, 2025), 274-301.
with Michael Hardt, in diacritics: Review of Contemporary Criticism, July 3, 2024.
¡°Lenin, Partisan of the Conjuncture¡± in , ed. Hjalmar Jorge Joffre-Eichhorn and Patrick Anderson (Ottawa: Daraja Press, 2024), 120-123.
in CLS: Comparative Literature Studies, 60:2, ACLA Symposium on Gayatri Spivak¡¯s Death of a Discipline after 20 years (Penn State: Penn State University Press, 2023).
¡°What Comes After ¡®Area¡¯? The Nomos of the Modern in Times of Crisis¡± in , eds. Naoki Sakai, Jon Solomon, and Peter Button (London: Routledge, 2023), 173-198.
¡°¡®Furuki mono¡¯ to zanshi: Rons? no ¡®jiseigaku¡¯teki saisotei¡± (¡°The Archaic and the Remnant: Chronopolitics of the Debate on Japanese Capitalism¡± in [The Style of the ¡®Debate¡¯: On Japanese Capitalism and its Governing Apparatuses], co-edited by Yutaka Nagahara and Gavin Walker (Tokyo: H?sei University Press, ?hara Institute for Social Research, 2023), 243-285.
¡°Rekishiteki na koto no g?yu: Rons? no kokusaiteki saisotei no tame ni¡± (¡°Allegories of the Historical: The Debate on Japanese Capitalism in Global Perspective¡±) in [The Style of the ¡®Debate¡¯: On Japanese Capitalism and its Governing Apparatuses], co-edited by Yutaka Nagahara and Gavin Walker (Tokyo: H?sei University Press, ?hara Institute for Social Research, 2023), 405-423.
in , edited by Gavin Walker, a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 121, no. 4 (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2022), 713-734.
in , edited by Gavin Walker, a special issue of South Atlantic Quarterly, vol. 121, no. 4 (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2022), 645-653.
in , edited by Gavin Walker, a special issue of episteme, no. 9 (positions: politics) (2022).
¡°Non-Capital and the Torsion of the Subject¡± in , ed. Karen Benezra (New York: SUNY Press, 2022), 295-313.
¡°Nationalism and the National Question¡± in , eds. Farris, Skeggs, Toscano (London: SAGE, 2022), 366-386.
¡°Uno K?z?¡¯s Theory of Crisis Today,¡± co-written with Ken Kawashima, Introduction to , trans. Ken Kawashima (Leiden: Brill, Historical Materialism book series, 2021; paperback forthcoming from Haymarket, 2022), 177-202.
in Contretemps, 12 July 2021.
- In Spanish translation as in Viento Sur, no. 177 (OAR: Madrid, 2021), 91-105.
- In Chinese translation as ¡°¡± in Matters News and the Chinese Marxists Internet Archive, 18 December 2021.
in Spectre, 9 July 2021.
in Jacobin, 3 July 2021.
- In Spanish translation as in Jacobin Am¨¦rica Latina, August 2021.
in Historical Materialism, 8 May 2021.
in Jacobin, 25 November 2020.
- In Turkish translation as in Terrabyt, 9 February 2024.
Verso Books, 20 November 2020.
¡°The Post-¡¯68 Conjuncture¡± in , ed. Gavin Walker (London: Verso, 2020), 229-236.
¡°Revolution and Retrospection¡± in , ed. Gavin Walker (London: Verso, 2020), 1-11.
Historical Materialism, November 15, 2020.
- In Spanish translation as ¡°¡± in Sin Permiso, December 2020.
- In Portuguese translation as ¡°¡± in LavraPalavra Editorial, February 2021.
- In Chinese translation as in Guowai shehui kexue qianyan [Journal of International Social Â鶹ÊÓƵ], no. 6 (Shanghai: Shanghai Academy of Social Â鶹ÊÓƵ, 2021), 51-61.
in Marx, Asia, and the History of the Present, episteme, no. 3 (positions: politics), edited by Gavin Walker, October 2020.
in episteme, no. 2, , May 2020.
- In Chinese translation as in The Philosophia, August 2020.
in Marx: Towards the Centre of Possibility by K?jin Karatani, translated, edited, and with an introduction by Gavin Walker (London: Verso, 2020), xi-xxvii.
in Capital in the East, eds. Anjan Chakrabarti et al (Springer Publishing, 2019), 47-67.
in The End of Area: Biopolitics, Geopolitics, History, a special issue of positions: asia critique, vol. 27, no. 1, edited by Gavin Walker and Naoki Sakai (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2019), 67-98.
(co-written with Naoki Sakai) in The End of Area: Biopolitics, Geopolitics, History, a special issue of positions: asia critique, vol. 27, no. 1, edited by Gavin Walker and Naoki Sakai (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2019), 1-31.
in P¨¦riode: r¨¦vue de th¨¦orie marxiste (January 2019).
in The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx, ed. Imre Szeman et al(London: Bloomsbury, 2018).
in The Bloomsbury Companion to Marx, ed. Imre Szeman et al(London: Bloomsbury, 2018).
in Deleuze Studies, vol. 12, no. 2 (Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2018), 210-235.
co-written with Ken Kawashima, in Viewpoint 6: Imperialism, February 2018.
in Viewpoint 6: Imperialism, February 2018.
- In Spanish translation as in Intervenci¨®n y Coyuntura: Revista de Teor¨ªa y Cr¨ªtica Pol¨ªtica, February 2021.
(with Karen Benezra, Bruno Bosteels, Tom Eyers, Sami Khatib, and Samo Tom?i?) in ARTMargins, vol. 6, no. 3 (Boston: MIT Press, October 2017), 70-75.
in Confronting Capital and Empire: Rethinking Kyoto School Philosophy, ed. Murthy, Schaefer, and Ward (Leiden: Brill, 2017), 229-262.
in positions: asia critique, vol. 25, no. 2 (Durham & London: Duke University Press, 2017), 351-387.
in , special issue on The Critique of Political Economy, November 2016, 434-455.
in Jacobin, 13 November 2015.
in Repeating ?i?ek (Durham and London: Duke University Press, 2015), 195-212.
in Translation: A Transdisciplinary Journal, no. 4, special issue on ¡°Politics¡± edited by Sandro Mezzadra and Naoki Sakai (Rimini: Raffaelli Editore, 2014), 30-52.
in Viewpoint 4: The State, October 2014.
in South Atlantic Quarterly (113.4), special issue on Communist Currents, eds. Bruno Bosteels and Jodi Dean (Duke University Press, 2014), 671-685.
in Tosaka Jun: A Critical Reader, eds. Ken Kawashima, Fabian Schaefer, and Robert Stolz (Ithaca: Cornell East Asia Series, 2013), 218-254.
in Historical Materialism, vol. 21, no. 4, Autumn 2013 (Leiden: Brill, 2013), 1-34.
in Theory and Event 16.4 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).
in Theory & Event 16.4 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2013).
¡°Seijikeizai(gaku) hihan to kokka keitai: <Fukushi> to shihon no yokud?¡± (The Critique of Political Economy and the State-Form: ¡®Welfare¡¯ and the Drive of Capital) in J?ky?, supplemental volume no. 2 (Tokyo: J?ky? Shuppan, June 2013), 119-140.
in Postmodern Culture, (22.3) special issue on the work of ?tienne Balibar (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, May 2013).
in Historical Materialism, vol. 20, no. 2, Summer 2012 (Leiden: Brill), 39-74.
¡°Gendai shihonshugi ni okeru ¡®minzoku mondai¡¯ no kaiki: Posutokoroniaru kenky? no aratana seijiteki d?k?¡± (¡°The Return of the National Question in Contemporary Capitalism: New Political Directions in Postcolonial Studies¡±) in Shis?, no. 1059, July 2012 (Tokyo: Iwanami Shoten), 122-147.
in The Journal of International Economic Studies, no. 26 (Tokyo: H?sei University, Institute for Comparative Economic Studies, 2012), 15-37.
¡°Shihon no sekai ni okeru ¡®gait? no jijitsu¡¯: Ky?k?, kokka, kokusai¡±(¡°The ¡®Facts of the Streets¡¯ in the World of Capital: Crisis, State, and the National Debt¡±) in Gendai shis?: Revue de la pens¨¦e d¡¯aujourd¡¯hui, no. 40-2 (Tokyo: Seidosha, February 2012), 96-109.
in Socialism and Democracy, vol. 25, no. 3 (London: Routledge, 2011), 130-139.
in Rethinking Marxism, vol. 23, no. 3 (London: Taylor & Francis, 2011), 384-404.
in Interventions, vol. 13, no. 1 (London: Taylor & Francis, 2011), 120-137.
¡°Shihon no puroretariateki reido: gaibu no seijiteki butsurigaku¡± (¡°Capital¡¯s Proletarian Degree Zero: The Political Physics of the Outside¡±) in Seiji keizaigaku no seiji tetsugakuteki fukken: Riron no rironteki ¡®rinkai-gaibu¡¯ ni mukete (Political-Philosophical Resurrections of Political Economy: Towards the Theoretical Limit/Outside of Theory), ed. Nagahara Yutaka (Tokyo: H?sei University Press, 2011), 351-390.
in Postcolonial Studies, vol. 14, no. 1 (London: Taylor & Francis, 2011), 111-126.
¡°Kenryoku toshite no shihon: Seijiteki kake to ky? no kish?sei¡± (¡°Capital as Power: The Political Wager and the Rarity of the Commons¡±), Muri to iu iki to ky? no seisan (The Threshold of Excess [muri] and the Production of the Commons) Part 2, in J?ky?, October 2010 (Tokyo: J?ky? Shuppan, 2010), 185-203.
¡°Shihon no kigenteki iki: hida toshite no r?d?ryoku¡± (¡°Capital¡¯s Originary Threshold: Labor Power as Fold¡±), Muri to iu iki to ky? no seisan (The Threshold of Excess [muri] and the Production of the Commons) Part 1, in J?ky?, May 2010 (Tokyo: J?ky? Shuppan, 2010), 120-134.
in positions: east asia cultures critique 18: 1, Spring 2010 (Durham: Duke University Press, 2010), 145-169.
------. ¡°The Double Scission of Mishima Yukio: Limits and Anxieties in the Autofictional Machine,¡± reprinted in , eds. Nina Cornyetz and J. Keith Vincent (London: Routledge, 2010), 164-185.
" in Mechademia 4: War/Time (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009), 3-18.
in Proceedings of the Association for Japanese Literary Studies, vol. 9: Literature and Literary Theory, eds. Atsuko Ueda and Richard H. Okada (Summer 2008), 240-246.
