School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies

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Paul Hegarty

Chair in French Studies, Faculty of Arts

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Biography

I started out as a student of Languages, Economics and Politics at Kingston, specialising in French and Politics and spending my third year completing the full final year programme of Sciences Politiques at the IEP Bordeaux. I then zoned in on contemporary theory, and took the MA Critical Theory in Nottingham in 1991-92, following this up with a thesis in French and Critical Theory on symbolic violence across the work of Georges Bataille and Jean Baudrillard. As this magnum opus neared completion, I was offered a one year post in University College Cork (1996-97), consolidating this in 1997, with a focus on the new Law and French degree, with latitude to roam French thought, and with sideline in visual culture (which I began teaching in 1997). I then arrived into Nottingham once more, as Chair of French and Francophone Studies on January 1st 2018.

Since the late 1990s, I have been researching, teaching, writing and sometimes even performing work based on theory of the late 20th and early 21st centuries. From a grounding (an ironic term for those in the terrain) in French theory, I began exploring contemporary visual culture, and how French art, theory, architecture and other visually-based phenomena have had global reach and impact. In parallel to that interest, I have pioneered thinking about noise - in musical terms, as cultural critique and as diagnostic theoretical device.

In 2001, I began playing experimental music, and later, would become co-director of dotdotdotmusic, commissioning experimental musicians to release vinyl records, curating events and series of concerts. Increasingly, I have looked to integrate this practice with other research outputs, not least in my recent activities with leading noise artist Romain Perrot.

Expertise Summary

My areas of interest, in rough hierarchy, are the following: French contemporary theory, visual cultural theory and practice, the audiovisual, noise, sound studies, noise, modernism, minimalism, paradigitality, economics in asset-stripped cultural forms such as music, speculative science, French and other theories of evolution, French experimental writing. Current reading: Fred Moten

Teaching Summary

My teaching spans contemporary French thought, critical theory, contemporary visual culture and also ideas of audiovisuality.

in 2017-18, I have been teaching R12098 Surrealist Photography in France, teaching part of the visual culture element of R11026 Introduction ot French and Francophone Studies and seminars on R11019 France: History and Identity.

In 2018-19 I will be teaching R12110 Art and Visual Culture in France for the first time.

Research Summary

My principal research interests are French theory since the 1960s, contemporary thought, visual culture since the 1960s, audiovisual culture and sound studies. I have published widely in these areas,… read more

Recent Publications

  • PAUL HEGARTY, 2018. Peter Gabriel: Global Citizen Reaktion/University of Chicago.
  • PAUL HEGARTY, 2018. In the Absence of Noise, Nothing Sounds: Blanchot and the Performance of Harsh Noise wall Angelaki: Sounds of Disaster: Sonic Encounters with Blanchot. 23(3), 112-24
  • SARAH HAYDEN and PAUL HEGARTY, 2018. Peter Roehr: Field Pulsations: Avant-garde artist of the 1960s Daimler/Snoeck.
  • PAUL HEGARTY, 2015. Rumour and Radiation: Sound in Video Art Bloomsbury.

School of Cultures, Languages and Area Studies

University Park
Nottingham, NG7 2RD

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