Mark Kingwell

Last updated
Mark Kingwell
Mark kingwell.jpg
Born
Mark Gerald Kingwell

(1963-03-01) March 1, 1963 (age 61)
Alma mater University of Toronto
University of Edinburgh
Yale University
Relatives Dylan Kingwell (nephew)
Era 20th / 21st-century philosophy
Region Western Philosophy
School Social philosophy
Aesthetics
Main interests
Political philosophy
Cultural criticism
Philosophy of art
Continental philosophy

Mark Gerald Kingwell FRSC (born March 1, 1963) is a Canadian professor of philosophy and former associate chair at the University of Toronto's Department of Philosophy. Kingwell is a fellow of Trinity College. He specialises in theories of politics and culture. He writes widely in both scholarly and mainstream venues, and addresses specific topics in social justice, discourse ethics, aesthetics, film theory, philosophy of architecture and urbanism, philosophy of technology, and cultural theory.

Contents

Early life and education

Kingwell was born in Toronto but grew up on air force bases across Canada, including the Maritimes and Manitoba, where he graduated from St. Paul's High School in Winnipeg in 1980. He studied philosophy, English, and political science at the University of Toronto, editing The Varsity through 1983 to 1984 and the University of Toronto Review in 1984-85. He received his BA degree from St. Michael's College with High Distinction in 1985; his MLitt degree from the University of Edinburgh in 1987 supervised by R. W. Hepburn; and both his M.Phil and PhD degrees from Yale University in 1989 and 1991 respectively.

His doctoral supervisors were Georgia Warnke (Philosophy) and Bruce Ackerman (Law and Political Science); at Yale he also studied with Karsten Harries, G. R. F. Ferrari, Jonathan Lear, Maurice Natanson, and Ruth Barcan Marcus. He was awarded SSHRC doctoral (1988) and post-doctoral (1991) fellowships. During this period (1985-1991) he worked as both a general assignment reporter and editorial writer at the Globe and Mail and a course instructor in Yale College.

Career

Kingwell joined the University of Toronto Department of Philosophy as an assistant professor in 1993 after teaching at York University in Toronto during his postdoctoral fellowship. He was promoted to associate professor with tenure in 1998 then to full professor in 2002. He has served as both Associate Chair (Undergraduate) and Associate Chair (Graduate), as well as Placement Director in the department. From 2013 to 2019 he served on the Board of Trustees of Trinity College. He has been a board member for the Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery in Toronto, Amnesty International Canada, The Walrus Foundation, and Continuum Contemporary Music, among others; he currently serves on the PEN Canada Advisory Council.

He has held visiting posts at institutions including: Clare Hall, University of Cambridge, where he is a Life Member; University of California at Berkeley Center for the Study of Law and Society; the University of Chicago's Neubauer Collegium; Stockholm University Faculty of Law; Faculdade de Arquitetura e Urbanismo, Escola da Cidade, São Paulo, Brazil; and Baruch College, City University of New York, where he held the title of Weissman Distinguished Professor of Humanities. From 2001 to 2004, he was chair of the Institute for Contemporary Culture at the Royal Ontario Museum. He has been awarded the University of Toronto President's Teaching Award and the Faculty of Arts & Science Outstanding Teaching Award, as well as a Faculty Research Fellowship at the Jackman Humanities Institute. In 2000 Kingwell received an honorary Doctor of Fine Arts degree from the Nova Scotia College of Art and Design, for contributions to theory and criticism. In 2018 he was named a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada. [1]

Writing

Kingwell has published more than two dozen books since 1995. Most notable are: A Civil Tongue: Justice, Dialogue, and the Politics of Pluralism, which was awarded the Spitz Prize for political theory in 1997; Dreams of Millennium: Report from a Culture on the Brink, which was a Maclean's magazine Top Ten Book for 1996 and finalist for the Gordon Montador Prize for social commentary; In Pursuit of Happiness: Better Living from Plato to Prozac, a cultural and philosophical critique of happiness that was a Globe and Mail , Los Angeles Times, and Baltimore City Paper Top Ten book in 1998, also a finalist for the Gordon Montador Prize; and Concrete Reveries: Consciousness and the City, which was a finalist for both the Writers Trust and British Columbia Non-Fiction Prizes in 2008. His book about the Empire State Building, Nearest Thing to Heaven, was a Globe and Mail Notable Book in 2006.

Other writing honours include the 2020 Erving Goffman Book Prize for Wish I Were Here: Boredom and the Interface, a Humanist of the Year award in 2010, and National Magazine Awards for both Essays and Columns out of six total nominations. Alain Roy's French translation of Kingwell's book on Glenn Gould was awarded the Governor-General's Literary Award in 2012, and his essays have appeared in the annual Best Canadian Essays anthology three times.

Kingwell is a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine , the now-suspended literary quarterly Descant , the political monthly This Magazine , and The Globe and Mail 's books section. He was also a drinks columnist for the men's magazine Toro . He was formerly a political columnist for Adbusters and the National Post , and a contributing editor and television columnist for Saturday Night . He now writes regularly for the The Globe and Mail 's Opinion section and the online magazine HiLoBrow.

Kingwell’s work has been translated into nine languages. His work on philosophy, art, and architecture has appeared in many leading academic journals and magazines, including The Journal of Philosophy , The Philosophical Forum , Ethics , Political Theory , Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, Wilson Quarterly, The New York Times and The New York Times Magazine , Utne Reader , Adbusters , The Walrus , Harvard Design Magazine , LA+, Border Crossings, Literary Review of Canada, Canadian Art , Azure , Gray's Sporting Journal, Toronto Life , the Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail , and the National Post .

In addition to public writing, Kingwell frequently appears on television and radio as well as on cultural and political podcasts, and is well known for his appearance in the documentary film The Corporation. He has lectured to academic and popular audiences around the world, and has delivered, among others, the George Grant, Harold Innis, Munro Beattie, William Morris, Marx Wartofsky, Norman Kretzmann, and Larkin-Stuart memorial lectures. He was invited to give the 2024 Vincent Massey Memorial Lectures but withdrew after disagreements with CBC producers.

Personal life

Kingwell describes himself as a social democrat and a "recovering Catholic." According to the Canadian Who's Who, he enjoys baseball, football, fly fishing, cricket, films, art collecting, and jazz, classical and pop music. He has two brothers: Sean and Steven. He was married to Gail Donaldson in 1988; the marriage ended in divorce in 2004. He married Molly Montgomery in 2008, and has two stepdaughters, Chloe and Clara. His nephew Dylan Kingwell, is an actor. [2] In 2023, he described his struggles with alcohol, which culminated in the need for two liver transplant surgeries. [3]

Publications

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Glenn Gould</span> Canadian pianist (1932–1982)

Glenn Herbert Gould was a Canadian classical pianist. He was among the most famous and celebrated pianists of the 20th century, renowned as an interpreter of the keyboard works of Johann Sebastian Bach. His playing was distinguished by remarkable technical proficiency and a capacity to articulate the contrapuntal texture of Bach's music.

Cecil Foster is a Canadian novelist, essayist, journalist, Public intellectual and scholar. He is Chairman of the Department of Transnational Studies at the University of Buffalo.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Charles Taylor (philosopher)</span> Canadian philosopher (born 1931)

Charles Margrave Taylor is a Canadian philosopher from Montreal, Quebec, and professor emeritus at McGill University best known for his contributions to political philosophy, the philosophy of social science, the history of philosophy, and intellectual history. His work has earned him the Kyoto Prize, the Templeton Prize, the Berggruen Prize for Philosophy, and the John W. Kluge Prize.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Bliss</span> Canadian historian (1941–2017)

John William Michael Bliss (1941–2017) was a Canadian historian and author. Though his early works focused on business and political history, he also wrote biographies of physicians Frederick Banting, William Osler and Harvey Cushing. Bliss was a frequent commentator on political events and issues. He was an Officer of the Order of Canada.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">George Grant (philosopher)</span> Canadian philosopher (1918–1988)

George Parkin Grant was a Canadian philosopher, university professor and social critic. He is known for his Canadian nationalism, a political conservatism that affirms the values of community, equality and justice and his critical, philosophical analysis of the social and political effects of limitless technological progress. As a practising Christian, Grant conceived of time as the moving image of an eternal order illuminated by love.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Walzer</span> American philosopher (born 1935)

Michael Laban Walzer is an American political theorist and public intellectual. A professor emeritus at the Institute for Advanced Study (IAS) in Princeton, New Jersey, he is editor emeritus of Dissent, an intellectual magazine that he has been affiliated with since his years as an undergraduate at Brandeis University. He has written books and essays on a wide range of topics—many in political ethics—including just and unjust wars, nationalism, ethnicity, Zionism, economic justice, social criticism, radicalism, tolerance, and political obligation. He is also a contributing editor to The New Republic. To date, he has written 27 books and published over 300 articles, essays, and book reviews in Dissent, The New Republic, The New York Review of Books, The New Yorker, The New York Times, Harpers, and many philosophical and political science journals.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seth (cartoonist)</span> Cartoonist

Gregory Gallant, better known by his pen name Seth, is a Canadian cartoonist. He is best known for his series Palookaville and his mock-autobiographical graphic novel It's a Good Life, If You Don't Weaken (1996).

Michael Granville Valpy is a Canadian journalist and author. He wrote for The Globe and Mail newspaper where he covered both political and human interest stories until leaving the newspaper in October, 2010. Through a long career at the Globe, he was a reporter, Toronto- and Ottawa-based national political columnist, member of the editorial board, deputy managing editor, and Africa-based correspondent during the last years of apartheid. He has also been a national political columnist for the Vancouver Sun. Since leaving the Globe he has been published by the newspaper on a freelance basis as well as by CBC News Online, the Toronto Star and the National Post.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ronald Wright</span> Canadian author (born 1948)

Ronald Wright is a Canadian author who has written books of travel, history and fiction. His nonfiction includes the bestseller Stolen Continents, winner of the Gordon Montador Award and chosen as a book of the year by The Independent and the Sunday Times. His first novel, A Scientific Romance, won the 1997 David Higham Prize for Fiction and was chosen a book of the year by the Globe and Mail, the Sunday Times, and the New York Times.

Douglas Glover is a Canadian writer. He was raised on his family's tobacco farm just outside Waterford, Ontario. He has published five short story collections, four novels, three books of essays, and The Enamoured Knight, a monograph on Don Quixote and novel form. His 1993 novel, The Life and Times of Captain N., was edited by Gordon Lish and released by Alfred A. Knopf. His most recent book is an essay collection, The Erotics of Restraint: Essays on Literary Form.

Terry Griggs is a Canadian author. Her book of short stories Quickening was a finalist at the 1991 Governor General's Awards, and she won the Marian Engel Award in 2003.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Michael Ignatieff</span> Canadian author, academic and former politician

Michael Grant Ignatieff is a Canadian author, academic and former politician who served as the leader of the Liberal Party of Canada and Leader of the Official Opposition from 2008 until 2011. Known for his work as a historian, Ignatieff has held senior academic posts at the universities of Cambridge, Oxford, Harvard, and Toronto. Most recently, he was rector and President of Central European University; he held this position from 2016 until July 2021.

Joseph Heath is a Canadian philosopher. He is professor of philosophy at the University of Toronto, where he was formerly the director of the Centre for Ethics. He also teaches at the School of Public Policy and Governance. Heath's webpage at the University of Toronto declares his work "is all related, in one way or another, to critical social theory in the tradition of the Frankfurt School." He has published both academic and popular writings, including the bestselling The Rebel Sell, which he coauthored with Andrew Potter. His philosophical work includes papers and books in political philosophy, business ethics, rational choice theory, action theory, and critical theory. His stepmother is June Clark.

Stephen Patrick Glanvill Henighan is a Canadian novelist, short story writer, journalist, translator and academic.

Alex Boyd is a Canadian poet, essayist, editor, and critic.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Chris Turner (author)</span> Canadian journalist and author (born 1973)

Chris Turner is a Canadian journalist and author.

Daniel Allen Cox is a Canadian author. Cox's novels Shuck and Krakow Melt were both finalists for the Lambda Literary Award and the ReLit Award, and his memoir-in-essays I Felt the End Before It Came: Memoirs of a Queer Ex-Jehovah's Witness was a finalist for the Grand Prix du livre de Montréal.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua Glenn</span> American writer and semiotician

Joshua Glenn is an American writer, editor, and semiotics analyst. He is the cofounder of the websites HiLobrow, Significant Objects, and Semionaut. In the 1990s he published the zine Hermenaut.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feisal G. Mohamed</span>

Feisal G. Mohamed is a scholar, critic, and essayist whose writing has appeared in The New York Times series "The Stone," in Dissent Magazine, the Chronicle Review,the Yale Review, The American Scholar, Huffington Post,Boston Review, and on the website of The New Republic. He is currently a Professor of English at Yale University. Among his awards and recognitions are a New Directions Fellowship from the Mellon Foundation, an Honorable Mention for the Modern Language Association's William Riley Parker Prize, and a James Holly Hanford Award for an outstanding book on poet John Milton. He holds a BSc in Biology (1997) and MA in English (1999) from the University of Ottawa, a PhD in English (2003) from the University of Toronto, and an LLM (2012) from the University of Illinois College of Law.

Andy Lamey is a Canadian philosopher and journalist. He is a teaching professor at the University of California, San Diego. He is the author of Frontier Justice: The Global Refugee Crisis and What To Do About ItDuty and the Beast: Should We Eat Meat in the Name of Animal Rights? and The Canadian Mind: Essays on Writers and Thinkers.

References

  1. Gooderham, Mary. "Eleven U of T scholars named fellows of prestigious national academy". University of Toronto website. University of Toronto. Retrieved 9 October 2018.
  2. "Opinion: Reflections on self-reflection: The dismay of staring at yourself on Zoom". The Globe and Mail. 25 June 2021. Retrieved 11 November 2023.
  3. Mark Kingwell. "Reflections on a life of drinking". The Globe and Mail. Retrieved August 27, 2023.