Simon During FAHA (born 1950) is a New Zealand born academic and cultural theorist.
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Simon During FAHA (born 1950) is a New Zealand born academic and cultural theorist.
During studied as an undergraduate at Victoria University, Wellington and then at the University of Auckland, before completing his PhD at the University of Cambridge. In 1983, he joined the English Department at the University of Melbourne as a tutor, where, ten years later and after visiting positions at the University of Auckland and the Rhetoric Dept, UC Berkeley, he was appointed to the Robert Wallace chair. After establishing the Cultural Studies, Media and Communications and Publishing programs at Melbourne, he left for Johns Hopkins University in 2001, and taught in the English department there for nine years. [1] Between 2010 and 2017 he was a Research Professor at the Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities at the University of Queensland and in 2018 was appointed a Professorial Fellow at the University of Melbourne. He has also held visiting positions at the Frei Universität Berlin, Universität Tübingen, the American Academy of Rome, the University of Cambridge, Université de Paris and elsewhere. In 2001 he was awarded a Centenary Medal by the Australian Prime Minister for services to the humanities. In 2019 he lectured and travelled in Kerala as a recipient of Kerala's Higher Education Council's Erudite Scholar award. [2] He was elected a Fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities in 2000. [3]
He is listed as “Foucault consultant” in the film Ghosts of the Civil Dead by John Hillcoat and Nick Cave.[ citation needed ]
During’s scholarly work has covered a wide range of topics. The Johns Hopkins Guide to Literary Criticism and Theory notes that he was the first to use the term “post-colonialism” in its current sense, and in the 1980s helped show the degree to which the West’s culture has been shaped by imperialism [4] . Patrick Evans, in The Penguin History of New Zealand Literature, claimed that his 1980s work on New Zealand literature and culture constituted “one of the most important observations ever made” on that culture. [5] His Patrick White (1996) controversially introduced postcolonial and queer understandings to the study of Australian literature. [6] His anthology The Cultural Studies Reader remains a standard textbook in the field, and helped popularize cultural studies as a discipline globally. Wang Ning has said that During’s cultural studies work was “the most widely quoted” in China. [7]
More recently During has contributed to the study of British literary history, and analysed secularism, conservatism and the humanities generally. He has also been associated with postcritique.[4] Andrew Dean has argued that the shift of his intellectual interests across career is emblematic for his generation as a whole. [8] For the past decade, During's work has mainly focused on the history and theory of the humanities. Humanities Theory, co-authored with Amanda Anderson is expected from Oxford University Press in 2025. He also has a longstanding interest in relations between Anglicanism and literature between 1688 and 1945.
During's great–aunt was the Czech artist Gertrud Kauders who died in Theresienstadt in 1942. [9] His father, who was a prominent soil scientist, changed his name from Cornelius Kauders to Peter During on arrival in New Zealand in the 1940s. His mother, Dr Zoe During, was a pioneering medical officer of health in South Auckland and elsewhere. [10] The neuroscientist Matthew During was his brother. [9] During is married to the Australian academic Lisa O’Connell and has two children, Nicholas and Cornelia During.[ citation needed ]
His work has been translated into many languages. His books include Foucault and Literature (Routledge 1991), Patrick White (Oxford 1994), Cultural Studies: a critical introduction (Routledge 2005), Exit Capitalism, literary culture, theory and post-secular modernity (Routledge 2010) and, most recently, Against Democracy: literary experience in the era of emancipations (Fordham 2012). Perhaps his best-known book is Modern Enchantments: The Cultural and Secular Power of Magic (Harvard, 2002), which argues that stage magic and special effects have possessed a cultural power neglected by cultural historians. [11] Flint, James (27 September 2002). "Modern Enchantments". The Guardian.
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