Professor Terrell Carver

Personal profile

Lecturer at the University of Liverpool 1975-79. Lecturer at Bristol from 1980, Reader from 1990, Professor from 1995. Visiting Professor at Virginia Commonwealth University, 1985-86; Visiting Fellow at The Research School of Social Sciences of the Australian National University; at the Centre for Asian and Pacific Studies at Seikei University, Tokyo, 1991; and with the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science, Tokyo/Kyoto, 1999; Visiting Professor, Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges, 2003; Visiting Professor, Senshu University, Tokyo, 2006. Editorial Commission Marx-Engels Gesamtausgabe, 1995-. Assessor, Australian Research Quality Framework, Politics & Social Sciences Panel, 2008. University of Bristol Research Fellowship 1995-96, 2004-05. Arts and Humanities Research Board Research Leave award 2002-03; Arts and Humanities Research Council Leave award 2006-07. Political Studies Association Executive Committee, Chair Publications Committee, 2000-02; Chair Grants & Awards Committee, 2003 -05; Chair External Relations Committee, 2005-.

Research

Research profile: As a political theorist I have specialised in Marx, Engels and Marxism, and on philosophy and methodology of social science. In particular I have concentrated on textual work in order to raise standards of interpretation. Besides doing my own translations of Marx, I have addressed myself to investigating the exact roles played by Engels in the composition of the Marxian canon and in the interpretative tradition that surrounds it. In doing this I have engaged with deconstructionist and post-modern methodologies, following developments in feminist theory particularly closely. Some of my work has employed feminist and men's studies perspectives on masculinities, and I am now contributing to the political theory of gender. I am aiming to contribute to theoretical issues concerning gender and sexuality, in International Relations in particular.

I have researched selected aspects of UK, American, Chinese, Australian and European politics to illustrate what political theory can do, and am currently collaborating on a project to link European and Japanese political theorists under the auspices of the Japan Political Science Association and the European Consortium for Political Research.

In 2002-2003 I was funded by the UK Arts & Humanities Research Board to finish my book on how men have presented men as overtly gendered and as apparently de-gendered beings in political theory. More recently I have co-authored/edited (with Samuel A. Chambers) two books on the political theory of Judith Butler. My latest award from the Arts & Humanities Research Council has enabled me to prepare a new English rescension of the manuscripts commonly known as Marx & Engels's The German Ideology: Part One.

Teaching

Teaching Profile: My teaching interests are in history of political thought, philosophy of social science, gender and feminist theory, and postmodernism.

I am currently teaching:

• 22201: Interpreting Political Texts
• 30001: Contemporary Feminist Thought
• M3016: Masculinity/ies and International Relations
• M3024 Discourse Analysis

I am particularly interested in using video to broaden the notion of 'text' and in simulations to broaden the notion of 'experience' in order to help students engage with political theory and practice. In 2003-04 I undertook an innovative student/teacher exchange in physical and virtual reality with an interdisciplinary colleague at Pitzer College, California. More recently from 2007 I have diversified assessment to include 'impersonations' (e.g. of Machiavelli or Marx), visual illustrations of political theory ideas embedded in PowerPoint slides, 'book reviews in the style of a named periodical', and 'seen' examinations.

Full publications list in the University of Bristol publications system