Department of Philosophy
department-of-philosophy
El Nabolsy
Zeyad
znabolsy
false
yes
Zeyad El Nabolsy
department-of-philosophy
Assistant Professor
Office: Ross Building, S418
Email: znabolsy@yorku.ca
Primary website: Philpapers Profile
Media Requests Welcome
I specialize in the history of Africana philosophy with a focus on modern African philosophy. I have previously published on Amílcar Cabral’s philosophy of culture, methodological debates about racism and ideology in the historiography of philosophy, classical German philosophy (especially Kant and Hegel), Paulin Hountondji’s philosophy of science, modern African political and social philosophy (with a focus on African Marxism), and ancient Egyptian philosophy.
I am currently working on projects on: (1) nineteenth century African philosophy (with a focus on James Africanus Beale Horton, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Rifa'a al-Tahtawi), (2) a book manuscript on Paulin Hountondji.
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Degrees
PhD , Cornell UniversityM.A. , Cornell University
M.A. , McMaster University
B.Eng , McMaster University
Research Interests
Philosophy
, African Studies, Africana philosophy, Classical German Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science,
Historical Materialism
Books
Publication
Year
Book Chapters
Publication
Year
“The Question of Modern Science in Africa and the Middle East.” In The Oxford Handbook of the History of the Global South, edited by Anne Garland Mahler, Christopher J. Lee, and Monica Popescu, 2025. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2025
“Questions from the Dar es Salaam Debates.” In Revolutionary Movements in Africa: An Untold Story, edited by Pascal Bianchini, Leo Zeilig, and Ndongo Sylla, 2023. London: Pluto, 244 - 261.
2023
"Lenin in East Africa: Abdul Rahman Mohammed Babu and Dani Wadada Nabudere." In The Future of Lenin: Power, Politics, and Revolution in the 21st Century, edited by Alla Ivanchikova and Robert Maclean, 2022. Albany, NY: SUNY Press
2022
“Paulin J. Hountondji on Philosophy, Science, and Technology: From Husserl and Althusser to a Synthesis of the Hessen- Grossmann Thesis and Dependency Theory.” In Africana Studies: Theoretical Futures, edited by Grant Farred, 2022. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
2022
“African Socialism in Retrospect: Karim Hirji's The Travails of a Tanzanian Teacher.” In Liberated Texts, Collected Reviews: Volume One, edited by Louis Allday and Mahmoud Najib, 2022. Oxford: Ebb Books
2022
“Al-Tatwarat al-Nazariya lel-Marxiya fe Sharq-Ifriqiya Khelal al-Sab'ainat.” In Al-Pan-Africanism: Bayn al-Sera' al-Tabaqi we al-Indwa' al-'arqi (Nash'at we Tatawour al-afkar al-Ijtima'yia we al-Thaqafiya lada al-Afriquah qabl we 'athna' al-istiqlal) [Pan-Africanism: Between Class Struggle and Racialism (The Origins and Evolution of African Social and Cultural Thought before and during the Struggle for Independence)], edited by Kribso Diallo, 255-281. 2021 Cairo: Mo'asasat 'Arwqa lel-Derasat we al-Targama we al-Neshr. [In Arabic].
2021
(Co-Authored with Afifa Ltifi). “Tarikh Ifriqiya we Ta'weil Amílcar Cabral lel Nazariya al Madiyah al-Tarikhyiah.” In Al-Pan-Africanism: Bayn al-Sera' al-Tabaqi we al-Indwa' al-'arqi (Nash'at we Tatawour al-afkar al-Ijtima'yia we al-Thaqafiya lada al-Afriquah qabl we 'athna' al-istiqlal) [Pan-Africanism: Between Class Struggle and Racialism (The Origins and Evolution of African Social and Cultural Thought before and during the Struggle for Independence)], edited by Kribso Diallo, 283-304. 2021. Cairo: Mo'asasat 'Arwqa lel-Derasat we al-Targama we al-Neshr
2021
Book Reviews
Publication
Year
“Boris Hessen and Philosophy: The Socioeconomic Roots of Classical and Modern Physics by Sean Winkler.” Science & Society (February 2025)
2025
Review Essay on Domenico Losurdo's "Western Marxism: How it Was Born, How it Died, and How it Can be Reborn." Journal of Labour and Society 27, no.4 (2024): 603 - 612.
2024
“The Life and Thought of H. Odera Oruka: Pursuing Justice in Africa by Gail M. Presby.” Philosophy in Review 44, no.1 (February 2024): 38 – 41.
2024
“Fundamentalism and Secularization by Mourad Wahba. Translated by Robert Beshara.” Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, July 16, 2022
2022
“African Socialism in Retrospect: Karim Hirji's The Travails of a Tanzanian Teacher.” Liberated Texts, March 23 2021.
[Republished in Review of African Political Economy October 19th, 2021]
[Republished in Review of African Political Economy October 19th, 2021]
2021
“‘Expertise’ as Systematized Historical Amnesia: Springborg's Egypt as a Case Study.” Houston Review of Books, August 31, 2021
2021
Journal Articles
Publication
Year
“James Africanus Beale Horton on Naturalism, Baconianism, and Race Science in Victorian Philosophical Anthropology.” Journal of Modern Philosophy 6, no.2 (2025)
2025
“James Africanus Beale Horton’s Philosophy of History: Progress, Race, and the Fate of Africa.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy (2025)
2025
(Co-authored with Emir Yigit). “Reconciling Hegel with the Dialectic: On Islam and the Fate of Muslims in Hegel’s Philosophy of History.” Hegel Bulletin 45.1 (2024): 93 – 119.
2024
“Standpoint Epistemology, Internal Critique, and the Characterization of Equiano as an Enlightenment Thinker.” Atlantic Studies 22, no.1: 34 - 63
2024
“Edward Said and Philosophy.” Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry (2023) (Forum on Timothy Brennan’s Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said) 11(1): 103 – 109.
2023
“No Decolonization without Women's Liberation: Women's Liberation in the PAIGC’s Theoretical Discourse.” Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research 9, no.1(2023): 141 – 155.
2023
“The African Novel and the Question of Communalism in African Philosophy.” Safundi 25, no. 1- 2 (2023): 12 - 17 (Roundtable on Jeanne-Marie Jackson’s The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing)
2023
“On the Differences between the Classical and the ‘Western’ Marxist Conceptions of Science.” Marxism & Sciences 1(1), Winter 2022, 193-217
2022
“Lotus and the Self-Representation of Afro-Asian Writers as the Vanguard of Modernity.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 2021, Vol. 23, No. 4, 596-620
2021
“Nasserism and the Impossibility of Innocence.” International Politics Reviews (Symposium on Sara Salem's Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony), 2021, Vol. 9, 61-69
2021
“Amílcar Cabral’s Modernist Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Liberation.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 2020, Vol. 32, No.2, 231-250
2020
“Freedom Giving Birth to Order: Philosophical Reflections on Peirce's Evolutionary Cosmology and its Contemporary Resurrections.” Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 2020, Vol.16, No.1, 1-23
2020
"Using the Concepts of Hermeneutical Injustice and Ideology to Explain the Stability of Ancient Egypt during the Middle Kingdom.” Journal of Historical Sociology 2020, Vol. 33, No. 3, 345-370.
2020
“Hegel's Proto-Modernist Conception of Philosophy as Science.” Problemata: Revista Internacional de Filosofia 2020, Vol.11, No.4: 81-107
2020
“Aristotle on Natural Slavery: An Analysis Using the Marxist Concept of Ideology.” Science & Society April 2019, Vol. 83, No. 2: 244–267
2019
Conference Papers
Publication
Year
“James Africanus Beale Horton’s Philosophy of History: Progress, Race, and the Fate of Africa.” Department of Philosophy, Union College (February 28th, 2025)
2025
“James Africanus Beale Horton’s Philosophy of History: Progress, Race, and the Fate of Africa.” Philopolis Montréal, Université de Montréal, Keynote (February 23rd, 2025)
2025
“James Africanus Beale Horton’s Philosophy of History: Progress, Race, and the Fate of Africa.” Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph (Jan 31st, 2025).
2025
"African Socialism and the Critique of Marxism". Fudan University International Symposium on ‘The African left: theories and practices’, (Nov 2 – 3rd, 2024), Shanghai.
2024
"African Socialism and the Critique of Marxism". “You Must Retrace the Paths”: Workshop on Anti-Colonial Philosophy and Its History (May 17th – May 18th, 2024), Union College.
2024
“Edward Wilmot Blyden and Fichte’s Nationalist Philosophy of History.” Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta (Nov 22nd, 2024)
2024
“Edward Wilmot Blyden and Fichte’s Nationalist Philosophy of History.” Department of Philosophy, York University (Oct 25th, 2024).
2024
“Hegel’s Reception in the Arab World: From Marxism and Pan-Arabism to Islamism.” Themed Issue Launch, “Racism and Colonialism in Hegel’s Philosophy” Hegel Bulletin 45, no.1 & 2 (University of Bregen, September 20th 2024) [delivered on Zoom].
2024
“James Africanus Beale Horton, Statistics, and Neo-Hippocratic Environmental Theory.” 137th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association. San Francisco, CA. (January 4th – January 7th, 2024).
2024
"Paulin J. Hountondji and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge in the Peripheries." Agrarian South-ASN Summer School (February 5th – 7th 2024), Harare (given online)
2024
“The Hegelian Roots of the Problem of the Autonomy of Philosophy in Contemporary Comparative Philosophy.” - 25th World Congress of Philosophy. Rome (August 1st – August 8th, 2024).
2024
“A Place for African Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century: James Africanus Beale Horton’s Critique of Racist Philosophical Anthropology.” (October 20th, 2023), Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto.
2023
“A Place for African Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century: James Africanus Beale Horton’s Critique of Racist Philosophical Anthropology.” Early Modern Philosophy and Slavery Workshop. Boston University (November 11th – November 12th, 2023).
2023
"Colonialism as a De-Civilizing Mission: Theoretical Convergences between Amílcar Cabral and Ghassan Kanafani". 49th Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association. Washington, D.C. (November 16th – November 19th, 2023).
2023
“Helmi Sharawy on Racial Formation in Egypt.” Racial Formations in Africa and the Middle East Workshop. Organized by the Program on African Social Research (October 6th, 2023). Held on Zoom.
2023
“Baconianism as an Anti-Racist Philosophy of Science in the Mid-Nineteenth Century”. 17th International Congress on Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science and Technology. (July 24th - 29th, 2023), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2023
“From Historical Materialism to a (New) Clash of Civilizations: A Critique of Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism.” Seminar on “Reading Marx Globally”, organized by Alwin Franke, American Comparative Literature Association (March 16th – 19th, 2023), Chicago.
2023
“Rethinking Modern African Intellectual History in Nasserist Egypt.” Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) (May 29th – June 1st, 2023). York University.
2023
“What is to be Done About the ‘Decline Narrative’ in the Historiography of
Science in the Islamic World?” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) (May 27th – 29th, 2023), York University.
Science in the Islamic World?” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) (May 27th – 29th, 2023), York University.
2023
(With Emir Yigit), “Reconciling Hegel with the Dialectic: On Islam and the Fate of Muslims in Hegel’s Philosophy of History.” presentation for Workshop for a Special Issue of the Hegel Bulletin, entitled “Racism and Colonialism in Hegel’s Philosophy”, edited by Daniel James and Franz Knappik (April 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 9th 2022) [held online].
2022
(with Emir Yigit) “Reconciling Hegel with the Dialectic: On Islam and the Fate of Muslims in Hegel’s Philosophy of History.” Institute for German Cultural Studies, Cornell University (February 25th,, 2022).
2022
Roundtable Discussion (with Lisa Tilley, Bikrum Gill, Naeem Inayatullah, and Quỳnh N. Phạm), “Structural Political Economy: The Weight of Structures in the Enduringly Colonial Present” (Part II), International Studies Association, Nashville (March 28th, 2022). [Held Online].
2022
“The Role of History and Philosophy of Science in Anglophone African Philosophy of Culture”. For the ERC funded project “Philosophy and Genre: Creating a Textual Basis for African Philosophy”, led by Alena Rettová, Universität Bayreuth (February 3rd, 2022) [Held Online due to COVID-19]
2022
“Human Nature and Comparative Anatomy in James Africanus Beale Horton.” Vanderbilt Modern Philosophy Seminar Series (May 4th, 2022), Philosophy Department, Vanderbilt University [held online].
2022
“Modern Science or Colonial Science in 19th Century West Africa? Africanus Horton as a Case Study.” International History Research Seminar (October 12th, 2022), History Department, London School of Economics [held online].
2022
“No Decolonization Without Women’s Liberation: Women’s Liberation in the PAIGC’s Theoretical Discourse.” Kohl Anticolonial Feminisms Virtual Workshop (organized by Alina Sajed and Sara Salem) (February 4th, 2022).
2022
“Rifa'a al-Tahtawi beyond 'Area Studies': Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Africanus Horton, and Conceptions of Science in Contemporary African Philosophy.” Forum Insaniyyat Tunis 2022 (September 20th – 24th, 2022), Manouba University, Tunis.
2022
“Science in African Philosophy of Culture.” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) (May 16-19th, 2022), University of Alberta [held online].
2022
“The Role of History and Philosophy of Science in Modern African Philosophy of Culture.” The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) Biennial Meeting (June 20th -23rd, 2022), UC Irvine
2022
“Helmi Sharawy's Critique of Racial and Colonial Paradigms in Egyptian African Studies.” Racial Formations in the Middle East and Africa, Workshop Organized by The Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) and The Project on African Social Research (PASR), George Washington University, (February 25th -February 26th, 2021) [Held Online due to COVID-19]
2021
“Olaudah Equiano's Narrative and the Power of Internal Critique in the Context of Enlightenment Philosophical Discourse(s).” The Travelling Early Modern Philosophy Organization (TEMPO), (June 18th – June 19th, 2021). [Held Online due to COVID-19]
2021
“Palestine and Modern African Political Philosophy.” Society for Anti-Colonial Middle Eastern and North African Thought, 59th Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (September 23rd – September 26th, 2021). [Held online due to COVID-19]
2021
“Paulin J. Hountondji on Science, Capitalism, and Imperialism: An African Philosopher's Quest for a Sociology of Scientific Knowledge in the Peripheries.” Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) (May 29th –June 2nd, 2021) [Held Online due to COVID-19].
2021
“The Limits of the Concept of 'the Master's Tools': Olaudah Equiano's Narrative as a Case Study.” Beyond Eurocentrism in Intellectual History, UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, London (September 2nd – September 4th, 2021). [Held online due to COVID-19].
2021
“Paulin J. Hountondji and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge in the Peripheries.” Science Studies Reading Group, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca (December 14th, 2020) [Held Online due to COVID-19].
2020
“An Intellectual History of the Philosophical Foundations of Women’s Liberation in the PAIGC’s Discourse.” 14th Greater New York Area African History Workshop, Cornell University, Ithaca (Oct 23rd, 2020). [Held Online due to COVID-19]
2020
“The Philosopher of Emptiness and the God-Intoxicated Man: Nāgārjuna in Dialogue with Spinoza.” 2020 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA), Philadelphia (Jan 8th - Jan 11th, 2020).
2020
“Analyzing Participatory Action Research as a Quest for Hermeneutic Justice.” 2019 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA), New York (Jan 7th-10th,2019).
2019
“Helmi Sharawy: An Egyptian Perspective on Modern African Intellectual History.” Africa in the Middle East/The Middle East in Africa Workshop, New York (November 18th - November 19th, 2019).
2019
“Lenin and East-African Marxism.” CSAAD-ASWAD Medial Meeting, “Black Internationalism and New York City”, New York (May 2nd – 3rd,2019)
2019
“Theoretical Advances in East-African Marxism in the 1970s.” Revolutionary Lefts in Sub-Saharan Africa (1960s and 1970s): A Political and Social History to be Written, Dakar, Senegal (October 30th - November 1st, 2019).
2019
“Hegel and the Historiographic Consequences of Thinking that Systematicity is a Necessary Condition for a Body of Thought to be Considered Philosophy.” 32nd International Hegel Congress, Tampere, Finland (June 5-8th,2018).
2018
“Amílcar Cabral’s Interpretation of Historical Materialism.” Fifteenth Annual Historical Materialism Conference, SOAS, London (November 8-11th,2018)
2018
“Hegel’s Proto-Modernist Conception of Philosophy as a Science: A Critique of Alan Richardson’s Account of the Rise of Scientific Philosophy.” The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science Biennial Meeting (HOPOS), Groningen, the Netherlands (July 9-12th,2018)
2018
Conference Proceedings
Publication
Year
Policy Papers
Publication
Year
Public Lectures
Publication
Year
Interviewed by Lev Moscow on my work on Paulin Hountondji for his podcast “A Correction”, January 8th 2023
2023
Interviewed alongside Pierre Philippe Fraiture and Grant Farred by John Drabinski on the edited volume Africana Studies: Theoretical Futures for the podcast Conversations in Atlantic Theory (February 6th, 2022)
2022
Interviewed by Mostafa Minawi on my work on African Intellectual History, part of a series of interviews done by The Critical Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies Initiative, Cornell University (February 23rd, 2022):
2022
“Wahba on Secularization and Relativism” Book Panel on Robert Beshara’s translation of Mourad Wahba’s Fundamentalism and Secularization, Santa Fe Public Library, February 11th, 2022 [Online]
2022
Interviewed on the question, "Do Africans need Karl Marx?" by William Shoki and Sean Jacobs on the platform, "Africa is a Country" (May 4th, 2021)
Republished on the Monthly Review’s website: https://mronline.org/2021/06/05/did-marx-ignore-race-in-his-critique-of-political-economy/
2021
Published Reviews
Publication
Year
Other
Publication
Year
“One Africa, Many Pan-Africanisms: An Interview with Doctor Zeyad El Nabolsy.” 1919 Magazine, July 9th 2024
2024
“Paulin J. Hountondji and the Defense of the Universal: An Interview with Carmen De Schryver (Part II).” Borderlines, April 2nd 2024
2024
“Amilcar Cabral: Falastin fe al-falsafa al-siyasiah al-ifriquiah.”, Al-Akhbar, March 11th, 2023 (Translated by Moussa al-Sadah)
2023
“James Africanus Beale Horton: Racism and the Fate of Naturalism in Victorian Philosophical Anthropology.” Black Issues in Philosophy (Blog of the APA), October 10th, 2023
2023
“On Paulin J. Hountondji and The Notion of “Influence” in Modern African Intellectual History: An Interview with Carmen De Schryver (Part I).” Borderlines, January 9th, 2023
2023
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/PHIL3180 3.0 | M | Conversations with African Philosophy | LECT |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/MODR1730 6.0 | C | Reasoning About Social Issues | LECT |
I specialize in the history of Africana philosophy with a focus on modern African philosophy. I have previously published on Amílcar Cabral’s philosophy of culture, methodological debates about racism and ideology in the historiography of philosophy, classical German philosophy (especially Kant and Hegel), Paulin Hountondji’s philosophy of science, modern African political and social philosophy (with a focus on African Marxism), and ancient Egyptian philosophy.
I am currently working on projects on: (1) nineteenth century African philosophy (with a focus on James Africanus Beale Horton, Edward Wilmot Blyden, and Rifa'a al-Tahtawi), (2) a book manuscript on Paulin Hountondji.
Degrees
PhD , Cornell UniversityM.A. , Cornell University
M.A. , McMaster University
B.Eng , McMaster University
Research Interests
Philosophy
, African Studies, Africana philosophy, Classical German Philosophy, History and Philosophy of Science,
Historical Materialism
All Publications
Book Chapters
Publication
Year
“The Question of Modern Science in Africa and the Middle East.” In The Oxford Handbook of the History of the Global South, edited by Anne Garland Mahler, Christopher J. Lee, and Monica Popescu, 2025. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
2025
“Questions from the Dar es Salaam Debates.” In Revolutionary Movements in Africa: An Untold Story, edited by Pascal Bianchini, Leo Zeilig, and Ndongo Sylla, 2023. London: Pluto, 244 - 261.
2023
"Lenin in East Africa: Abdul Rahman Mohammed Babu and Dani Wadada Nabudere." In The Future of Lenin: Power, Politics, and Revolution in the 21st Century, edited by Alla Ivanchikova and Robert Maclean, 2022. Albany, NY: SUNY Press
2022
“Paulin J. Hountondji on Philosophy, Science, and Technology: From Husserl and Althusser to a Synthesis of the Hessen- Grossmann Thesis and Dependency Theory.” In Africana Studies: Theoretical Futures, edited by Grant Farred, 2022. Philadelphia: Temple University Press
2022
“African Socialism in Retrospect: Karim Hirji's The Travails of a Tanzanian Teacher.” In Liberated Texts, Collected Reviews: Volume One, edited by Louis Allday and Mahmoud Najib, 2022. Oxford: Ebb Books
2022
“Al-Tatwarat al-Nazariya lel-Marxiya fe Sharq-Ifriqiya Khelal al-Sab'ainat.” In Al-Pan-Africanism: Bayn al-Sera' al-Tabaqi we al-Indwa' al-'arqi (Nash'at we Tatawour al-afkar al-Ijtima'yia we al-Thaqafiya lada al-Afriquah qabl we 'athna' al-istiqlal) [Pan-Africanism: Between Class Struggle and Racialism (The Origins and Evolution of African Social and Cultural Thought before and during the Struggle for Independence)], edited by Kribso Diallo, 255-281. 2021 Cairo: Mo'asasat 'Arwqa lel-Derasat we al-Targama we al-Neshr. [In Arabic].
2021
(Co-Authored with Afifa Ltifi). “Tarikh Ifriqiya we Ta'weil Amílcar Cabral lel Nazariya al Madiyah al-Tarikhyiah.” In Al-Pan-Africanism: Bayn al-Sera' al-Tabaqi we al-Indwa' al-'arqi (Nash'at we Tatawour al-afkar al-Ijtima'yia we al-Thaqafiya lada al-Afriquah qabl we 'athna' al-istiqlal) [Pan-Africanism: Between Class Struggle and Racialism (The Origins and Evolution of African Social and Cultural Thought before and during the Struggle for Independence)], edited by Kribso Diallo, 283-304. 2021. Cairo: Mo'asasat 'Arwqa lel-Derasat we al-Targama we al-Neshr
2021
Book Reviews
Publication
Year
“Boris Hessen and Philosophy: The Socioeconomic Roots of Classical and Modern Physics by Sean Winkler.” Science & Society (February 2025)
2025
Review Essay on Domenico Losurdo's "Western Marxism: How it Was Born, How it Died, and How it Can be Reborn." Journal of Labour and Society 27, no.4 (2024): 603 - 612.
2024
“The Life and Thought of H. Odera Oruka: Pursuing Justice in Africa by Gail M. Presby.” Philosophy in Review 44, no.1 (February 2024): 38 – 41.
2024
“Fundamentalism and Secularization by Mourad Wahba. Translated by Robert Beshara.” Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, July 16, 2022
2022
“African Socialism in Retrospect: Karim Hirji's The Travails of a Tanzanian Teacher.” Liberated Texts, March 23 2021.
[Republished in Review of African Political Economy October 19th, 2021]
[Republished in Review of African Political Economy October 19th, 2021]
2021
“‘Expertise’ as Systematized Historical Amnesia: Springborg's Egypt as a Case Study.” Houston Review of Books, August 31, 2021
2021
Books
Publication
Year
Journal Articles
Publication
Year
“James Africanus Beale Horton on Naturalism, Baconianism, and Race Science in Victorian Philosophical Anthropology.” Journal of Modern Philosophy 6, no.2 (2025)
2025
“James Africanus Beale Horton’s Philosophy of History: Progress, Race, and the Fate of Africa.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy (2025)
2025
(Co-authored with Emir Yigit). “Reconciling Hegel with the Dialectic: On Islam and the Fate of Muslims in Hegel’s Philosophy of History.” Hegel Bulletin 45.1 (2024): 93 – 119.
2024
“Standpoint Epistemology, Internal Critique, and the Characterization of Equiano as an Enlightenment Thinker.” Atlantic Studies 22, no.1: 34 - 63
2024
“Edward Said and Philosophy.” Cambridge Journal of Postcolonial Literary Inquiry (2023) (Forum on Timothy Brennan’s Places of Mind: A Life of Edward Said) 11(1): 103 – 109.
2023
“No Decolonization without Women's Liberation: Women's Liberation in the PAIGC’s Theoretical Discourse.” Kohl: A Journal for Body and Gender Research 9, no.1(2023): 141 – 155.
2023
“The African Novel and the Question of Communalism in African Philosophy.” Safundi 25, no. 1- 2 (2023): 12 - 17 (Roundtable on Jeanne-Marie Jackson’s The African Novel of Ideas: Philosophy and Individualism in the Age of Global Writing)
2023
“On the Differences between the Classical and the ‘Western’ Marxist Conceptions of Science.” Marxism & Sciences 1(1), Winter 2022, 193-217
2022
“Lotus and the Self-Representation of Afro-Asian Writers as the Vanguard of Modernity.” Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 2021, Vol. 23, No. 4, 596-620
2021
“Nasserism and the Impossibility of Innocence.” International Politics Reviews (Symposium on Sara Salem's Anticolonial Afterlives in Egypt: The Politics of Hegemony), 2021, Vol. 9, 61-69
2021
“Amílcar Cabral’s Modernist Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Liberation.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 2020, Vol. 32, No.2, 231-250
2020
“Freedom Giving Birth to Order: Philosophical Reflections on Peirce's Evolutionary Cosmology and its Contemporary Resurrections.” Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 2020, Vol.16, No.1, 1-23
2020
"Using the Concepts of Hermeneutical Injustice and Ideology to Explain the Stability of Ancient Egypt during the Middle Kingdom.” Journal of Historical Sociology 2020, Vol. 33, No. 3, 345-370.
2020
“Hegel's Proto-Modernist Conception of Philosophy as Science.” Problemata: Revista Internacional de Filosofia 2020, Vol.11, No.4: 81-107
2020
“Aristotle on Natural Slavery: An Analysis Using the Marxist Concept of Ideology.” Science & Society April 2019, Vol. 83, No. 2: 244–267
2019
Conference Papers
Publication
Year
“James Africanus Beale Horton’s Philosophy of History: Progress, Race, and the Fate of Africa.” Department of Philosophy, Union College (February 28th, 2025)
2025
“James Africanus Beale Horton’s Philosophy of History: Progress, Race, and the Fate of Africa.” Philopolis Montréal, Université de Montréal, Keynote (February 23rd, 2025)
2025
“James Africanus Beale Horton’s Philosophy of History: Progress, Race, and the Fate of Africa.” Department of Philosophy, University of Guelph (Jan 31st, 2025).
2025
"African Socialism and the Critique of Marxism". Fudan University International Symposium on ‘The African left: theories and practices’, (Nov 2 – 3rd, 2024), Shanghai.
2024
"African Socialism and the Critique of Marxism". “You Must Retrace the Paths”: Workshop on Anti-Colonial Philosophy and Its History (May 17th – May 18th, 2024), Union College.
2024
“Edward Wilmot Blyden and Fichte’s Nationalist Philosophy of History.” Department of Philosophy, University of Alberta (Nov 22nd, 2024)
2024
“Edward Wilmot Blyden and Fichte’s Nationalist Philosophy of History.” Department of Philosophy, York University (Oct 25th, 2024).
2024
“Hegel’s Reception in the Arab World: From Marxism and Pan-Arabism to Islamism.” Themed Issue Launch, “Racism and Colonialism in Hegel’s Philosophy” Hegel Bulletin 45, no.1 & 2 (University of Bregen, September 20th 2024) [delivered on Zoom].
2024
“James Africanus Beale Horton, Statistics, and Neo-Hippocratic Environmental Theory.” 137th Annual Meeting of the American Historical Association. San Francisco, CA. (January 4th – January 7th, 2024).
2024
"Paulin J. Hountondji and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge in the Peripheries." Agrarian South-ASN Summer School (February 5th – 7th 2024), Harare (given online)
2024
“The Hegelian Roots of the Problem of the Autonomy of Philosophy in Contemporary Comparative Philosophy.” - 25th World Congress of Philosophy. Rome (August 1st – August 8th, 2024).
2024
“A Place for African Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century: James Africanus Beale Horton’s Critique of Racist Philosophical Anthropology.” (October 20th, 2023), Centre for Ethics, University of Toronto.
2023
“A Place for African Philosophy in the Nineteenth Century: James Africanus Beale Horton’s Critique of Racist Philosophical Anthropology.” Early Modern Philosophy and Slavery Workshop. Boston University (November 11th – November 12th, 2023).
2023
"Colonialism as a De-Civilizing Mission: Theoretical Convergences between Amílcar Cabral and Ghassan Kanafani". 49th Annual Meeting of the Social Science History Association. Washington, D.C. (November 16th – November 19th, 2023).
2023
“Helmi Sharawy on Racial Formation in Egypt.” Racial Formations in Africa and the Middle East Workshop. Organized by the Program on African Social Research (October 6th, 2023). Held on Zoom.
2023
“Baconianism as an Anti-Racist Philosophy of Science in the Mid-Nineteenth Century”. 17th International Congress on Logic, Methodology, and Philosophy of Science and Technology. (July 24th - 29th, 2023), Buenos Aires, Argentina.
2023
“From Historical Materialism to a (New) Clash of Civilizations: A Critique of Cedric Robinson’s Black Marxism.” Seminar on “Reading Marx Globally”, organized by Alwin Franke, American Comparative Literature Association (March 16th – 19th, 2023), Chicago.
2023
“Rethinking Modern African Intellectual History in Nasserist Egypt.” Canadian Association of African Studies (CAAS) (May 29th – June 1st, 2023). York University.
2023
“What is to be Done About the ‘Decline Narrative’ in the Historiography of
Science in the Islamic World?” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) (May 27th – 29th, 2023), York University.
Science in the Islamic World?” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) (May 27th – 29th, 2023), York University.
2023
(With Emir Yigit), “Reconciling Hegel with the Dialectic: On Islam and the Fate of Muslims in Hegel’s Philosophy of History.” presentation for Workshop for a Special Issue of the Hegel Bulletin, entitled “Racism and Colonialism in Hegel’s Philosophy”, edited by Daniel James and Franz Knappik (April 1st, 2nd, 5th, and 9th 2022) [held online].
2022
(with Emir Yigit) “Reconciling Hegel with the Dialectic: On Islam and the Fate of Muslims in Hegel’s Philosophy of History.” Institute for German Cultural Studies, Cornell University (February 25th,, 2022).
2022
Roundtable Discussion (with Lisa Tilley, Bikrum Gill, Naeem Inayatullah, and Quỳnh N. Phạm), “Structural Political Economy: The Weight of Structures in the Enduringly Colonial Present” (Part II), International Studies Association, Nashville (March 28th, 2022). [Held Online].
2022
“The Role of History and Philosophy of Science in Anglophone African Philosophy of Culture”. For the ERC funded project “Philosophy and Genre: Creating a Textual Basis for African Philosophy”, led by Alena Rettová, Universität Bayreuth (February 3rd, 2022) [Held Online due to COVID-19]
2022
“Human Nature and Comparative Anatomy in James Africanus Beale Horton.” Vanderbilt Modern Philosophy Seminar Series (May 4th, 2022), Philosophy Department, Vanderbilt University [held online].
2022
“Modern Science or Colonial Science in 19th Century West Africa? Africanus Horton as a Case Study.” International History Research Seminar (October 12th, 2022), History Department, London School of Economics [held online].
2022
“No Decolonization Without Women’s Liberation: Women’s Liberation in the PAIGC’s Theoretical Discourse.” Kohl Anticolonial Feminisms Virtual Workshop (organized by Alina Sajed and Sara Salem) (February 4th, 2022).
2022
“Rifa'a al-Tahtawi beyond 'Area Studies': Rifa'a al-Tahtawi, Africanus Horton, and Conceptions of Science in Contemporary African Philosophy.” Forum Insaniyyat Tunis 2022 (September 20th – 24th, 2022), Manouba University, Tunis.
2022
“Science in African Philosophy of Culture.” Annual Meeting of the Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) (May 16-19th, 2022), University of Alberta [held online].
2022
“The Role of History and Philosophy of Science in Modern African Philosophy of Culture.” The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science (HOPOS) Biennial Meeting (June 20th -23rd, 2022), UC Irvine
2022
“Helmi Sharawy's Critique of Racial and Colonial Paradigms in Egyptian African Studies.” Racial Formations in the Middle East and Africa, Workshop Organized by The Project on Middle East Political Science (POMEPS) and The Project on African Social Research (PASR), George Washington University, (February 25th -February 26th, 2021) [Held Online due to COVID-19]
2021
“Olaudah Equiano's Narrative and the Power of Internal Critique in the Context of Enlightenment Philosophical Discourse(s).” The Travelling Early Modern Philosophy Organization (TEMPO), (June 18th – June 19th, 2021). [Held Online due to COVID-19]
2021
“Palestine and Modern African Political Philosophy.” Society for Anti-Colonial Middle Eastern and North African Thought, 59th Meeting of the Society for Phenomenology and Existential Philosophy (September 23rd – September 26th, 2021). [Held online due to COVID-19]
2021
“Paulin J. Hountondji on Science, Capitalism, and Imperialism: An African Philosopher's Quest for a Sociology of Scientific Knowledge in the Peripheries.” Canadian Society for History and Philosophy of Science (CSHPS) (May 29th –June 2nd, 2021) [Held Online due to COVID-19].
2021
“The Limits of the Concept of 'the Master's Tools': Olaudah Equiano's Narrative as a Case Study.” Beyond Eurocentrism in Intellectual History, UCL Institute of Advanced Studies, London (September 2nd – September 4th, 2021). [Held online due to COVID-19].
2021
“Paulin J. Hountondji and the Sociology of Scientific Knowledge in the Peripheries.” Science Studies Reading Group, Department of Science and Technology Studies, Cornell University, Ithaca (December 14th, 2020) [Held Online due to COVID-19].
2020
“An Intellectual History of the Philosophical Foundations of Women’s Liberation in the PAIGC’s Discourse.” 14th Greater New York Area African History Workshop, Cornell University, Ithaca (Oct 23rd, 2020). [Held Online due to COVID-19]
2020
“The Philosopher of Emptiness and the God-Intoxicated Man: Nāgārjuna in Dialogue with Spinoza.” 2020 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA), Philadelphia (Jan 8th - Jan 11th, 2020).
2020
“Analyzing Participatory Action Research as a Quest for Hermeneutic Justice.” 2019 Eastern Division Meeting of the American Philosophical Association (APA), New York (Jan 7th-10th,2019).
2019
“Helmi Sharawy: An Egyptian Perspective on Modern African Intellectual History.” Africa in the Middle East/The Middle East in Africa Workshop, New York (November 18th - November 19th, 2019).
2019
“Lenin and East-African Marxism.” CSAAD-ASWAD Medial Meeting, “Black Internationalism and New York City”, New York (May 2nd – 3rd,2019)
2019
“Theoretical Advances in East-African Marxism in the 1970s.” Revolutionary Lefts in Sub-Saharan Africa (1960s and 1970s): A Political and Social History to be Written, Dakar, Senegal (October 30th - November 1st, 2019).
2019
“Hegel and the Historiographic Consequences of Thinking that Systematicity is a Necessary Condition for a Body of Thought to be Considered Philosophy.” 32nd International Hegel Congress, Tampere, Finland (June 5-8th,2018).
2018
“Amílcar Cabral’s Interpretation of Historical Materialism.” Fifteenth Annual Historical Materialism Conference, SOAS, London (November 8-11th,2018)
2018
“Hegel’s Proto-Modernist Conception of Philosophy as a Science: A Critique of Alan Richardson’s Account of the Rise of Scientific Philosophy.” The International Society for the History of Philosophy of Science Biennial Meeting (HOPOS), Groningen, the Netherlands (July 9-12th,2018)
2018
Conference Proceedings
Publication
Year
Policy Papers
Publication
Year
Public Lectures
Publication
Year
Interviewed by Lev Moscow on my work on Paulin Hountondji for his podcast “A Correction”, January 8th 2023
2023
Interviewed alongside Pierre Philippe Fraiture and Grant Farred by John Drabinski on the edited volume Africana Studies: Theoretical Futures for the podcast Conversations in Atlantic Theory (February 6th, 2022)
2022
Interviewed by Mostafa Minawi on my work on African Intellectual History, part of a series of interviews done by The Critical Ottoman and Post-Ottoman Studies Initiative, Cornell University (February 23rd, 2022):
2022
“Wahba on Secularization and Relativism” Book Panel on Robert Beshara’s translation of Mourad Wahba’s Fundamentalism and Secularization, Santa Fe Public Library, February 11th, 2022 [Online]
2022
Interviewed on the question, "Do Africans need Karl Marx?" by William Shoki and Sean Jacobs on the platform, "Africa is a Country" (May 4th, 2021)
Republished on the Monthly Review’s website: https://mronline.org/2021/06/05/did-marx-ignore-race-in-his-critique-of-political-economy/
2021
Published Reviews
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Year
Other
Publication
Year
“One Africa, Many Pan-Africanisms: An Interview with Doctor Zeyad El Nabolsy.” 1919 Magazine, July 9th 2024
2024
“Paulin J. Hountondji and the Defense of the Universal: An Interview with Carmen De Schryver (Part II).” Borderlines, April 2nd 2024
2024
“Amilcar Cabral: Falastin fe al-falsafa al-siyasiah al-ifriquiah.”, Al-Akhbar, March 11th, 2023 (Translated by Moussa al-Sadah)
2023
“James Africanus Beale Horton: Racism and the Fate of Naturalism in Victorian Philosophical Anthropology.” Black Issues in Philosophy (Blog of the APA), October 10th, 2023
2023
“On Paulin J. Hountondji and The Notion of “Influence” in Modern African Intellectual History: An Interview with Carmen De Schryver (Part I).” Borderlines, January 9th, 2023
2023
Current Courses
| Term | Course Number | Section | Title | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Winter 2025 | AP/PHIL3180 3.0 | M | Conversations with African Philosophy | LECT |
| Fall/Winter 2024 | AP/MODR1730 6.0 | C | Reasoning About Social Issues | LECT |
