Philosophy
Email:
jgrantyo@uoguelph.ca
Josh Grant-Young
Thesis Project: Epistemic Injustice, Affect Theory & Horror's Relationship to Mental Health
[Committee - Dr. Patricia Sheridan (Advisor), Dr. Karyn Freedman (Second Reader), Dr. Steven Shaviro (External) ]
A Bit About Me:
As someone who enjoys films, comic books, and literature, it isn't surprising that I mine these for philosophically interesting themes and questions. In the department, I run a film-watching/discussion series, Philosophy in the Dark, where students get together (to take a break from studies) to discuss horror film through philosophical lenses. In the past, I've co-organized a brief reading group on A.N. Whitehead and Ludwig Wittgenstein.
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ACADEMIC WORK
See my Academia.Edu to read drafts of my work here: https://uoguelph.academia.edu/JoshuaGrantYoung
Publications:
Articles
" 'To Look at Oneself and All the While See Nothing': Haunting and Mediated Memory in I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House" RCL - Journal of Communications and Literature (Fall 2020)
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Book Chapters
Grant-Young, Josh. "Dissecting the Body Politic: Fear, 'Body Horror' and the Failure of Relations in It Comes at Night" in The Horror of Relations. ( Lexington Press) - Out in Fall 2020/Spring 2021
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Book Reviews
Review of Global Burnout (Thinking Media). Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image #12 (2020)
Review of Speculative Taxidermy: Natural History, Animal Surfaces and Art in the Anthropocene. Gothic Natures, is. #2 (2020)
Review of Levitation: The Science, Myth, and Magic of Suspension. Magic, Ritual and Witchcraft 13, no.1 (2018).
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Blog Posts, Editorials, Fictional Publications & Misc.
Blog Posts
"Tell Me a Story" - Blog Post on StigmaFighters.com (Mental Health Non-Profit): https://stigmafighters.com/josh-grant-young-tell-me-a-story/
Published Short Fiction
"Figures in the Night" - Horla Magazine - 2020
"The Dream House", "Betrayal", "Nightwalking" - (Forthcoming - short fiction works in volumes or magazines)
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Article Reviewer
I've acted as a reviewer for the following journals:
* tba: Journal of Art, Media & Visual Culture
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Conference Organization
Philosophy of Horror: Occulted, Estranged and Inhuman Knowledges (2019) - Guelph - Organizer - LINK: https://www.uoguelph.ca/arts/philosphy/philofhorror19
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Select Conference Presentations & Public Speaking Events
To Look at Oneself and All the While See Nothing': Perception, Haunting and Mediated Memory in I am the Pretty Thing That Lives in the House - MUN Graduate Conference: "Evil, Guilt, Forgiveness" (Fall 2020)
- This paper explores spectral perception & epistemology, mediumship/mediation, care-taking, indeterminacy and trauma through the horror film I am the Pretty Thing..
Interrogating Fandom, Justice and Popular Perceptions of Mental Health Through Comics - Graphic Medicine (Toronto,2020) *C*
- This paper interrogates three enduring representational concerns for comic narratives in relation to mental health. First, it approaches inclusion and fandom, offering a tempered account of how representation creates potential problems (epistemic ones for fans, and objectifying/stigmatizing ones for individuals with mental health conditions - if done poorly) - we can offer affirmative visions, but should be mindful of harmful misinformation or treating mental health conditions as solely a matter of entertainment. Second, in exploring the 'heroine/hero', what troubles might arise from placing primacy on narratives of 'struggling-against' mental health conditions (as a constituent of the self, or as manifestations of evil/enemies to defeat) rather than 'living-with' mental health conditions. Last, following from the first two, how do we understand the 'heroics' of mental health? Is 'heroism' as a representative model an affirmative approach to narrative, or might it present its own problems?
Towards A Cosmic Blackening: A Provocation - Philosophy of Horror: Occulted, Estranged and Inhuman Knowledges ( Guelph, April 2019)
- This presentation was the explication of an on-going creative theory-fiction work, as a means to close the conference.
"And the seeds will be planted again..." : Love, Ecological Partnerships, and Atomic Posthumanisms - Posthuman Network (Arizona State University, Feb 2019) ***
- A paper that explores various ethical, ecological and posthuman implications of the 1950's science-fiction comic "Harvest".
Philosophy in the Dark: On Philosophy and Horror - "College of Arts: Night at the Museum" (Art Gallery of Guelph, Jan 2019)
- A public talk on various connections between horror and the philosophical canon.
Realizing Transphysical Spaces: Psychogeography, Sensing Urbanisms and Posthuman Ecologies (Workshop) - Posthuman Network (Arizona State University, Feb 2018)
- A presentation weaving aspects of new materialism, media theory, psychogeography, mental health together into an exploration of urban ecologies
Narrative as Contagion: Lovecraft, Posthumanism and Infected Ecologies - Society for Literature, Science and the Arts (Arizona State University, Nov 2017)
- An exploration of Alan Moore's Providence series. Discussed the idea of narrative as infecting contagion, aspects of Felix Guattari's Three Ecologies, and questions about whether certain texts, even when re-worked to challenge the problematics of their source material (the texts of H.P. Lovecraft), remain 'infected' landscapes for thought.
"It was a plant that thought it was Alec Holland..." : Exploring Identity and Ecology Through Swamp Thing - Canadian Society for the Study of Comics (Toronto Meeting, May 2016)
- A discussion of ecological, queer and activist politics found within Alan Moore's incarnation of the comic series Swamp Thing.
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*** Presented under other names at Artificial Lives (University of Sussex, Dec 2017) and Canadian Society for the Study of Comics (Toronto Meeting, May 2017)
*C* Cancelled due to COVID Pandemic (2020)
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Workshops Participated in
Digital Games as Interactive Tools for Scholarly Research, Communication & Pedagogy. DHSI (2019, University of Victoria)
Introduction to Augmented Reality. DH@Guelph (2018, University of Guelph)