Dr Simon Stevens

Job: Lecturer in Political Philosophy / Political Thought

Faculty: Arts, Design and Humanities

School/department: School of Humanities and Performing Arts

Address: De Montfort University, The Gateway, Leicester, LE1 9BH

T: 0116 366 4474

E: simon.stevens@dmu.ac.uk

W: https://www.dmu.ac.uk

 

Personal profile

Simon Stevens writes and researches about homelessness and methods in political philosophy. He is currently writing a political theory textbook for SAGE, that aims to transform, decolonise and diversify the curriculum, and won the 2022 Political Studies Association Bernard Crick Prize for Outstanding Teaching. He teaches political theory at DMU, which includes diverse subjects like Black feminist thought and queer theory alongside more conventional topics like power and social contract. 

Research group affiliations

Centre for Urban Research on Austerity

Publications and outputs

Stevens, S. (2017) Life and letting Die: A Story of the Homeless, Autonomy, and Anti-Social Behaviour. Organization Studies Journal, 38(5), 669 – 690 (CWTS impact factor 2.67, submitted to REF 2014). 

Stevens, S. (2021) ‘Leper Islands: Coronavirus and the Homeless Other’, in Power, Media, and the Covid-19 Pandemic: framing public discourse, Routledge.

Stevens, S. (2023) ‘The Bureaucratisation of Civil Disobedience: what looks like order and what looks like anarchy?’, in Coronavirus, Crisis and Culture: Policing, Protest and the Mediation of Dissent During the Covid-19 Pandemic, Roman Littlefield International.

Stevens, S. (2023) ‘Homelessness, Civil Disobedience and Anti-Social Behaviour’, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour

Stevens, S. (accepted, due late 2023) ‘Normative Behaviourism: Groups it cannot reach’, Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy.

Book Contracts

Stevens, S. (due 2025) ‘Political Theory: Why Big Ideas Matter’, SAGE publishing.

Stevens, S. and Easat-Dass, A. (due 2024) ‘Britain’s Global History: Colonialism and Decolonisation’, SAGE Publishing.

Stevens, S. (due 2024) ‘Hostile Spaces’. Vernon book publishers.

Research interests/expertise

Political philosophy, methods in political philosophy, homelessness, civil disobedience. 

Areas of teaching

Political philosophy/theory

Qualifications

Doctor in Philosophy, MA in Political Theory, BA Hons in Modern History

Courses taught

Political Theory, Power, Politics and Morality, Political Ideologies, Comparative Government, Democracy and its Discontents. 

Honours and awards

  • PhD in Political Theory
  • MA in Political Thought
  • BA Hons in Modern History
  • Winner of 2017 ISRF International Essay Competition
  • PSA Bernard Crick Prize for Outstanding Teaching

Membership of professional associations and societies

European Consortium for Political Research Standing Group Methods in Political Philosophy, 2016 - present

Professional licences and certificates

  • Essential Teaching Skills 2016 Loughborough University
  • CELTA teaching qualification 2008

Projects

Currently I am working on a book exploring hostile architecture and homelessness, exploring theories of power and othering. 

Conference attendance

‘Decolonising Political Theory’ in ‘The Methods in Comparative Political Theory’ Panel, European Consortium for Political Research Annual Conference, Prague, 8th September 2023.

‘Fictional Narratives: What They Are and When to Use Them’ in ‘Method in Political Theory’ Panel, European Consortium for Political Research Annual Conference, Innsbruck, 23rd August 2022. 

‘Normative Behaviourism – Groups it Cannot Reach’ in ‘Political Thought and the World Today’ Panel, Political Studies Association Annual Conference, York, 13th April 2022.

‘How to be good at Telling others to be good: A Case for Epilogue Storytelling’ in ‘Ideal and Non Ideal Theory’ Panel, European Consortium for Political Research Annual Conference, Wroclaw, 6thh September 2019.

‘A Story of the Homeless and Anti-Social Behaviour’ in ‘Aspiring to Public Engagement’ Panel, European Consortium for Political Research Annual Conference, Hamburg, Thursday 24th August 2018. 

‘In Pursuit of the ‘Normative’ in Normative Theory’ in ‘Political Philosophy Concepts and Purposes’ Panel, European Consortium for Political Research Annual Conference, Oslo, 8th September, 2017.

‘What is Legitimate to Study? In Pursuit of the ‘Normative’ in Normative Theory’ in ‘The History of Political Thought: Methodological Approaches’ Panel, American Political Science Association Annual Conference, 1st September 2017. 

‘The Concept of the Canon: Genealogy and its Contribution to Normative Arguments’ in ‘Historical Approaches to Political Theory’ Panel, European Consortium for Political Research Annual Conference, Prague, 9th September 2016.

‘Genealogy and the Conversation of Mankind: Shouting in the Spaces of Silence’ in ‘Approaches to Political Thought’ Panel, Political Studies Association Annual Conference, Brighton, 23rd March 2016. 

Recent research outputs

 

Consultancy work

Currently in discussions with Shelter charity for a funding project

Internally funded research project information

Centre for Urban Research on Austerity, £2000 for ethnographic research into the effects of hostile architecture upon the homeless, 2019.

Published patents

 

ORCID number

0000-0002-8570-9072