Dr Richard Elliott

Overview

Biography

Richard Elliott is Lecturer in European Philosophy in the School of Historical Studies at Birkbeck. Before that, he was a Postdoctoral Fellow for the British Society for the History of Philosophy.

Richard has published widely on themes in 19th and 20th Century European Philosophy, drawing on the works of figures such as Nietzsche, Adorno, Heidegger, Freud, Wagner, and others. He has also published on topics in Early Modern Philosophy, as well as ethics, aesthetics, and the philosophy of religion.

He currently has a book under contract with Cambridge University Press, entitled Nietzsche and the Death of God.

He is Chief Organizer of the forthcoming Fanon's Philosophical Legacy Conference, to be held at Birkbeck over two days in June 2025. It will coincide with the centenary year of Frantz Fanon's birth. More information can be found here. A publication of the proceedings will presumptively follow. 

Recently he has been co-organizer of a one-day conference for the Guises of Nihilism in Early and Late Modern Philosophy Project, with Professor G. Anthony Bruno (Royal Holloway). Birkbeck hosted this event on March 7th 2025. A special issue of The British Journal of the History of Philosophy on this theme will follow. 

Office hours

Please book an appointment by email.

Web profiles

• Academia.edu Profile

Administrative responsibilities

• BA Philosophy Admissions Tutor

Research

Research overview

Current Primary Research:

i. Four papers under review on Nietzsche’s contributions to topics in ethics, moral psychology and philosophical psychology

ii. Projected edited volume: Fanon as Philosopher, from proceedings for the Fanon's Philosophical Legacy conference (June 2025)

iii. Research papers on the works of Frantz Fanon. 
Forthcoming presentations at the Oxford Post-Kantian Seminar (here) and the Friedrich Nietzsche Society 2025 Conference, among others

iv. Research papers and projected eventual monograph on consciousness, estrangement, and the role of aesthetics in Adorno

v. Work on the later Heidegger, including a paper on nihilism, metaphysics and its 'overcoming' (forthcoming, The British Journal for the History of Philosophy)

vi. Paper on truthfulness, lying, and authenticity

vii. Paper on the so-called "Continental" contribution to metaethics

 

Supervision and teaching

Supervision

I have supervised and continue to supervise both undergraduate and graduate Birkbeck students on topics in;
-ethics
-topics across post-Kantian and 20th century European philosophy
-political philosophy
-metaphysics of agency
-methods of genealogy
-Spinoza
-social philosophy (including theories of recognition and punishment)

Students interested in working in these areas can email me: r.elliott@bbk.ac.uk

Teaching

Teaching modules

• London: Places, Objects, Ideas (SC03015S3)
• The Philosophy of Nietzsche (Level 7) (SSPL114S7)
• Research in Theoretical Philosophy (SSPL157S7)
• Research in Practical Philosophy (SSPL158S7)
• Themes in Twentieth-Century French and German Philosophy (Level 5) (SSPL265S5)

Publications

External Repositories