Awarded the position of Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies for a second term, Trent University professor and renowned political and cultural theorist Dr. Davide Panagia will receive $500,000 over five years to continue his research analyzing the visual politics of contemporary media and the effects on modern culture.

Professor Panagia is among 187 new and renewed Canada Research Chairs at 44 Canadian universities to be announced last week by the federal government, a $165.5 million investment in the intellectual capital of Canada’s researchers. As a Tier 2 Chair, Prof. Panagia will receive $100,000 annually for five years in recognition of being an exceptional emerging researcher with the potential to be a leader in his field.

"I am thrilled with the news of the renewal and I am excited to have the opportunity to build upon the work I did during my first five year term as CRC in Cultural Studies at Trent,” Prof. Panagia said. “Looking ahead I hope to make relevant how the image is now the cornerstone of our thinking and acting in the world and, through my work, I will elaborate the ways in which our daily interactions with images contribute to our ethical orientations with and appreciations of one another."

During his second CRC term, Prof. Panagia will launch a new interdisciplinary research project entitled “Just Views: On the Labor of Aesthesis.”

“My motivation is to examine the role of justice in an age of appearances by inquiring into the nature of a political appearance and the forms of attention given to the event of appearance,” he said. “The innovative quality of this research lies in its attempt to articulate an ethics of appearances for multicultural democratic societies that finds its basis not in the tradition of a normative moral theory, but in what I refer to as an untouchable sympathy grounded in aesthetic reflection and criticism.”

Prof. Panagia’s CRC renewal also coincides with his new role as co-editor of Theory & Event, the world’s premier journal of cultural and political theory, and the journal’s move to Trent University. It is the first time the prestigious journal has been housed outside of the United States. The Journal officially moved to Trent in January 2010 and the first issue under Prof. Panagia’s editorship is online now at: http://muse.uq.edu.au/journals/theory_and_event/toc/tae.13.1.html

Prof. Panagia joined Trent University as a Canada Research Chair in 2004 after completing his graduate studies at Johns Hopkins University. Outside of contemporary and historical studies in political theory his research and teaching interests are diverse and include work in aesthetics and cultural theory, modern and post-structural theories of value, visual culture, media studies, and multicultural ethics. His first book, The Poetics of Political Thinking, was awarded an Honorable Mention for the First Book Award from the Foundations of Political Theory Division of the American Political Science Association. His second book, The Political Life of Sensation, was released in 2009.

The Canada Research Chairs Program aims to enable Canadian universities, together with their affiliated research institutes and hospitals, to achieve the highest levels of research excellence and to become world class research centres in the global, knowledge based-economy. Chairholders work to advance the frontiers of knowledge in their fields, not only through their own work, but also by teaching and supervising students and coordinating the work of other researchers. Trent University is home to ten Canada Research Chairs.

"Our government is investing in science and technology to create jobs, strengthen the economy and improve Canadians’ quality of life," said The Honourable Gary Goodyear, Minister of State (Science and Technology). "The Canada Research Chairs Program is helping our universities develop and attract talented people, strengthening our capacity for leading-edge research, while creating jobs and economic opportunities for Canadians now and in the future."

Canada Research Chairs at Trent
Dr. Julian Aherne, Canada Research Chair in Environmental Modelling
Dr. James Conolly, Canada Research Chair in Archaeological Studies
Dr. Céline Guéguen, Canada Research Chair in Aquatic Sciences and Biogeochemistry
Professor Marrie Mumford, Canada Research Chair in Aboriginal Arts and Literature
Dr. Dennis Murray, Canada Research Chair in Terrestrial Ecology
Dr. Bryan Palmer, Canada Research Chair in Canadian Studies
Dr. Davide Panagia, Canada Research Chair in Cultural Studies
Dr. Jim Parker, Canada Research Chair in Emotion and Health
Dr. Paul Wilson, Canada Research Chair in DNA Profiling, Forensics and Functional Genomics
Dr. Carol Williams, Canada Research Chair in Feminism and Gender Studies