Richard Stopford
Biographic Data
| ID | 1339759 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Richard Stopford |
| GIVEN NAMES | Richard |
| FAMILY NAME | Stopford |
| SIGNATURE | STOPFORD R |
| AFFILIATIONS | Durham University |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-0744-8724 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 10 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 10 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 10 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2016 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2025 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Decolonising the curriculum
In On the Affective Threshold of Power and Privilege (2023), Julie Rattray reflects on the impact of decolonising the curriculum (DtC) on threshold concept (TC) theory. In this paper, I focus on student troublesomeness in the context of DtC—troublesomeness being a key dimension in TC. I argue that such difficulty requires a bespoke analysis as it involves complex entanglements of politics, existential experiences, and epistemic difficulties. The …
Common sense and critical pedagogy
This article critically examines the concept of common sense within the context of critical pedagogy, exploring its role as both a potential obstacle and a tool in counter-hegemonic education. Drawing on the work of Wittgenstein, and of theorists such as Dotson and Kumashiro, the article argues that hegemonic common sense constrains educational practices by reinforcing dominant social norms, thus marginalizing alternative forms of knowledge and l…
Why (and how) statues matter
In this paper, I consider the import of the metaphysics of statues to the decolonizing statues debate. On the one hand, this may seem an odd starting point: after all, the issues surrounding decolonizing statues are political, moral and, perhaps, aesthetic. I agree; however, presuppositions about the nature of statues may well be shaping the political imaginary about decolonizing statues. Indeed, when expressing political and moral claims such as…
An Analytic of Eeriness
In this paper, I analyse the phenomenon of eeriness as a kind of strange aesthetic experience. Beginning with Fisher’s insight (The Weird and the Eerie, 2017) that we can distinguish weirdness and eeriness from uncanniness, I offer an original account of eeriness. I argue that eeriness is the appearance of an underdetermination in the spatio-temporal location of objects of experience, relative to experiencing agent; this underdetermination result…
The appropriating subject
What is cultural ‘appropriation’? What is cultural ‘appreciation’? Whatever the complex answer to this question, cultural appropriation is commonly defined as ‘the taking of something produced by members of one culture by members of another’ (Young 2005: 136), whilst appreciation is typically understood as mere ‘exploration’: ‘Appreciation explores whatever is there’. (Gracyk 2007: 112). These provisional definitions suggest that there is an in-p…
Criticality and Film Music
In this article, I argue that film music sometimes plays a ‘critical’ role. As such, my analysis seeks to extend writing on the philosophy of film, which tends to focus exclusively on its narrative and affective functions. I argue that ‘criticality’ occurs when the music plays a meta-textual role. That is, it directs audience attention away from the narrative and/or expressive dimensions of narrative, and towards the conventions and situation of …
Eerie
In this paper, we explore what it means for an object to be eerie. We argue that the Eerie is an index of phenomenology’s limits: it is a complex, contradictory moment in the dialectics of subject/object formation. If the familiar story of phenomenology correlates the contours of objects along transcendental vectors of subjective experience, the de-formations of eeriness emerge as the object’s resistance to our assimilation of it. An object’s eer…
Threshold concepts and certainty
The threshold concept framework is a key contemporary theory in pedagogy. The core idea is that ‘threshold concepts’ are distinctively ‘troublesome’ for students and act as gatekeepers to their disciplines. No doubt the theory is compelling because there is surely something right about this. Student difficulty with conceptual material is familiar to all teaching practitioners. Furthermore, to avoid rote levels of understanding, mastery of discipl…
Teaching feminism
Learning about feminism can be a revelation for many students. However, for others, it can be a confounding, troubling experience. These difficulties return as problems for the teacher: how to help sceptical, resistant students understand the theory. Moreover, understanding what can be so troubling about learning feminism helps us to better understand the situation of feminist modules in the contexts of broader humanities curricula. Obviously, th…
Preserving the Restoration of the Pietà
In this paper, I consider Mark Sagoff’s well-known discussion of the restoration of Michelangelo’s Pietà (1978). Provocatively, he argues that the Pietà should not have been restored to its undamaged state after it was attacked. I argue that Sagoff is mistaken in this. His analysis of restoration is a result of his working view of the Pietà’s identity. Using a modal analysis of counterfactual damage to the Pietà, I argue that the notion of identi…
The appropriating subject
What is cultural ‘appropriation’? What is cultural ‘appreciation’? Whatever the complex answer to this question, cultural appropriation is commonly defined as ‘the taking of something produced by members of one culture by members of another’ (Young 2005: 136), whilst appreciation is typically understood as mere ‘exploration’: ‘Appreciation explores whatever is there’. (Gracyk 2007: 112). These provisional definitions suggest that there is an in-p…
Eerie
In this paper, we explore what it means for an object to be eerie. We argue that the Eerie is an index of phenomenology’s limits: it is a complex, contradictory moment in the dialectics of subject/object formation. If the familiar story of phenomenology correlates the contours of objects along transcendental vectors of subjective experience, the de-formations of eeriness emerge as the object’s resistance to our assimilation of it. An object’s eer…
Preserving the Restoration of the Pietà
In this paper, I consider Mark Sagoff’s well-known discussion of the restoration of Michelangelo’s Pietà (1978). Provocatively, he argues that the Pietà should not have been restored to its undamaged state after it was attacked. I argue that Sagoff is mistaken in this. His analysis of restoration is a result of his working view of the Pietà’s identity. Using a modal analysis of counterfactual damage to the Pietà, I argue that the notion of identi…
Preserving the Restoration of the Pietà
In this paper, I consider Mark Sagoff’s well-known discussion of the restoration of Michelangelo’s Pietà (1978). Provocatively, he argues that the Pietà should not have been restored to its undamaged state after it was attacked. I argue that Sagoff is mistaken in this. His analysis of restoration is a result of his working view of the Pietà’s identity. Using a modal analysis of counterfactual damage to the Pietà, I argue that the notion of identi…
Teaching feminism
Learning about feminism can be a revelation for many students. However, for others, it can be a confounding, troubling experience. These difficulties return as problems for the teacher: how to help sceptical, resistant students understand the theory. Moreover, understanding what can be so troubling about learning feminism helps us to better understand the situation of feminist modules in the contexts of broader humanities curricula. Obviously, th…
Threshold concepts and certainty
The threshold concept framework is a key contemporary theory in pedagogy. The core idea is that ‘threshold concepts’ are distinctively ‘troublesome’ for students and act as gatekeepers to their disciplines. No doubt the theory is compelling because there is surely something right about this. Student difficulty with conceptual material is familiar to all teaching practitioners. Furthermore, to avoid rote levels of understanding, mastery of discipl…
Criticality and Film Music
In this article, I argue that film music sometimes plays a ‘critical’ role. As such, my analysis seeks to extend writing on the philosophy of film, which tends to focus exclusively on its narrative and affective functions. I argue that ‘criticality’ occurs when the music plays a meta-textual role. That is, it directs audience attention away from the narrative and/or expressive dimensions of narrative, and towards the conventions and situation of …
Eerie
In this paper, we explore what it means for an object to be eerie. We argue that the Eerie is an index of phenomenology’s limits: it is a complex, contradictory moment in the dialectics of subject/object formation. If the familiar story of phenomenology correlates the contours of objects along transcendental vectors of subjective experience, the de-formations of eeriness emerge as the object’s resistance to our assimilation of it. An object’s eer…
The appropriating subject
What is cultural ‘appropriation’? What is cultural ‘appreciation’? Whatever the complex answer to this question, cultural appropriation is commonly defined as ‘the taking of something produced by members of one culture by members of another’ (Young 2005: 136), whilst appreciation is typically understood as mere ‘exploration’: ‘Appreciation explores whatever is there’. (Gracyk 2007: 112). These provisional definitions suggest that there is an in-p…
Why (and how) statues matter
In this paper, I consider the import of the metaphysics of statues to the decolonizing statues debate. On the one hand, this may seem an odd starting point: after all, the issues surrounding decolonizing statues are political, moral and, perhaps, aesthetic. I agree; however, presuppositions about the nature of statues may well be shaping the political imaginary about decolonizing statues. Indeed, when expressing political and moral claims such as…
An Analytic of Eeriness
In this paper, I analyse the phenomenon of eeriness as a kind of strange aesthetic experience. Beginning with Fisher’s insight (The Weird and the Eerie, 2017) that we can distinguish weirdness and eeriness from uncanniness, I offer an original account of eeriness. I argue that eeriness is the appearance of an underdetermination in the spatio-temporal location of objects of experience, relative to experiencing agent; this underdetermination result…
Decolonising the curriculum
In On the Affective Threshold of Power and Privilege (2023), Julie Rattray reflects on the impact of decolonising the curriculum (DtC) on threshold concept (TC) theory. In this paper, I focus on student troublesomeness in the context of DtC—troublesomeness being a key dimension in TC. I argue that such difficulty requires a bespoke analysis as it involves complex entanglements of politics, existential experiences, and epistemic difficulties. The …
Common sense and critical pedagogy
This article critically examines the concept of common sense within the context of critical pedagogy, exploring its role as both a potential obstacle and a tool in counter-hegemonic education. Drawing on the work of Wittgenstein, and of theorists such as Dotson and Kumashiro, the article argues that hegemonic common sense constrains educational practices by reinforcing dominant social norms, thus marginalizing alternative forms of knowledge and l…
Epistemology (8 works) · Philosophy (8 works) · Aesthetics (5 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Sociology (5 works) · Computer Science (4 works) · Certainty (2 works) · Common sense (2 works) · Critical theory (2 works) · Curriculum (2 works)