About
Killian O’ Dwyer is a lecturer and researcher associated with New York University. He has previously taught on the BA in History of Art at Goldsmiths. Killian’s work examines how the question of sex shapes philosophies of life, art and thought.
| 2026 PhD, Visual Cultures Goldsmiths University, London |
2019 MA, Contemporary Art Theory, Goldsmiths University, London 2015 BA, Fine Art, Crawford College of Art & Design, Ireland |
Publications
Book chapters
Unbridled: Dragging Nudity in Ann Oren’s Piaffe.” In Animal Drag: Power, Politics and the Performance of Animality. Edited by Nicola McCartney. Manchester: Manchester Univeristy Press, 2026. Pp. 181-198. |
“The Gift in Lube: Derrida, Foucault and Fisting.” In Erotic Discourses in Culture, History and the Arts. Edited by
Aleksandra Musiał-Pudełko,
Nina Augustynowicz and
Agnieszka Podruczna. New York: Routledge, 2026. Pp. 180-193. |
“The Corps-à-corps of Queer Love”, Cinephile: The University of British Columbia’s Film Journal 19.1 (2025): 14-18. ISSN 1712-9265 |
“(Non)Life on the Line: Crisis Calls with Animals”, Pulse: The Journal of Science and Culture, 10.1(2023): 1-17. ISSN 2416-111X |
“Plastic Bits:
Genitals and Sexual Plasticity”, tba: Journal of Art, Media and Visual
Culture, 5.1 (2023): 68-79. ISSN: 2563-6243. Book Reviews: “Siôn Parkinson, Stinkhorn: How Nature’s Most Foul-Smelling Mushroom Can Change the Way We Listen (London: Sternberg Press, 2024)” Volupté: Interdisciplinary Journal of Decadence Studies, 7.2 (2024): 133-136 |
Projects
Audio
Audio
“Soundbites Vol I:
Airways, Breathing, Circulation.” In series four: playful disruptions:
loopholes, networks, care, Goldsmiths University London. 2021. |
Peer Review
Junctions: Graduate Journal of the Humanities (2025), tba: Journal of Art, Media, and Visual Culture (2025), Cinema: Journal of Philosophy and the Moving Image (2024).
Departmental, University and Community Engagements
| “Fanny Söderbäck: Jewish
and Black Waywardness: Narrating Afterlife Subjunctively.” Respondent. Goldsmiths University of London. 13 May, 2025. |
Life After. Co-convenor. Visual
Cultures Public Programme, Summer term. Speakers: Fanny Söderbäck, Patricia MacCormack, Boris Pantev and the Mental Health and Social Justice Network. Goldsmiths University of London. 2025. |
Research
and Knowledge Exchange Committee. PhD Student Representative. Goldsmiths
University of London. 2024-25. |
“Siôn
Parkinson: Shit-Talker.” Respondent. Goldsmiths University of London. 20
November, 2024. |
‘What is
Research Now?’ Panellist. ReSkIN, The Courtauld, London United Kingdom, 23 March, 2024. |
MA in Contemporary
Art Theory reading group. Facilitator. Goldsmiths University of London, United Kingdom, 5
October, 2023-25. |
“Roaming.’” Speaker. The Ocean As Archive: Performance Night and Zine Launch. Tamesis Dock,
London, United Kingdom. 2 May, 2019. |
Research
Killian primarily draws on the work of Derrida and Irigarary in order to consider an other sexual relation to Hegel’s idealist structuring of sex.
Areas of particular interest include philosophies of sex and love, lubrication, sexual poetics, deconstruction, animalities, film and voice.
Contact
Email: killian.o@nyu.edu |
Conferences
‘The Queen’s Pharmakon: Callas and Derrida on the Side of Life Death.’ LIFE at the Limits: Medicine, Literature, Philosophy. Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. 10-12 December, 2026.
‘The Queen’s Pharmakon: Callas and Derrida on the Side of Life Death.’ LIFE at the Limits: Medicine, Literature, Philosophy. Eötvös Loránd University, Hungary. 10-12 December, 2026.
| ‘The Corps-à-corps of Queer Love: Sex with Hegel and Derrida.’ Film-Philosophy 2025 Conference. Keynote speakers: Sandra Laugier, May Adadol Ingawanij and Walid El Khachab. Malta. 23-25 July, 2025. |
| ‘Tongue-Ties: Auto-Affection in the Mouths of Hegel and Derrida.’ Feeling Cultures/Culturing Feelings: Emotions and Affects in Cultural Practice. Nicolaus Copernicus University, Poland. 9-11 April, 2025. |
| ‘Under the Skin: The Interval Between Sex and Meaning.’ Film-Philosophy 2024 Conference. Keynote speakers: Catherine Constable, João Mário Grilo and Homay King. Portugal. 1-3 July, 2024. |
| ‘Creature Cameos: Filming Who or What.’ Forms and Feelings of Kinship in the Contemporary World. University of Warwick, United Kingdom. Keynote speaker: Janet Carsten. 27 April, 2024. |
| ‘Against the Flow: When the Gift and Sexual Biopolitics Bleed Together.’ Leakage Inaugural Conference of STSinG. TU Dresden, Germany. Keynote speakers: Nerea Calvillo, Amade M’charek and Thao Phan. 19-22 March, 2024. |
| ‘Secret(e) Sex: Secretions that Supplant Shame.’ 5th Memory Guilt and Shame International Conference (online). Committee Speakers: Wojciech Owczarski and Ricardo Rato Rodrigues. 26-27 October, 2023. |
| ‘The Gift in Lube: Erotics of Facilitation.’ Sense and Sexuality: Erotic Discourses in/of History Conference. University of Silesia in Katowice, Poland. Keynote speaker: Clarissa Smith and Jana Funke. 22-23 September, 2023. |
| ‘Keeping (Revolutionary) Time: Conducting Political Counterpoints in Todd Field’s Tár.’ Film-Philosophy 2023 Conference. Keynote speakers: Vivian Sobchack, Akira Mizuta Lippit and Richard Rushton. Chapman University, United States. 13-15 June, 2023. |
| ‘A Revolutionary Metronome: Time and Sexual Politics’ Time and Its Influences, EGO Spring Conference. Indiana University of Pennsylvania, United States. 14-16 April, 2023. |
Honours, Awards and Research Grants
| Visual Cultures PhD Student Grant, Goldsmiths University, United Kingdom. 2023. |
Goldsmiths
Visual Cultures Student Fund, Goldsmiths University, United Kingdom. 2019. |
CIT Venice Biennale President Award,
graduate travel bursary to Venice, Italy. 2015. |
Graduate Residency Award with
Backwater Artists Group, year-long studio residency, Ireland. 2015. |
Crawford College Academic Thesis
Award, Cork, Ireland. 2015. |