Consultation hours: By appointment
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna, where my research and teaching primarily focus on Marxist theory, migrant literature, anarchist thought, dystopian fiction, and Palestine. My first book, Poetics of the Migrant, was released in 2023 through Edinburgh University Press, and received honorable mention for the 2024 Hugh J. Silverman Prize from the Association for Philosophy and Literature.
My current book project, titled The Abolition Unconscious, considers theological, ontological, and political anarchisms in 19th Century British Literature. This monograph is currently under contract with Verso Books, with an expected release in 2028. I have scholarly articles published or forthcoming in ARIEL, Poetics Today, Deleuze and Guattari Studies, New Formations, the European Journal of Life Writing, and Incontri; and my public writing has appeared in Jacobin, ROAR Magazine, Monthly Review, The Millions, and Dissident Voice.I maintain a considerable interest in narrative, representation, theory, and poetics, especially as they intervene in bigger questions of power, subjectivity, ideology, and critique. I am happy to meet with students to discuss any of these topics, along with related concerns about literary and cultural studies.Kevin Potter
Postdoc
- Department of English and American Studies
Curriculum vitae
2017-2022 Ph.D, English and Anglophone Literatures, University of Vienna
2013-2015 M.A. (Research Master's), Comparative Literary Studies, Utrecht University
2009-2013 B.A. English, University of South Florida
Research interests
I am a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of English and American Studies at the University of Vienna, where my research and teaching primarily focus on Marxist theory, migrant literature, anarchist thought, dystopian fiction, and Palestine. My first book, Poetics of the Migrant, was released in 2023 through Edinburgh University Press, and received honorable mention for the 2024 Hugh J. Silverman Prize from the Association for Philosophy and Literature.
My current book project, titled The Abolition Unconscious, considers theological, ontological, and political anarchisms in 19th Century British Literature. This monograph is currently under contract with Verso Books, with an expected release in 2028. I have scholarly articles published or forthcoming in ARIEL, Poetics Today, Deleuze and Guattari Studies, New Formations, the European Journal of Life Writing, and Incontri; and my public writing has appeared in Jacobin, ROAR Magazine, Monthly Review, The Millions, and Dissident Voice.
I maintain a considerable interest in narrative, representation, theory, and poetics, especially as they intervene in bigger questions of power, subjectivity, ideology, and critique. I am happy to meet with students to discuss any of these topics, along with related concerns about literary and cultural studies.
Publications
Development Through Dispossession: Ghassān Kanafānī’s Returning to Haifa, the World-System, and Palestinian Belonging
Potter, K., 1 Aug 2025, In: Coils of the Serpent: Journal for the Study of Contemporary Power. . 14, p. 159-79 21 p.Revolutionary Tendencies: Theories of Working-class Writing
Potter, K., 5 Dec 2024, The Routledge Companion to Working-Class Literature. Clarke, B. (ed.). Routledge, p. 41-56 15 p. (Routledge Literature Companions).A Punishing Memory Culture
Potter, K., 29 Aug 2024, Monthly Review Online.Was nicht mehr gelehrt werden darf
Potter, K., 14 Aug 2024Review of Chantelle Gray's Anarchism After Deleuze and Guattari (2022)
Potter, K., 2024, (Accepted/In press) Deleuze and Guattari Studies.Populism as a Floating Signifier
Potter, K. (Corresponding author), 11 Dec 2023, Encyclopedia of New Populism and Responses in the 21st Century. Chacko Chennattuserry, J., Deshpande, M. & Hong, P. (eds.). Springer Singapore, p. 714-718 5 p.Poetics of the Migrant: Migrant Literature and the Politics of Motion
Potter, K., Oct 2023, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press. 384 p.Introduction: Life Writing through Refugee Tales
Mayer, S., Potter, K. & Mieszkowski, S., 2023, In: European Journal of Life Writing. 12, p. 1-22 22 p.Kropotkin, Peter
Potter, K., 2023, Encyclopedia of London's East End. Morrison, K. (ed.). McFarland, p. 125Refugee Tales
Mayer, S. (Editor), Potter, K. (Editor) & Mieszkowski, S. (Editor), 2023, University of Groningen Press. (European Journal of Life Writing, Vol. 12).Laying Down Loves Laws: Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Micro-Fascisms
Potter, K., Jul 2022, In: Deleuze and Guattari Studies. 16, 3, p. 454-478 25 p.The Left Should See Our Movement as a Dynamic Ecology
Potter, K., 31 Jan 2022, Jacobin.Katja Sarkowsky and Mark U. Stein, eds. Ideology in Postcolonial Texts and Contexts. Leiden and Boston, MA: Brill Rodopi, 2021. 262 pp.
Heinz, S. & Potter, K., 2022, Anglistik. International Journal of English Studies, 33, 3, p. 150-151 2 p.'Don't Get Too Comfortable': Regimes of Motility in Shailja Patel's Migritude
Potter, K., Jun 2021, Cultural Mobilities Between Africa and the Caribbean. Englert, B., Thomsen, S. & Gföllner, B. (eds.). Routledge, p. 176-188'Resist much, obey little': Walt Whitman and the Paris Commune
Potter, K., 26 Mar 2021, ROAR Magazine.Austria's 'Unsozial' Capitalists in a Time of Crisis
Potter, K., 3 Apr 2020, Monthly Review Online.Disturbances of the Home/land in Anglophone Postcolonial Literatures: Special issue of "Humanities - An Open Access Journal"
Konrad, T. (Editor), Heinz, S. (Editor), Klik, L. (Editor) & Potter, K. (Editor), 2020, Multi-disciplinary digital publishing institute (MDPI). (Humanities; No. 3+4, Vol. 9).Poetics, Form, and Marxism's Concern with Style: A Review of Daniel Hartley's The Politics of Style (Brill, 2017)
Potter, K., 1 Dec 2019, In: Poetics Today. 40, 4, p. 721-730 9 p.Centrifugal Force and the Mouth of a Shark: Toward a Movement-Oriented Poetics
Potter, K., Oct 2019, In: ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature. 50, 4, p. 51-78 28 p.Review of Sneharika Roy's The Postcolonial Epic
Potter, K., Oct 2019, ARIEL: A Review of International English Literature, 50, 4, p. 141-144 4 p.Reading Vonnegut to Cope with Death
Potter, K., 15 Oct 2018, The Millions.Prosperity as a Crypt to Crisis
Potter, K., 2017, In: Dissident Voice.Expansion/Expulsion: Review of Thomas Nail's The Figure of the Migrant
Potter, K., 2016, In: New Formations. 89Utopian Registers of the New Italian Epic: Wu Ming and the Socially-Symbolic Act
Potter, K., Jul 2015, In: Incontri. Rivista Europa di Studi Italiani. 30, 1, p. 76-84 9 p.Activities
Ghassān Kanafānī's Fiction and the Global Life of Capital
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Struggle for the Universities: Knowledge or War?
Potter, K. (Participant)
Was nicht mehr gelehrt werden darf: Gaza and the Crisis of Academic Freedom
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Epistemic Violence in the Case of Palestine
Potter, K. (Participant)
Palestine Absence and the Spectre of Capital
Potter, K. (Speaker)
(Un)Sichtbare Geschichten: Die Lücken im Bücherregal füllen
Potter, K. (Participant)
Development through Dispossession: Ghassan Kanafani's Returning to Haifa and the Occupation of Palestinian Belonging.
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Palästine-Kongress
Potter, K. (Panellist)
NYI GLobal Institute of Cultural, Cognitive, and Linguistic Studies
Potter, K. (Contributor)
Palestinian Literature and Inter/Nationalism
Potter, K. (Invited speaker)
Narratives of a Global Eco-Catastrophe: The Palestinian Monad in the Fiction of Susan Abulhawa
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Moving Solidarities: The Value-Form and the Intensity of Migrant Poetics
Potter, K. (Invited speaker)
Frontiers of Dispossession, Futures of Mutual Aid: Crisis and Solidarity in Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Publishing your dissertation
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Kinopoetics: Migrant Literature in a Politics of Motion
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Conclusion
Potter, K. (Speaker)
A Poetics of Migrant Intensities
Potter, K. (Invited speaker)
Moving Disruptions: Mohsin Hamid's Exit West and the (Re-)Distribution of the Sensible
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Laying Down Love Laws: Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Micro-Fascisms
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Experimental Migrancies
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Regimes of Motility in Shailja Patel's Migritude
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Introductory chapter of dissertation project
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Centrifugal Force and the Mouth of a Shark: Toward a Movement-Oriented Poetics
Potter, K. (Speaker)
The Intervening Pedagogy of Liberal Arts Education
Potter, K. (Speaker)
An Ethics of Belonging: Recognition, Representation, and Migrant Literature
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Michael K.'s Nomad Existence: Errantry in South African Space
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Glissant's Opacity: Relation, Singularity, and the Chaos-Monde
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Ghassān Kanafānī's Fiction and the Global Life of Capital
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public
Was nicht mehr gelehrt werden darf: Gaza and the Crisis of Academic Freedom
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public
Palestine Absence and the Spectre of Capital
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Development through Dispossession: Ghassan Kanafani's Returning to Haifa and the Occupation of Palestinian Belonging.
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Palestinian Literature and Inter/Nationalism
Potter, K. (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public
Narratives of a Global Eco-Catastrophe: The Palestinian Monad in the Fiction of Susan Abulhawa
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Moving Solidarities: The Value-Form and the Intensity of Migrant Poetics
Potter, K. (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public
Frontiers of Dispossession, Futures of Mutual Aid: Crisis and Solidarity in Ursula Le Guin's The Dispossessed and Octavia Butler's Parable of the Sower
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Publishing your dissertation
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Kinopoetics: Migrant Literature in a Politics of Motion
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Conclusion
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
A Poetics of Migrant Intensities
Potter, K. (Invited speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Moving Disruptions: Mohsin Hamid's Exit West and the (Re-)Distribution of the Sensible
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Laying Down Love Laws: Arundhati Roy's The God of Small Things and Micro-Fascisms
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Experimental Migrancies
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Public
Regimes of Motility in Shailja Patel's Migritude
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Introductory chapter of dissertation project
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Centrifugal Force and the Mouth of a Shark: Toward a Movement-Oriented Poetics
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
The Intervening Pedagogy of Liberal Arts Education
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
An Ethics of Belonging: Recognition, Representation, and Migrant Literature
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Michael K.'s Nomad Existence: Errantry in South African Space
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Glissant's Opacity: Relation, Singularity, and the Chaos-Monde
Potter, K. (Speaker)
Activity: Talks and presentations › Talk or oral contribution › Science to Science
Department of English and American Studies
Spitalgasse 2
1090 Wien
Room: 3G-O2-27
T: +43-1-4277-42485
