Joshua Forstenzer
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Short Bio
Joshua Forstenzer is a Peer Empowerment and Support Mentors of the Reinventing Democracy project.
He is the peer mentor of Vilma Qerama from the European Initiative and Eleanor Opiyo from the African Initiative.
Dr. Joshua Forstenzer is currently the Vice-Chancellor's Fellow for the Public Benefit of Higher Education at the University of Sheffield. He completed his Bachelor's degree in Politics and Philosophy (Hons.), his Master's in Political Theory (Distinction), and his PhD in Philosophy at the University of Sheffield. As a doctoral student, he led the Philosophy Department's outreach program, Philosophy in the City (from 2008 to 2010), served as Vice-President of United Nations Youth and Students Association (2009-10) and President of the University of Sheffield's Students' Union (2010/11).
During his term as President, in addition to overseeing the biggest students' union in England, he spearheaded major campaigns against the UK government's plans to increase tuition fees and reform student visas, successfully mobilising thousands of students and peacefully leading the largest wave of student protests outside of London in the fall of 2010. Since then, he has been an advisor to political candidates seeking municipal office in France and positions on the executive arm of the UK National Union of Students.
He now leads the Crick Centre's 'Youth Politics and Citizenship' research strand and works closely with the Vice-Chancellor's Office at the University of Sheffield on the notion of the Civic University.
Research Interests
His main research interests are in political and social philosophy, American Pragmatism, and philosophy of education. His current project is interdisciplinary in nature and deals with participatory democracy, youth politics, and civic education (especially in the context of higher education).
Publications
- 2015. 'Defending What From Whom? Debating Citizen Disengagement', The Political Quarterly, Vol. 86. No.4, pp. 550-554.
- 2012. 'Education, Active Citizenship and Applied Social Intelligence: some democratic tools to meet the threat of climate change', Rethinking Climate Change Research, Pernille Almlund, Per Homann Jesperesen and Søren Riis (eds.), Farnham: Ashgate, pp.177-191.
- 2015. 'Inequality and the 1%', Danny Dorling, Marx and Philosophy Review of Books, August 31st.
- 2011. 'A Pragmatist Philosophy of Democracy', Robert Talisse, Journal of Moral Philosophy, Vol. 8, No.1, pp. 161-164.
In addition to offering general support, his mentoring will focus on his mentees' areas of political interest, by using the notions of deliberative democracy, community organizing, and strategic change-making to empower this generation of thoughtful and dedicated young people.