Overview
Zeyad el Nabolsy has a Ph.D. in Africana Studies at Cornell University. He has an M.A. in philosophy and a B. Eng. (in chemical engineering) from McMaster University. His main area of focus is modern African Intellectual History. His dissertation "Science, Modernity, and Progress in Nineteenth Century West and North Africa: A Comparative Study of Africanus Horton and Rifa’a al-Tahtawi" seeks to answer the question: how does our understanding of the role of modern science in African societies change when we cease to ignore the early reception of some of the modern sciences by nineteenth century African intellectuals such as Africanus Horton (1835–1883) in West Africa and Rifa'a al-Tahtawi (1801 - 1873) in North Africa, prior to the Scramble for Africa? He is also interested in the history of debates about cultural modernity on the African continent. In addition, he maintains an active research agenda focused on the history of Marxism in East Africa. His research has been supported by the SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, and the Einaudi Dissertation Proposal Grant. Zeyad is currently an Assistant Professor in the Department of Philosophy at York University.
Publications
Journal Articles:
1. “On the Differences between the Classical and the ‘Western’ Marxist Conceptions of Science” Marxism & Sciences 1(1), Winter 2022, 193-217: https://marxismandsciences.org/on-the-differences-between-the-classical-and-the-western-marxist-conceptions-of-science/
2. "Lotus and the Self-Representation of Afro-Asian Writers as the Vanguard of Modernity." Interventions: International Journal of Postcolonial Studies 2021, Vol. 23, No. 4, 596-620, https://doi.org/10.1080/1369801X.2020.1784021 (first published online 24 June 2020)
3. “Amílcar Cabral’s Modernist Philosophy of Culture and Cultural Liberation.” Journal of African Cultural Studies 2020, Vol. 32, No.2, 231-250, https://doi.org/10.1080/13696815.2019.1624155 (First published online on 12 June 2019)
4. “Using the Concepts of Hermeneutical Injustice and Ideology to Explain the Stability of Ancient Egypt during the Middle Kingdom." Journal of Historical Sociology 2020, Vol. 33, No. 3, 345-370, https://doi.org/10.1111/johs.12287
5. "Hegel's Proto-Modernist Conception of Philosophy as Science" [A concepção protomodernista de Hegel da filosofia como ciência] Problemata: Revista Internacional de Filosofia. Special Issue on "Hegel, Dialectic, Science, and Freedom", 2020, Vol.11, No.4 : 81-107, https://doi.org/10.7443/problemata.v11i4.52207
6. "Freedom Giving Birth to Order: Philosophical Reflections on Peirce's Evolutionary Cosmology and its Contemporary Resurrections." Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, 2020, Vol.16, No.1, 1-23, https://cosmosandhistory.org/index.php/journal/article/view/827/1471
7. “Aristotle on Natural Slavery: An Analysis Using the Marxist Concept of Ideology.” Science & Society April 2019, Vol. 83, No. 2: 244–267, https://doi.org/10.1521/siso.2019.83.2.244
8. "Why Did Kant Conclude the Critique of Pure Reason with ‘the History of Pure Reason’?" Kant Studies Online -KSO (2016):78-104, https://kantstudiesonline.net/uploads/files/NabolsyZeyadEl00316.pdf
Book chapters:
1. "Lenin in East Africa: Abdul Rahman Mohammed Babu and Dani Wadada Nabudere." In The Future of Lenin: Power, Politics, and Revolution in the 21st Century, edited by Alla Ivanchikova and Robert Maclean, 2022. Albany, NY: SUNY Press.
2. “Paulin J. Hountondji on Philosophy, Science, and Technology: From Husserl and Althusser to a Synthesis of the Hessen- Grossmann Thesis and Dependency Theory.” In Africana Studies: Theoretical Futures, edited by Grant Farred, 2022. Philadelphia: Temple University Press.
3.“Listening (Chapter 18).” In Keywords in Radical Philosophy and Education: Common Concepts for Contemporary Movements, edited by Derek R. Ford, 255-270. 2019. Leiden: Brill.
Other Writings:
1. Book Review of “Fundamentalism and Secularization by Mourad Wahba. Translated by Robert Beshara.” Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, July 16, 2022: https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/20331_fundamentalism-and-secularization-by-mourad-wahba-reviewed-by-zeyad-el-nabolsy/
2. “Did Dependency Theorists Really Ignore Culture?”, for Africa is a Country, July 11th, 2022: https://www.africasacountry.com/2022/07/did-dependency-theorists-really-ignore-culture
3. "African Socialism in Retrospect: Karim Hirji's The Travails of a Tanzanian Teacher." Liberated Texts, March 23 2021.https://liberatedtexts.com/reviews/african-socialism-in-retrospect-karim-f-hirjis-the-travails-of-a-tanzanian-teacher/ Republished in Review of African Political Economy, October 19th, 2021: https://roape.net/2021/10/19/african-socialism-in-tanzania-karim-hirjis-the-travails-of-a-tanzanian-teacher/
4."Helmi Sharawy’s Critique of Racial and Colonial Paradigms in Egyptian African Studies" Racial Formations in Africa and the Middle East: A Transregional Approach, POMEPS Studies September 2021, Vol. 44, 67-73: https://pomeps.org/helmi-sharawys-critique-of-racial-and-colonial-paradigms-in-egyptian-african-studies
5. Book Review of "Paulin Hountondji: African Philosophy as Critical Universalism by Franziska Dübgen and Stefan Skupien" Marx & Philosophy Review of Books, June 14 2020: https://marxandphilosophy.org.uk/reviews/18110_paulin-hountondji-african-philosophy-as-critical-universalism-by-franziska-dubgen-and-stefan-skupien-reviewed-by-zeyad-el-nabolsy/