Dr Lewis Bloodworth

I joined Kingston in 2022 and I currently hold the post of Lecturer in Sociology – as of August 2023 I am also Course Director for Sociology.

Before joining Kingston, I taught at the University of Kent where I also completed my PhD in Political and Social Thought – my thesis title being Love's Political Potential: Critical Reflections from a Deleuzian Perspective. In my work I have problematised love as a social and cultural phenomena, engaging with a litany of other thinkers beyond Gilles Deleuze including: Sigmund Freud, Hebert Marcuse, Alain Badiou, Alexandra Kollontai, Michel Foucault, Jacques Derrida, and Michael Hardt. My own reading of Deleuze returns him to Freud in the hope of rethinking the psychoanalytic reading of subject formation, extending this rethinking to a reimagining of love and the political more broadly.

Currently I am conducting research on the role dating apps have on influencing contemporary love relations and their broader impact on the formation of identity and subjectivity. This will likely become a more extensive study, emphasising global shifts in relationship dynamics under the influence of algorithmic technologies.

Although my current teaching and research is primarily sociological, I also have taught during my academic career modules in political theory, British politics, terrorism studies, conflict analysis, research design, and criminology.

• PhD, University of Kent, Political and Social Thought
• MA, University of Kent, International Conflict Analysis
• BSc, Canterbury Christ Church University, Politics and Global Governance