Desmond Manderson
Improvisation and Social Policy Coordinator, Co-investigator
Dr. Manderson holds the Canada Research Chair in Law and Discourse (Tier I) in the Faculty of Law at McGill. He is the author of Songs Without Music: Aesthetic dimensions of law and justice, Courting Death: The legal constitution of mortality, and Proximity, Levinas, and the soul of law. He has an international reputation as a leading interdisciplinary scholar and theorist of law and justice, and has particular interests in the application of continental philosophy, literature, and the arts to legal issues as well as to specific aspects of contemporary social policy. He has pioneered the study of the history and theory of music as a way of exploring and thinking about legal history and ideology, and was the convenor of the first international conference held to broadly address these. The current project develops Dr. Manderson’s expertise and interest in these issues, as well as advancing them more precisely towards the specific social and legal implications of aesthetic practices. He hold honours BAs in law and history from Australian National University and a doctorate in civil laws from McGill University..
