David Burchell has taught continuously at UWS since 1993. Prior to that he was for six years the editor of Australian Left Review. His doctoral thesis was in the area of the political thought of the early twentieth century, but most of his subsequent research has been in the history of pre-modern moral and political thought, especially of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He is also a regular commentator on contemporary politics, and contributes a weekly opinion column to The Australian newspaper.
The history of political thought since the seventeenth century; the history of practical morality in the early-modern world; the relationship between religious belief and intellectual life in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries; citizenship and political thought.
(a) Authored and edited books:
Juliet Cummins and David Burchell (eds), Science, Literature and Rhetoric in Early Modern England, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007 ISBN 978-0-7546-5781-1
David Burchell, Western Horizon: Sydney’s Heartland and the Future of Australian Politics, Melbourne, Scribe Publishing, 2003
David Burchell and Andrew Leigh (eds), The Prince's New Clothes: Why do Australians Dislike Their Politicians?, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2002
David Burchell and Race Mathews (eds), Labor's Troubled Times, Sydney, Pluto Press, 1991, ISBN 0-949138-71-1
(b) Book chapters
‘Does Size Matter?’ in Nick Dyrenfurth and Tim Soutphommasane (eds), All That’s Left: What Labor Should Stand For, Sydney, UNSW Press, 2010
‘Trying to Find the Sunny Side of Life’ in Tony Jones (ed), The Best Australian Political Writing 2008, Melbourne University Press, 2008
‘”A Plain Blunt Man”: Hobbes, Science and Rhetoric Revisited’, in Juliet Cummins and David Burchell (eds), Science, Literature and Rhetoric in Early Modern England, Aldershot, Ashgate, 2007
‘The Trouble with Empathy’ in Robert Dessaix (ed), The Best Australian Essays 2005, Melbourne, BlackInc, 2005
‘Kith and Kin’, in Peter Browne and Julian Thomas (eds), A Win and a Prayer: Scenes from the 2004 Australian Election, Sydney, UNSW Press, 2005 pp 50-61
'Ancient Citizenship and its Inheritors', in Engin Isin and Bryan S Turner (eds), Handbook of Citizenship Studies: Foundations, Approaches, Histories, Forms, London, Sage, 2002, pp 89-104
'Perpetual Disillusionment', in David Burchell and Andrew Leigh (eds), The Prince's New Clothes: Why do Australians Dislike Their Politicians?, UNSW Press, Sydney, 2002, pp 62-77
'"The mutable minds of particular men": The emergence of economic science and debates around contemporary economic policy', in Mitchell Dean and Barry Hindess (eds), Governing Australia: Studies in Modern Rationalities of Government, Melbourne, Cambridge University Press, 1998, pp 194-210
(c) Selected journal articles
‘Trying to Find the Sunny Side of Life’, Griffith Review, cover article, ‘Divided Nation’ issue, Autumn 2007, pp 11-38
‘The Trouble with Empathy’, Griffith Review, ‘People Like Us’ issue, Winter 2005, pp 115-132 ISSN 1448-2924
‘Will the Real Humanism Please Stand Up?’, Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, vol 18. no. 2 June 2004, pp 247-259
‘Paradoxes of the Public Sphere: Enlightenment Fables and Digital Divides’, Southern Review, vol 36, no. 1, 2003, pp 11-21
'What to do with the Civic Body?', Continuum: Journal of Media and Cultural Studies, vol. 16, no. 1, Feb. 2002, pp 67-79
'Multiculturalism and its Discontents: Majorities, Minorities and Toleration', Ethnicities (Bristol, UK), vol. 1, no. 2, October 2001
'The Disciplined Citizen: Hobbes, Neostoicism and the Critique of Classical Citizenship', Australian Journal of Politics and History (Brisbane), vol 45 no 4, December 1999, pp 506-525 ISSN 0004-9522
'Burckhardt Redivivus: Renaissance Pedagogy as Self-Formation', Renaissance Studies (Oxford, Oxford University Press), XIII, 3, September 1999, pp. 283-302 ISSN 0269-1213
'Civic personae: MacIntyre, Cicero and moral personality', History of Political Thought (Exeter, UK, Imprint Academic) vol XIX no. 1, Spring 1998, pp 101-118 ISSN 0143-781X
'The Private Citizen: MacIntyre, Cicero and the "Classical Tradition" of Civic Life', Southern Review (Melbourne), special issue on 'Culture and Citizenship', vol 31, no. 1, 1998, pp 29-37 ISSN 0038-4526
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