Darius Cret
PhD Philosophy
- Philosophy
- School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences
Contact details
- Email: D.G.Cret@sms.ed.ac.uk
Address
- Street
-
School of PPLS PhD Space - Room 6.11 - 40 George Square
- City
- Edinburgh
- Post code
- EH8 9JX
Background
Originally from Romania, Darius completed his undergraduate studies in Psychology at the University of Aberdeen. He then moved on to obtain a master's degree in Philosophy at the University of Edinburgh. At present, Darius is a SGSAH-funded PhD researcher in Philosophy and Black Male Studies at the University of Edinburgh, working under the supervision of Professor Tommy J Curry and Dr. Norman Ajari.
Qualifications
- Master of Arts in Psychology - 1:1 (First Class Honours) - University of Aberdeen - 2021
- Master of Science in Philosophy - 1:1 (Distinction) - University of Edinburgh - 2022
Responsibilities & affiliations
- Recipient of the Scottish Graduate School for Arts and Humanities Doctoral Training Partnership Studentship (SGSAH-DTP)
- Graduate Member of the British Psychological Society (BPS)
- Member of the British Postgraduate Philosophy Association (BPPA)
- Member of the Edinburgh Minorities and Philosophy Chapter (EMAPC)
- Co-organiser of the James McCune Smith Reading Group within EMAPC
Undergraduate teaching
- Tutor - PHIL08017 - Knowledge and Reality - 2023/2024
- Tutor - PHIL08020 - Introduction to the History of Philosophy B - 2023/2024; 2024/2025
- Tutor - PHIL08015 - Morality and Value - 2024/2025
- Tutor - PPLS Skills Centre - 2023/2024; 2024/2025
Research summary
My current research project focuses on the role played by Euro-American psychiatry in producing, sustaining, and reinforcing the systematic psychopathologisation of Black masculinity. Materialising as a synthesis between philosophy, the psychological sciences, and the interrogative paradigm of Black Male Studies, I argue that the white psychiatric establishment, through its operation within the (neo)colonial societal apparatus, has contributed to the epistemological reification of a particular kind of criminal insanity within the ontology of Black manhood.
Through a historiographic analysis grounded in both conceptual genealogy and empirical data, I uphold that the demonisation of the Black male psyche not only belongs to a broader continuum of dehumanising practices rendering justifiable the extermination of Black men under the genocidal logics of white supremacy, but also functions as a conceptual tool facilitating the interdisciplinary silencing and erasure of their dialectics of liberation within hegemonic academic discourse. I also contend that the racialised categorical associations between Black masculinity and insanity/criminality, unaddressed and uninterrogated under our contemporary configurations of cultural competency in clinical practice, continue to be redeployed towards the detriment of Black men and boys in mental healthcare settings.
By confronting the analytic dictums masquerading as gender theory which permeate the vast corpus of literature concerning the alleged (violent) psychological deviance of Black men, I seek to introduce a radical reconstruction of the historically-misinterpreted concept of ‘Black rage’ as a cogent reaction to colonial oppression and efficient psycho-affective catalyst of revolutionary struggle, adamantly rejecting the ‘protest psychosis’ theory formulated within the racialised paradigms of Western psychiatry.
Current research interests
Black Male Studies; Decolonial Theory; Philosophy of Race & Gender; Mad Studies; History & Philosophy of Psychiatry; 19th-century Ethnology; Genocide Studies; History of Eugenics.Past research interests
I have also worked on and maintain a vested interest in topics such as: the psychological drivers of anti-authoritarianism, male mental health, non-hegemonic masculinities, and forms of othering (particularly Balkanism and Orientalism).Conference details
Presented Papers
- “The Anatomy of Revolt: An Exploratory Study of Anti-authoritarianism”; presented at the British Psychological Society (BPS) Scottish Branch Undergraduate Conference, 7th of April 2021; Parallel Session 2.2 (see pages 5, 48 of https://paulgardner.wp.st-andrews.ac.uk/files/2021/04/BPS-Scottish-Branch-Undergraduate-Conference-Programme.pdf)
- “Psychotically Dissident, Liminally Human: Schizophrenia, Black Male Militancy, and the Caricatural Construal of Black Masculinity within Philosophy”; presented at the Philosophy Born of Struggle (PBoS) Conference – Struggles Against Absence, 5th of November 2022 (see full programme at https://www.txst.edu/philosophy/the-dept/activities/symposia-and-lectures/philosophy-born-of-struggle/pbos-program.html)
- "Psychotically Dissident, Liminally Human: Black Rage, Western Psychiatry, and the Silenced Dialectics of Black Male Liberation"; presented at the Temporalities of Refusal Symposium at Newcastle University, 29th of May 2024; Panel 2: Refusing Pathology (see full programme at Programme | Temporalities of Refusal | Symposium (ncl.ac.uk))
- "Psychotically Dissident, Liminally Human: Black Rage, Western Psychiatry, and the Silenced Dialectics of Black Male Liberation"; presented at the 25th World Congress of Philosophy at La Sapienza University of Rome, Italy, 3rd of August 2024; Section: Africana Philosophy (see full programme at Interactive Programme - WCP 2024 (wcprome2024.com))
Organisational Roles
- Discussion Chair - "The Unconscious in the Wake of Frantz Fanon and Édouard Glissant" - 6th of November 2024 - University of Newcastle (see full programme at Programme | The Unconscious in the Wake of Frantz Fanon and Édouard Glissant)