Joshua Gang

Title: 
Associate Professor and Affiliate Faculty, Department of Philosophy
Specialties: 
Philosophy and Literature
20th- and 21st-Century British and Irish
Gender and Sexuality Studies
Biography: 

I joined UC Berkeley's English department in 2015; as of Fall 2024 I am also affiliate faculty with the Department of Philosophy. My research interests include: 20th- and 21st-century British literature; literature and philosophy--especially philosophy of mind and moral philosophy; the history of the novel; literary history; and the history of criticism and reading practice. 

My book Behaviorism, Consciousness, and the Literary Mind was published by Johns Hopkins University Press in November 2021 (series: Hopkins Studies in Modernism). My essay "Derek Jarman and Everything That Is the Case," which brings Jarman and Wittgenstein's Tractatus to bear on queer theory, appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of Critical Inquiry. I've also published my work in journals such as ELH, Novel: A Forum on Fictionand PMLA

I am working on a new project on moral philosophy, aesthetic value, and modern British fiction. In 2024-2025, I will be teaching the following courses: English 45C, "Literature in English: Mid-19th to the Mid-20th" (Fall 2024); English 100, "(How to Write About) British and Irish Fiction Since 1945" (Spring 2025); and English 190, "The Films and Materials of Derek Jarman."

Role: 

Books

Selected Publications

"Token Cognitivism." Review essay, forthcoming in Twentieth Century Literature.

"Derek Jarman and Everything That is the Case." Critical Inquiry (Summer 2022 issue).

Behaviorism, Consciousness, and the Literary Mind. Johns Hopkins University Press, Nov. 2021 (series: Hopkins Studies in Modernism). Review of Modernism and Close Reading, ed. David James (Oxford UP, 2020). Review of English Studies 1-2 (Summer 2020).

"Consciousness in the Balance." NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 50.2 (Summer 2017).

“No Symbols Where None Intended.” PMLA 130.3 (Fall 2015). Contribution to "Theories and Methodologies: Learning to Read," edited by Deidre Lynch and Evelyne Ender.

“Mindless Modernism.” NOVEL: A Forum on Fiction 46.1 (Summer 2013).

“Behaviorism and the Beginnings of Close Reading.” ELH 78.1 (Spring 2011).

Contact

Wheeler 412

Office Hours

Classes Taught