William Tilleczek is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Saint Mary’s University, with a specialization in political theory and the history of political thought. Prior to coming to Saint Mary’s University, I studied and researched widely in the USA, Canada, and Europe, in both anglophone and francophone institutions. I have held teaching positions at Harvard University, Deep Springs College, and Université de Montréal, and a SSHRC postdoctoral fellowship at both McGill University and Université de Montréal. I completed my PhD at Harvard University, where my dissertation on Michel Foucault was awarded the Leo Strauss Award for Best Dissertation in Political Philosophy by the American Political Science Association.My work on politics, asceticism, anti-colonial thought, AI, and the history of political philosophy has appeared in journals such as Political Theory, Theory and Event, Global Labour Journal, Journal of the Philosophy of History, and Foucault Studies. In my research and teaching, I approach the history of political thought from a global, comparative, and critical perspective.From 2027-2029, I will hold a Humboldt Research Fellowship, pursuing collaboration with Professor Rahel Jaeggi and the Center for Social Critique at the Humboldt University of Berlin. I am also a member of the following research groups: FUER Civics: Fostering US-Euro Democratic Resilience in Civic Education (Harvard/Leibniz University); Association for Global Political Thought (Harvard); Centre canadien d’études allemandes et européennes (Université de Montréal); Lost/Found in Translation (DAAD).
My research program is oriented towards the construction of a global history of "political asceticism": the use of rigorous programs of self-transformation in citizen attempts to effect political transformation. For a full list of publications, see my website and my scholar page. This research program will continue to unfold in two phases over the following years.First, in the form of a monograph (currently invited for revise and resubmit) that offers a rigorous theoretical exploration of asceticism as a political concept and practice using the works of Michel Foucault, Simone Weil, and MK Gandhi.
Then, this exploration will be expanded, tested, and revised, as I chart a global political history of asceticism in the 20th century, with special attention to the use of self-transformation in anti-colonial and anti-statist struggle. An early study in this vein has been published in Political Theory ("The Asceticism of the Oppressed," with Dimitri M’Bama). Additional funding for this ongoing project has been granted by the Alexander von Humboldt Stiftung.
History of Political Thought (global/comparative); Ancient Political Thought (especially ancient India and the Mediterranean); Modern Political Thought (especially 20th century France, Germany, and India); Ethics and Politics; Labour and Technology; Michel Foucault; Critical Theory; Anticolonial Thought.
PhD and MA in Government, Harvard University (2016–2022)
Dissertation: Powers of Practice: Michel Foucault and the Politics of Asceticism
Augustus Clifford Tower Doctoral Fellow, Département des Sciences de l’Antiquité, École Normale Supérieure Paris (2019-20)
MA in Political Science, University of Toronto (2014–2015)
BA (First Class Honours) in Contemporary Studies and English, Minor in Classics, University of King’s College and Dalhousie University (2009–2014)