Oliver Silverman

(they/them)

I am a PhD Candidate in political theory at The CUNY Graduate Center and a ‘25-26 Fellow at the Future’s Initiative. I hold an MA in politics from the New School for Social Research.

My dissertation, Profane Heaven: Utopia, Apocalypse, and the Politics of the Imagination, proposes a novel theory of utopia through reinterpretations of the fundamental texts of Early Modern political thought. My research engages critical theory, political theology, and revolutionary and juridical textual archives to offer new perspectives on the canon of political theory in the context of popular collective action.

My academic writings have appeared in Political Theory, History of the Present, Utopian Studies, and Theory & Event. My research has been supported by the Future’s Initiative, the CUNY Dissertation Fellowship, the Graduate Teaching Fellowship, the Open Knowledge Fellowship, and the Writing Across the Curriculum Fellowship. I recently received the Arthur O. Lewis Award for the best paper by a younger scholar from the Society of Utopian Studies.

You can reach me at lsilverman at gradcenter dot cuny dot edu.