John Paul Ricco

John Paul Ricco is a Professor of Comparative Literature, Art History, and Visual Culture at the University of Toronto. His research intersects queer theory, 20th-century French philosophy, contemporary art, and ethical-aesthetic inquiry, with a focus on the works of Jean-Luc Nancy, Roland Barthes, Giorgio Agamben, Leo Bersani, and William Haver.

• Affiliation: Centre for Comparative Literature, University of Toronto
• Contact: john.ricco@utoronto.ca | Office: #311, 93 Charles St. West

Research Interests: His scholarship explores intimacy, anonymity, loss, and the deconstruction of Christianity, alongside themes like AIDS and queer politics, the collective afterlife of things, and the ethics of art. He has curated special journal issues on Jean-Luc Nancy and 'Unbecoming' and teaches graduate seminars such as 'Retreating the Aesthetic' and 'Queer Ethics and Aesthetics.'

Publications: Ricco is author of The Logic of the Lure (2003) and The Decision Between Us: Art and Ethics in the Time of Scenes (2014). He is completing The Intimacy of the Outside and The Collective Afterlife of Things.