Gavin Walker

Gavin Walker is Professor of Comparative Literature and Chair of the Department of Comparative Literature at Cornell University. Educated at the University of Pennsylvania (BA, MA) and Cornell University (PhD), he previously taught for many years at McGill University. His academic work spans literary theory, political philosophy, and transregional studies, with a particular focus on Japanese intellectual history and Marxist theory.

Walker's research interests include Comparative and World Literature, Literary Theory and Translation Studies, Transregional and Postcolonial Studies, Politics and Aesthetics, and Psychoanalysis and Trauma Studies. His work explores the intersection of modern languages, global history of thought, politics and aesthetics, with particular attention to literary theory and cultural criticism as forms of historical-philological and political-philosophical investigation.

His recent publications reveal a strong focus on Marxist theory in Japanese context, critical theory, and political philosophy. Walker has produced significant scholarship on Japanese intellectual history, particularly examining the 'Red Years' of Japanese intellectual life in the 1960s-70s, and has engaged deeply with thinkers like Kojin Karatani and Uno Kōzō. His work bridges literary criticism, political theory, and transnational intellectual history.

Walker has served as Humanities Advisor for the Sundance Institute Humanities Sustainability Project (2022) and held visiting positions at Hitotsubashi University, Kyoto University, and the Society for the Humanities. His research has been supported by the Fulbright Foundation, Mellon Foundation, Japan Foundation, and Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, including an Insight Grant (2016-2024).

As an editor, Walker serves on the editorial boards of Historical Materialism series (De Gruyter Brill/Haymarket), Diacritics (Johns Hopkins), and positions (Duke). He is fluent in English, French, German, Italian, and Japanese, which enables his transnational scholarly work across multiple intellectual traditions.