about elese

Dr Elese Dowden is a second-generation Pākehā settler and recovering philosopher from Aotearoa New Zealand now living on unceded Wurundjeri country in Naarm. Elese attended the University of Auckland, graduating with an MA in political philosophy in 2014 before moving to Meanjin in 2015. Here she completed a PhD at the University of Queensland on continental French philosophy, settler colonialism and historic injustice as part of the ARC Discovery project, Ethical restoration after oppressive violence. 

More recently, Elese's poetry and literary reviews have been published in Cordite, Meanjin, Overland and Landfall, and her cross-disciplinary research interests include French philosophy, Australian and New Zealand literature, critical theory, history and colonialism. Elese is a lecturer in the History of Ideas at Trinity College, University of Melbourne, and she also teaches and organises for the Melbourne School of Literature.