Dr Sunny Dhillon

Qualifications

PhD Philosophy – Cardiff University (2020)

Fellowship of Advance HE (2019)

Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Certified Practitioner (2017)

Trinity Cert-TESOL – TEFL Lab, London (2014)

MA Ethics and Social Philosophy – Cardiff University (2010)

BA Spanish – Cardiff University (2009)

Professional Recognition

Peer reviewer for:

1. Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (2025 annual conference)
2. Educational Philosophy and Theory (since 2024)
3. Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (since 2020)
4. Other Education – the journal of educational alternatives (2022)
5. LILAC: The Information Literacy Conference (for 2021’s annual conference)

Blog editor for the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (since 2024)

Co-editor of Solertia (Bishop Grosseteste University student journal) (since 2022)

Memberships

Member of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain

Member of the Sikh Academics and Researchers Network

Member of the Association for Learning Development in Higher Education

Peer-reviewed journal articles

‘The ostensible originality of ungrading’, Educational Philosophy and Theory. https://doi.org/10.1080/00131857.2024.2440478

‘The Trickster Archetype: education to stupefy’, Journal of Philosophy of Education, 00 (2024), 1-14. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopedu/qhae078

‘We need to talk about AL: has academic literacies designed the pedagogy out of Learning Development?’ (co-authored with Dr Steve White, University of Southampton), Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (2024), (31). doi: 10.47408/jldhe.vi31.1267.

‘Confronting well-being and mental health in the therapeutic university: Implications for educators, students and the curriculum’ (co-authored with Dr Clare Rawdin), Studies in Higher Education (2024), 1 – 12. https://doi.org/10.1080/03075079.2024.2337805

‘The Home Beyond Home’: Balbinder S. Bhogal in conversation with Sunny Dhillon, Sikh Research Journal, 8(2) (2024), 30 – 55. https://sikhresearchjournal.org/index.php/srj/article/view/7/3

‘Adorno, Jiddu Krishnamurti, and Critical Theory: Negative Dialectics and Non-identity Thinking’, Comparative and Continental Philosophy, 15(3) (2024), 181–194. https://doi.org/10.1080/17570638.2024.2317125

‘Utopia as akairological rupture’, The European Legacy (2023), doi: 10.1080/10848770.2023.2204643.

‘You must be having a laugh: humour to transgress’, Other Education, 11:1 (2022), pp. 42 – 58.

‘An Immanent Critique of Decolonisation Projects’, Philosophical Inquiry in Education, 28:3 (2021), pp.251-258.

‘The Dionysian Free Jazz of John W. Coltrane’, Telos, Spring (2020), pp.139-156.

‘Whose wellbeing is it anyway’, Journal of Learning Development in Higher Education (October, 2018).doi: 10.47408/jldhe.v0i0.460

‘Dave Chappelle’s Block Party’, Postgraduate Journal of Aesthetics, 10:1 (2013), pp.41 – 52.

Book chapters

‘Critical self-reflection in Learning Development’, in How to Be a Learning Developer in Higher Education, eds. Carina Buckley and Alicja Syska (Oxon: Routledge, 2024), pp.109-117.

‘Don Quixote contra Faust: Ernst Bloch’s Abstract or Concrete Utopia?’, in Yesterday’s Tomorrows: On Utopia and Dystopia, eds. Pere Gallardo and Elizabeth Russell (Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2014), pp. 293 – 306.

Non-peer-reviewed articles

‘Revolver and Nietzschean Self-War’, Philosophy Now, Issue 119, April/May 2017

‘Dave Chappelle’s Block Party’, Philosophy Now, Issue 99, November/December 2013

‘Black Swan: Dionysus dances with Apollo’, Philosophy Now, Issue 86, September/October 2011

Online articles/blogs

‘The fatal attraction of Monopoly’, The Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (02 December 2024).

Sikh Panjabi Scholars (curator and editor) https://medium.com/@sikh.panjabi.scholars

‘Life was a constant struggle, a battle for survival’ Asia Samachar (18 November 2023).

‘Rethinking – and maybe abolishing – graduations’, WONKHE (21 June, 2023)

‘Our desk-based higher education is not good for our health and our diversity’, WONKHE (22 June, 2022)

‘An Immanent Critique of Decolonisation Projects’, Convivial thinking (25 September, 2021)

‘Mind the gap: a platforms problem’, Copyright Licensing Agency (5 July, 2021)

‘Why neoliberal universities can’t expect their libraries to facilitate decolonisation’, Copyright Licensing Agency (14 April, 2020)

‘Decolonisation isn’t as simple as many people think’, WONKHE (21 February, 2020)

Book reviews

‘Xenofeminism’, Philosophy Now, Issue 141, Dec 2020/Jan 2021

‘To Be Born: Genesis of a New Human Being’, Philosophy Now, Issue 128, Oct/Nov 2018

Podcast interviews

Is social constructivism in education what it’s cracked up to be? (Education Masterclass, July 2024)

Applying game theory to education - time to play a different game? (Education Masterclass, October 2023)

Whose wellbeing is it anyway? (Association for Learning Development in Higher Education Podcast, September 2022).

‘Knowledge, meditation, surrender: the addicted educator’, invited speaker as part of the Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain seminar series 2024/25, The UCL Institute of Education, (upcoming: May 2025).

‘One Foot in the Grave: contemporary tragicomic critique’, BGU Research Conference, Bishop Grosseteste University, July 2024.

‘A gentle dissolve: knowledge, wisdom and letting go’, International Society for Research on Solitude Conference, Bishop Grosseteste University, April 2024.

‘Finite and infinite games: how to play differently in Higher Education’, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) Annual Conference, University of Oxford, March 2024.

‘Ernst Bloch and Utopia’, Punjab University Patiala, Centre for Diaspora Studies, March 2024.

‘Critical Self-Reflection in Learning Development’, London Metropolitan University, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education, January 2024.

‘Spotlight: Professionals Working in the Third Space’, Association of University Administrators (AUA) Annual Conference, University of Warwick, July 2023.

‘Sikh Scholars in the Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences’, Sikh Scholars Network UK, University of Warwick, June 2023.

‘The Trickster archetype: education to stupefy’, Philosophy of Education Society of Great Britain (PESGB) Annual Conference, University of Oxford, April 2023.

‘Keynote: The Dionysian Free Jazz of John W. Coltrane’, The 44^th Implicit Religion Conference, Bishop Grosseteste University, May 2022.

‘Embedding academic literacies at PG level within the School of Environment’, Digital Education Service conference, University of Leeds, July 2021.

‘Bridging the feedback gap’, Student Education Conference, University of Leeds, January 2020.

‘Student engagement through a Virtual Learning Environment’, Researching, Advancing and Inspiring Student Engagement, Newcastle University, September 2019.

‘Thinking critically in Learning Development’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education, University of Exeter, April 2019.

‘The Wellbeing Agenda’, Association for Learning Development in Higher Education, University of Leicester, March 2018.

‘John Coltrane and Utopia’, Research on the Rise Conference, Bishop Grosseteste University, September 2017.

‘Marcuse and Hip Hop’, The Frankfurt School and Music International Conference, University College Dublin, July 2014.

‘Coltrane: Free-Jazz and Utopia’, Paths to Utopia Symposium, Cardiff University, June 2013.

‘Dave Chappelle’s Block Party and Marcuse’, Philosophy and Film Society, Cardiff University, November 2012.

‘Ernst Bloch and Utopia’, Utopian Studies Society International Conference, Universitat Rovira i Virgili, Spain, July 2012.

‘Ernst Bloch: Abstract or Concrete Utopia?’, South Wales Philosophy Conference, Gregynog, Wales, March 2012.

‘Nietzsche, Music and Language’, South Wales Philosophy Conference, Gregynog, Wales, March 2011.