Sean Gray
Assistant Professor
SN 2034
Department of Political Science, Science Building
Memorial University of Newfoundland
St. John's, NL A1B 3X9 Canada
Telephone: (709) 864-8185
Email: swdgray[at]mun[dot]ca
Academics
BA Hons (Queen’s University); PhD (University of British Columbia)
Areas for Student Research and Supervision
- Democratic theory
- Civic engagement
- Ethics and public policy
- Law and social justice
- History of political thought
Bio
Sean Gray is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada. His research and teaching interests lie at the intersection of democratic theory and public policy, with a special focus on deliberation, civic engagement, and political ethics. Dr. Gray received his BA from Queen’s University and his PhD from the University of British Columbia. Prior to joining Memorial in 2022, Dr. Gray was a faculty member in the Committee on Degrees in Social Studies, Harvard University, with additional teaching appointments at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. He completed his postdoctoral work at Harvard’s Ash Center for Democratic Governance and Innovation and has held fellowships at the Centre for Advanced Studies Justitia Amplificata, Goethe University Frankfurt, and the Edmond J. Safra Center for Ethics, where he studied as a Fulbright Scholar. Outside of his academic work, Dr. Gray has served as a consultant for several organizations looking to implement participatory governance models to improve public service delivery, including the City of Vancouver and the Canadian Institutes of Health Research.
Selected Publications
Journal Articles
“Towards a Democratic Theory of Silence,” Online First, Political Studies (September 2021).
“Silence and Democratic Institutional Design,” Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy, Vol. 24, No. 3 (2021), pp. 330-345.
“Mapping Silent Citizenship: How Democratic Theory Hears Citizens’ Silence and Why it Matters," Citizenship Studies, Vol. 19, No. 5 (2015), pp. 474-491.
Books
(co-edited with Justin Gest) Silent Citizenship: The Politics of Marginality in Unequal Democracies. New York: Routledge (2017).
Reviews and Exchanges
“Interpreting Silence: A Note of Caution,” part of “Critical Exchange: The Nature of Silence and Its Democratic Possibilities,” Contemporary Political Theory, Vol. 18, No. 3 (2019), pp. 431-435.
“Globalization, Private Governance, and the Insufficiency of Stakeholder Citizenship,” part of “Critical Exchange: Democratic Inclusion Beyond the State?” Contemporary Political Theory, Vol. 18, No. 1 (2019), pp. 88-114.