Alex Levant

I hold a Ph.D. in Social and Political Thought from York University

$74,620 SSHRC Insight Development Grant (IDG), Government of Canada, 2013-2015      

$48,138 Research Leave Award, York University, 2014-2015

$42,000 SSHRC Postdoctoral Fellowship, Government of Canada, 2011

• Levant, A. (2025). The AI Fetish: When Wooden Brains Begin to Think. Caderno Brasileiro de Ensino de Física, 42(2), 261–281.
• Levant, A., Murakami, K., & McSweeny, M. (Eds.). (2024). Activity theory: An introduction. Ibidem/Columbia University Press.
• Levant, A. (2024). A world of activity: A 'special reality' with a 'peculiar objectivity'. In Activity theory: An introduction. ibidem/Columbia University Press.
• Levant, A. (2024). Ilyenkov, activity theory, and Moscow in the 1980s: An interview with David Bakhurst. In Activity theory: An introduction. ibidem/Columbia University Press.
• Levant, A. (2024). Encountering cultural historical psychology and activity theory: An interview with Michael Cole. In Activity theory: An introduction. ibidem/Columbia University Press.
• Levant, A. (2023). [Review of The eye of the master: A social history of artificial intelligence, by M. Pasquinelli]. Media Theory.
• Levant, Alex (2018) "Two, three, many strands of activity theory!" in Educational Review, Vol. 70 (No. 1), pp.100-108.
• Levant, Alex (2017) "Smart Matter and the Thinking Body: Activity Theory and the Turn to Matter in Contemporary Philosophy," in Stasis, Vol. 5 (No. 2), pp. 248-264.
  
• Levant, Alex (2016). “The Ideal and the Dream World - Evald Ilyenkov and Walter Benjamin on the Signifiance of Material Objects," Vesa Oittinen ed. The Activity Approach in Soviet Philosophy. Leiden: Brill.
• Levant, Alex (2015). "Activity Theory Meets New Materialist Philosophy in Cathrine Hasse's An Anthropology of Learning," Mind, Culture and Activity.
• Levant, Alex (2014) and Vesa Oittinen, eds. Dialectics of the Ideal: Evald Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Marxism. Leiden: Bril.
• Levant, Alex (2012). "Rethinking Spontaneity Beyond Classical Marxism: Re-reading Luxemburg through Benjamin, Gramsci, and Thompson," in Critique, Vol. 40 (No. 3), pp. 341-361.
• Levant, Alex (2012). "E.V. Ilyenkov and Creative Soviet Theory: An Introduction to Dialectics of the Ideal," in Historical Materialism, Vol. 20 (No. 2), pp. 125-148.
• Levant, Alex (2012). "E.V. Ilyenkov, Dialektika Ideal'nogo [Dialectics of the Ideal]," Historical Materialism, Vol. 20 (No. 2), pp. 149-193.
• Levant, Alex (2011) "Soviet Pins: Souvenirs as Spoils in the Triumphal Procession," Studia Sociologia, thematic issue: Politics of memory, memory of politics. Communism outside the "anti-communist industry". Vol. 56, Issue 2, pp. 59-74.
• Levant, Alex (2011). "E.V. Ilyenkov, The Ideal in Human Activity (2009)," Marx and Philosophy Review of Books.
• Levant, Alex (2011) “From the History of Soviet Philosophy: Lukacs – Vygotsky – Ilyenkov (2008) by Sergey Mareev,” Historical Materialism, Vol. 19 (No. 3), pp. 176-189.

For a larger list of publications, please visit: https://wlu-ca.academia.edu/AlexLevant

2026/27:

• CS101 - Canadian Communication in Context (F/W)
• DH201 - Introduction to Generative AI (F)
• DH399 - AI Agents at Work & In Society (F)
• CS416 - Critical AI Studies (W)

2025/26:

• CS400 - Surveillance, Education, AI (F)
• CS101 - Canadian Communication in Context (F/W)
• CS416 - Critical AI Studies (W)
• CS416 - Platforms, Surveillance, Data (W)
• CS240 - Abstractive Media (S)

• Mind, Culture, and Activity: An International Journal
• The Laboratory for Comparative Human Cognition at UC San Diego
• Center for Activity Theory and Developmental Work Research
• Oxford Centre for Sociocultural and Activity Theory Research
• The Center for Human Activity Theory (CHAT)
• The International Society of Cultural-historical Activity Research (ISCAR)
• Evald Ilyenkov Archive
• Reading Ilyenkov
• Lev Vygotsky Archive
• A.N. Leont'ev Archive
• Classics in Activity Theory

2024 Keynote: Ilyenkov's understanding of dialectics and its relevance to CHAT. Finnish Educational Research Association. [Video].

2024 Ilyenkov and activity theory. International Friends of Ilyenkov. [Video].