Rafael Rodríguez Prieto is a political and legal theorist and professor (Profesor Titular) at Pablo de Olavide University of Seville and Distinguished Visiting Professor, University Technology Sydney. Researcher, RCC James B. Conant Research Group at Harvard University (Media & Democracy) and Vice-chair of Ideas & Political Praxis Lab, a think tank on radical democracy.
His research interests include critical legal theory, participatory politics, multiculturalism, anti-Semitism and the battles for control of the Internet. His current writing project at CCS concerns the crisis of representative politics, and whether this presages new waves of political mobilisation. His work also concentrates on the political economy of communication, emphasizing the role media plays in democratic and capitalist societies
Rafael studied at Yad Vashem, Center for Holocaust Studies (Israel), specializing in education and anti-Semitism. He holds a PhD, European Mention (Università di Bologna-Universiteit Utrecht and Pablo de Olavide University of Seville). The doctoral thesis was defended at Pablo de Olavide University of Seville. The president of the tribunal was Benny Pollack (Professor, University of Liverpool). The thesis dealt with radical participatory politics in London (Greater London Council 1981-1986) and Porto Alegre (The Participatory Budget). Rafael holds a Masters in Latin American Studies (UNIA) and BA and MA degrees (licenciado) in Anthropology, Law and Philosophy (University of Seville). Rafael was postdoctoral fellow at Harvard Law School and Kennedy School of Government.
Rafael has been researcher or visiting academic at Brandeis University (EE.UU.), Istituto Antonio Gramsci (Italia), Instituto Paulo Freire (Argentina), London School of Economics and Political Sciencice (UK), Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México (Mexico) and the John F. Kennedy School of Government (Harvard University, EEUU). He has made presentations at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT, EEUU), la Universidad Autónoma de Baja California (México) and Universidad Nacional de Rosario (Argentina).
His main books are Sovereign Citizens. Participation and direct democracy (Ciudadanos Soberanos. Participación y democracia directa, Almuzara, 2005), Building Democracy (Construyendo democracia, Aconcagua, 2005), Why I am a leftist? (¿Por qué soy de izquierdas?, con J. M. Seco, Almuzara, 2010), Digital Chaos and Common Media (Caos digital y medios comunes, con A. González, Dykinson, 2014), A critical analysis of the Internet (Un análisis crítico de Internet, Cátedra, 2015) and Videogames! The digital explosión that changes the world (¡Videojuegos!: la explosión digital que está cambiando el mundo, Héroes de Papel, 2015). He co-edited with José Cruz Holocaust and Crimes against Humanity (Holocausto y Crímenes contra la Humanidad, Anthropos, 2009) and In the borders of Anti-Semitism (En las fronteras del Antisemitismo, Hebraica, 2014). He published with Aleksandr Hadzelek (CCS core member) 'Movinets and the Future of Social Movements: How 15M and Occupy Revolutionised Political Protest', in: Essays 2014: Politics, Melbourne: Australian Scholarly Publishing, July 2014, pp. 33-49. His last paper in Spanish is about bell hooks, a postcolonial feminist philosopher (http://atheneadigital.net/article/view/v15-n2-rodriguez).