By Ellen Tsaprailis
James Patriquin is receiving his collaborative PhD in Political Economy this week after successfully defending a perfect thesis on cryptocurrency.
His PhD thesis entitled, The Technologies of Global Governance: Money, Finance, and Power in the Era of Digital Currency, engages the history, philosophy, and political economy of money, beginning with the emergence of commodity money in the 16th century through to cryptocurrency in the emergent universe of digital money.
“The critical component of my study demonstrates how currency practices become institutionalized as money, displacing the classical question of sovereignty with a problem of domination that is based in recurring dynamics of productive power,” says Patriquin. “There’s a lot more attention given to finance over money in political economy, and I always found that peculiar and it seemed like a huge opportunity waiting to be explored. Looking at money from this fresh new angle of digital practice, the rise of cryptocurrency is not something that people have waded too far into because it is technically complex.”
James Patriquin graduates with his PhD in Political Economy from Carleton University on June 18, 2024.
Department of Political Science Prof. Randall Germain supervised Patriquin’s research and was impressed from the very beginning when Patriquin started his master’s degree at Carleton.
“I’ve been teaching for almost 25 years and James had written the strongest graduate paper that was as close to being publishable as I have ever encountered in the first year of his master’s,” says Germain.
“He has been a fantastic student from the beginning, super committed and always engaged.”
Germain says that Patriquin’s PhD dissertation morphed from something that would have involved field work to more of a philosophical engagement that was brilliant.
“The quality of his work, the acuity of it…James is an intellectual’s intellectual,” praises Germain. “He is the most natural academic that I have ever had the pleasure of supervising.
“This is the first dissertation I have ever supervised that was accepted as is in the PhD defence with external and internal examiners. It was perfect.”
Germain has also had Patriquin take on the role of Teaching Assistant in his international economy course and had numerous students praise Patriquin’s teaching style to him.
“James really loves the subject and what the students got from him was off-the-charts engagement,” says Germain. “He’s got this ability to be an amazing scholar, to engage with work that is top quality and click with students.”
Back in his hometown of Halifax, Patriquin has good memories of his master’s and PhD experience.
“I would like to thank my many professors, peers, and students—and especially Prof. Germain—all of whom have made my time at Carleton such a rewarding experience. To learn alongside so many impressive and inspiring people has been a tremendous privilege, and in many ways, it has changed my life.”
Monday, June 17, 2024 in 360, Convocation, News
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