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Political Theory Colloquium

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George Klosko, presenter at the Political Theory Colloquium
George Klosko, presenter at the Political Theory Colloquium

The Political Theory Colloquium brings together UVA faculty and graduate students to discuss new and in-progress work in political theory. Visitors are drawn from UVA’s faculty and beyond, and they reflect the wide range of work being done in the field. Regular participation in the colloquium is an important component of the subfield’s professionalization and graduate training, and should be a priority for all students. The colloquium also welcomes everyone who is interested in political theory and cognate fields. Papers are distributed in advance, and participants come prepared to discuss them.

Preliminary abstracts for each paper that is being presented are available below. Paper drafts will be circulated 7–10 days before the talk via e-mail. Participants of the colloquium are responsible making themselves familiar with the circulated draft prior to the beginning of the talk. Each speaker will introduce their work with a few brief remarks. Then, an assigned discussant (in most cases, graduate students in our Department) will raise a few preliminary talking points about the draft. After the speaker responds to those comments, anyone in attendance may raise their hand and ask questions about the paper.

Please contact Jean-Marc Pruit if you would like to be added to the email distribution list for papers, if you require any accommodations to participate in the speaker series, or if you have any questions, comments, or concerns.

Unless otherwise noted, the colloquium meets 2:00-3:30pm Eastern time.

Current Series

2023-2024

Jean-Marc Pruit

The Place of Culture and Consciousness in the Modern World-System: A Critical Encounter Between Cedric Robinson and Immanuel Wallerstein

Jean-Marc Pruit
PhD. Student, University of Virginia
2023-2024
Gibson S296
Kimberly Ann Harris

Du Bois's Theory of Epistemic Democracy

Kimberly Ann Harris
Assistant Professor, University of Virginia
2023-2024
Gibson Hall, S296

Elizabeth Cohen
Professor of Political Science and Senior Research Associate, Campbell Public Affairs Institute, Syracuse University
2023-2024
Gibson Hall, S296

Melvin Rogers
Associate Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Professor of Political Science, Brown University
2023-2024
TBD

Toni Morrison and the Political Imagination: A Conversation with Joseph R. Winters II and Lawrie Balfour

Joseph R. Winters II and Lawrie Balfour
Duke University and University of Virginia
2023-2024
Gibson Hall, 296
Kevin Elliott

Kevin Elliott
Lecturer, Yale University
2023-2024
Bond House
Alyssa Battistoni

Alyssa Battistoni
Assistant Professor, Barnard College
2023-2024
Gibson Hall, 296
Elisabeth Anker

Make Sovereignty Great Again: Power in the 21st Century

Elisabeth Anker
Professor, George Washington University
2023-2024
Gibson Hall, 296
Paul Weithman

Paul Weithman
Glynn Family Honors Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame
2023-2024
Gibson Hall, 296
Nasrin Olla

The Right to Opacity

Nasrin Olla
University of Virginia
2023-2024
Gibson Hall, 296
Aziz Rana

Aziz Rana
Professor and Provost’s Distinguished Fellow at Boston College Law School
2023-2024
Gibson Hall, 296

Current and Past Series

2021-2022

Sid Issar

Post Doc, University of Virginia

Chiara Cordelli

Associate Professor, University of Chicago

Jennifer Rubenstein

Associate Professor, University of Virginia

Deva Woodly

Associate Professor, The New School for Social Research

Matt Frierdich

Graduate Student, University of Virginia

Jared Loggins

Post Doc, Amherst College

Issac Reed

Professor of Sociology, UVa
The Figure of the King: Ernst Kantorowicz as a Response to Max Weber

Hana Nasser

Graduate Student, University of Virginia
Punishment and the Revocation of Citizenship

Catherine Lu

Professor, McGill University
Representing Humanity: the Role of Museums in Addressing Colonial Alienation

Andrew Dilts & Sarah Tyson

Loyola Marymount University, UC Denver
World-building on or with the Land? Learning Anticolonial critique from Beavers and their Blockades

Jonathan Havercroft

Associate Professor, University of Southampton
Responding to Riots: A Grounded Normativity Analysis of Recent UK Riot Discourse

2020-2021

Stephen White

Professor Emeritus, University of Virginia
Agonism, Democracy and the Moral Equality of Voice

Naveed Mansoori

Post-Doctoral Research Associate, University of Virginia
Revelations of the Impossible

Molly Scudder

Assistant Professor, Purdue University
Why Deliberation? Hint: It's About Democracy

Daniel Henry

PhD Candidate, University of Virginia
The Democratic Ambivalence of Invisible Citizens

Claire Timperley

Lecturer, Victoria University of Wellington
Subversive Pedagogies: Radical Possibility in the Academy.

Neil Roberts

Chair and Professor of Africana Studies, Williams College
Angela Y. Davis: Abolitionism, Democracy, Freedom

Jeffrey Green

Professor and Director of Andrea Mitchell Center for the Study of Democracy, University of Pennsylvania
Never Could Learn to Drink that Blood and Call it Wine: Bob Dylan as Prophet of the Postsecular

2018-2019

Daniel Henry

PhD. Candidate, University of Virginia
Disruptive Sounds of the Present-Past: "The Autobiography of an Ex-Colored Man"

Sharon Sliwinski

University of Western Ontario
Of Refuge and Reverie

Claire McKinney

Assistant Professor, College William & Mary
Conceiving Medicalized Citizenship: Abortion Politics and Gendered Political Belonging

Dan Luban

Junior Research Fellow, University College, Oxford
What Is Spontaneous Order?

Robert Gooding Williams

Professor, Columbia University
Propaganda, Beauty, and the Moral Psychology of White Supremacy: On the Political Aesthetics of W.E.B. Du Bois

Linda Zerilli

Professor, University of Chicago
Rethinking Critique as a Political Practice of Freedom with Arendt and Foucault

Andrew Gates

PhD Candidate, University of Virginia
Idle No More and the Settler-Colonial State

Lawrie Balfour

Professor, University of Virginia
Toni Morrison and the Liberatory Work of Words

2017-2018

Alexander Livingston

Assistant Professor, Cornell University
Beyond Birmingham: King, Disobedience, and the Powers of Non-Violence

Uday Mehta

Distinguished Professor of Political Science, The Graduate Center, CUNY
Thinking without History: Gandhi on Patience

Robert Vitalis

University of Pennsylvania
White World Order, Black Power Politics: Race in the Making of American International Relations

Ross Mittiga

PhD Candidate, University of Virginia
What's the Problem with Geo-engineering?

Jill Frank

Cornell University
Seeing through Lies: Plato’s Republic on How to Avert Tyranny

2023-2024

Paul Weithman

Glynn Family Honors Professor of Philosophy, University of Notre Dame

Nasrin Olla

University of Virginia
The Right to Opacity

Aziz Rana

Professor and Provost’s Distinguished Fellow at Boston College Law School

Jean-Marc Pruit

PhD. Student, University of Virginia
The Place of Culture and Consciousness in the Modern World-System: A Critical Encounter Between Cedric Robinson and Immanuel Wallerstein

Kimberly Ann Harris

Assistant Professor, University of Virginia
Du Bois's Theory of Epistemic Democracy

Elizabeth Cohen

Professor of Political Science and Senior Research Associate, Campbell Public Affairs Institute, Syracuse University

Melvin Rogers

Associate Director of the Center for Philosophy, Politics, and Economics, Professor of Political Science, Brown University

Joseph R. Winters II and Lawrie Balfour

Duke University and University of Virginia
Toni Morrison and the Political Imagination: A Conversation with Joseph R. Winters II and Lawrie Balfour

Kevin Elliott

Lecturer, Yale University

Alyssa Battistoni

Assistant Professor, Barnard College

Elisabeth Anker

Professor, George Washington University
Make Sovereignty Great Again: Power in the 21st Century

2022-2023

Kai Parker

Assistant Professor, University of Virginia
Bucket on the Mountaintop: The Civil Rights Movement, Gandhian Nonviolence, and the Sociology of Caste

Danielle Charette

Post-Doctoral Fellow
David Hume on Slavery

Vijay Phulwani

Visiting Professor, University of Virginia
How to Kill a Mortal God: Hobbes on the Theory and Practice of Rebellion

Erin Pineda

Professor, Smith College

Jess Flanigan

University of Richmond

Camila Vergara

University of Cambridge

James Lindley Wilson

University of Chicago

Lucas Pinheiro

Bard College

Amanuel Gebremichael

PhD Candidate, University of Virginia