Department of Political Science
University of Alabama
Box 870213
Tuscaloosa, Alabama 35487
Ph. D. from the Department of Political Science, University of California, San Diego, 1999, Political Theory, 2nd Field in American Politics.
Dissertation Committee: Tracy B. Strong (Chair), Steven Shapin, Alan Houston, , Donald Wayne, Gerald Doppelt, Arthur Lupia
Bachelor of Arts (with honors) in Political Science, The University of Chicago, 1988.
Fall 2006 – Present: Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Alabama. Teaching Graduate Seminars: Modern Political Thought, American Political Thought. Undergraduate courses: Modern Political Thought, American Political Thought. Recent service/ participation: College T& P, Professor in the Alabama in Sweden Program (2007-08, Co-Director, 2009); teaching in the University of Alabama Law School’s Ethiopia Program, designing and implementing the joint JD/Ph.D. program between the UA Law School and the Department of Political Science. Graduate Committee, 2000-2011; Executive Committee 2011-; "Does Local Democracy Work?" Internship.
Fall 2000-Spring 2006: Assistant Professor, University of Alabama, Department of Political Science and the Graduate Faculty. Department and University Service: University Library Committee, 2001-2002, 2002-2003; Hiring committee American Politics 2001; Graduate Committee.
Spring 2000: Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Department of Political Science.
Winter 1998-Fall 1999: Post-Doctoral Fellow, Dartmouth College, Department of Government.
Current Research:
Friendly Sovereignty: A book on neglected aspects of sovereignty centered not in the lawless violence most often associated with sovereign power today, but with lawless favor, benefits, pardons, and the extension of the sovereign's immunity to others within the community. Covering both historical and contemporary instances, this work will discuss sources ranging from Seneca to contemporary American administrations. Along the way, the work will focus on the moments in which friendly sovereignty has been the object of controversy, including the defenders of the Stuart reign during the Restoration and those who protested class privilege in the era of the French Revolution. A counterpoint to Schmitt and Agamben, this work will expand our concept of sovereignty and broader our understanding of the practices of lawless power.
Recent Fellowships, Awards,
2012: Folger Institute (Folger Shakespeare Library) Grant.
2003: University of Alabama, Research Advisory Committee Grant.
2002, Summer: Exchange Fellow, British Academy, London.
2001: University of Alabama, Research Advisory Committee Grant.
2000: Summer: Fellow, The Huntington Library.
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"Hobbes, Humanism, and the Mathematics of Absolutism" Association for Political Theory, Panel 3D: Hobbes, Hume, and the Passions. University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana, 14 October 2011 .
"Oakeshott and Hobbes: History and Myth, presented at Michael Oakeshott’s Political Philosophy in Comparative Perspective, California State University, San Marcos, Thursday, October 6, 2011
"Hobbes, Oakeshott, and 17th Century Conceptions of Science" research colloquium, Department of Political Science, University of California, Riverside, October 5, 2011.
"Friendly Sovereignty: Schmitt, Crisis, and the Neglected Exception" to be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Sept 2-5, 2010, Panel 2-10 (co-sponsor 1-27): Challenging Sovereignty
“Sovereignty and the Court Masque” presented to the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Thursday, March 19th, 2009, Panel 12:46:Politics and Visions: The Uses of Aesthetics and Art.
“Sovereign Aspirations: The Restoration Tempest and Hobbesian Politics,” presented to the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Sunday, August 31, 2008, Boston, MA, Panel 1-23 Early Modern Political Knowledge: Doubts, Disputes, and Death.
“Peace Then: Anti-Metaphysics, Violence and Davenant’s Hobbesian revision of Macbeth,” presented to the Annual Meeting of the Western Political Science Association, Friday, March 9, 2007,Las Vegas, NV, Panel 1-29: Politics and the exclusive spectacle: democracy, absolutism, fascism
“Out, Out, Here’s a Spot: Hobbes, Politics, and Davenant’s Restoration Revision of Shakespeare’s Macbeth” presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, August 31, 2006, Philadelphia, PA., Normative Political Theory, Panel 3-17: Shakespeare and Hobbes as Architects of Modernity
“Leviathan and the Court Masque” presented at the Department of Political Science, Willamette University, April 20, 2006.
“Leviathan and the Court Masque: Permissible Rhetoric”, presented at Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, September 1, 2005, Washington, DC, Foundations of Political Science, Panel 2-5: Hobbes on Hobbes: New Reflexive Readings.
“The Dangerous Satisfactions of Self-Formation: Knowing Oneself and Others in The History of Sexuality” presented to the annual meeting of the Western Political Science Association, March 17, 2005, Oakland, CA, Panel 13-04: “Foucault Reconsidered: An Uneasy Heritor of the Enlightenment?”