I teach classes on the history of political thought, democratic theory, populism, and the politics of emotions.

Populism

With Trump back on the political stage, populism remains a central, albeit highly contested, concept for political study. Its critics characterize populism as the paramount threat to democracy owing, largely, to the populist leaders who rally the credulous ‘people’ against a given ‘elite.’ Yet the normative implications of accounts like this too often remain under-examined in political theory. This course first invites students to reflect on what Ernesto Laclau called ‘the denigration of the masses’ via a concise exploration of thinkers like Friedrich Nietzsche, Gustave Le Bon, and Max Weber, who shared a view of ‘the masses’ as reactionary, emotional, and all too-readily manipulated by elites. After gaining a foundational understanding of political concepts such as ressentiment, suggestion, and Caesarism in this first part of the course, students evaluate the ways in which these concepts have been mobilized by contemporary thinkers including Wendy Brown, Chantal Mouffe, and Nadia Urbinati. Students in this course ultimately gain the critical tools needed to rethink the concept of populism itself.

Politics, Theory, Emotion

Emotions, particularly unhappy ones, have generally been considered harmful to ‘good’ politics. Many canonical political thinkers warn of a threat to order, reason, and hierarchy where feelings of discontent gain sway over the people. Yet from ancient Greece to revolutionary France and throughout the decolonizing world of the twentieth century, other thinkers have contested this reading and defended the democratic potential of these same emotions. Following some introductory readings on the politics of emotion, the bulk of the course will follow a two-session pattern. The first session of each week will approach canonical political thinkers through the lens of a particular emotion, such as Aristotle on anger, Hobbes on fear, and Nietzsche on ressentiment. In the following session, we will consider how the emotion in question has been complicated by contemporary writers including Audre Lorde, Sara Ahmed, and Wendy Brown. Through the study of emotion, students will critically engage core concepts – including freedom, justice, and equality – that continue to structure our political lives.