University of California, Irvine
Department of Political Science
Political Theory
Political Theory faculty are Daniel R. Brunstetter, David Easton, Claire Jean Kim, Cecelia Lynch, Anthony McGann, Kristen Monroe, Kevin Olson, Mark P. Petracca, Shawn Rosenberg, William Schonfeld, and Keith Topper.
The political theory faculty are a diverse group who share an interest in the most fundamental questions of political thought. Strongly committed to intellectual and theoretical diversity, the program aims to bridge divisions between the various paradigms and traditions of political theory, between the history of political thought and contemporary political theory, and between theoretical and empirical forms of inquiry. The program has particular strengths in contemporary European political theory, democratic theory, critical theory and poststructuralism, multiculturalism, diversity, and identity, colonialism and imperialism, and the philosophical and methodological foundations of political inquiry. This group maintains close connections with the Critical Theory Institute, the Critical Theory Emphasis, the UC Humanities Research Institute, the Interdisciplinary Center for the Scientific Study of Ethics and Morality, and the Center in Law, Society, and Culture.|
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Daniel R. Brunstetter studies political theory with a focus on early modern thought. His current research interests include early modern political thought, the just war, and French political thought in the Enlightenment. |
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The Department is fortunate to have David Easton on its faculty, who teaches graduate courses on empirical political theory and the foundations of modern political science.
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Claire Jean Kim’s research and teaching focus on the politics of race, multiculturalism, social movements, environmental and animal ethics, and intersectionality. |
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Cecelia Lynch's scholarship in international relations engages the topic of international ethics in political philosophy. |
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Anthony McGann works on questions of democratic theory, justice, and the logic of collective decision-making. |
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Kristen Monroe is well known for The Heart of Altruism, a Pulitzer Prize nominee. She is also the author of The Hand of Compassion: Portraits of Moral Choice during the Holocaust (Princeton, 2004), a book that expands on this work to explain what drives moral action. |
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Kevin Olson is a political theorist whose research focuses on popular sovereignty, citizenship, cultural politics, the politics of diversity, and contemporary European political theory. He is the author of Reflexive Democracy (MIT Press, 2006). |
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Shawn Rosenberg's research and teaching fields include epistemology and contemporary social theory with a particular focus on democratic governance and social justice. He teaches classes on deliberative democracy and contemporary social and political theory. |
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William Schonfeld, a comparativist, teaches courses on democratic theory and political sociology at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, for which he has won distinguished teaching awards. |
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Keith Topper is a political theorist who specializes in modern and contemporary political theory, democratic theory, philosophy of the social sciences, history of political thought, and politics and language. He is the author of The Disorder of Political Inquiry (Harvard, 2005). |
