Political Theory Workshop

Political Theory Workshop

The OSU Political Theory Workshop is a forum for scholars from Ohio State and other universities to present and discuss their research in progress. 

The Political Theory Workshop is pluralist in its approach and interdisciplinary in its orientation. We are open to a wide range of contributions, including historical, analytic, interpretive, and critical theory, as well as theoretically engaged empirical research. We welcome interested faculty and graduate students from all fields and all departments.

Unless otherwise noted, all workshop meetings will take place on Mondays, from 12-1:20 pm, and will be held in the Spencer Room (Derby 2130). Copies of the papers will circulate a week in advance. Typically, participants read the papers before coming to the workshop, so that most of the session consists of discussion rather than a formal presentation. 

Questions? Please contact Associate Professor, and PT coordinator, Ben McKean (mckean.41@osu.edu).

Fall 2024 Schedule

Aug 26, 2024, Eric MacGilvray, “The Appeal to Heaven: Locke, Jephtha, and the Right of Conquest.”  Discussant: Dominic Pfister, Political Science, Ohio State.

Sept 9, 2024, Michael Schefczyk, Philosophy, Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, "'Is the honorable Imperial Chancellor aware of the fact …?' Political Apologies for German Complicity in the Armenian Genocide."  Discussant: Taís Souza Carareto, Political Science, Ohio State.

Sept 23, 2024, Book Launch event for new translation of Karl Marx’s Capital, Volume 1 by Paul Reitter, Professor of Germanic Languages and Literatures, Ohio State, with William Clare Roberts, Political Science, McGill University and Amna Akbar, Moritz College of Law.

Oct 21, 2024, Joseph Bell, Political Science, Ohio State, “The Constituting Environment of Whiteness: Subjectivity, Anxiety, and Recognition in Ontological Security.”  Discussant, John Brooks, Assistant Professor, Comparative Studies. 

Abstract: Ontological Security Studies (OSS) typically explores the behavior arising from social entities that seek security in a feeling of continuity. Yet, this paper argues OSS insufficiently addresses the institutional factors that constitute subjects and their feelings of discontinuity or existential anxiety that arise from this constitution. I attempt to resolve this inconsistency by positioning existential anxiety as specific to the subject and the environment they are constituted in. To make this argument I connect Laing’s original articulation of ontological security and Fanon’s disalienation as historically related responses to estrangement of individuals from social reality that offer different solutions. By connecting these responses, I arrive at a theory of environmental subjectivity such that things constituted within social environments, such as subjectivity and anxiety, are contingent. This theory highlights the existence of subjects that are not served in projects of security and argues security substantiates and naturalizes the very environment that leads to insecurity. Instead of ‘natural’, this paper positions social environments as constructed institutions that can therefore be reconstructed. I developed this theory through Fanon’s model of the black subject. The black subject, institutionally governed by the fiction of white supremacy, is denied reciprocal recognition but offered security through whiteness. I show that, even as the black subject is estranged from recognition in society, both their experience of the world and the existential anxiety that arises from that experience are a product of an environment of whiteness. As both the black subject and the white environment were constructed there is a possibility for radical politics to unfold through institutions towards subjects that are never structurally anxious about their existence.

Nov 18, 2024, José Perez, Political Science, Ohio State, “The Intersectionality of Vulnerability in Brazil: Individuals, Families, and the Search for Belonging.”

Spring 2024 Schedule

Apr 1, 2024, Naomi Scheinerman, “Deliberative Mini-Publics and Social Movements as a Democratic Ecosystem: The Case of GMOs and Climate Change.”

Apr 15, 2024, Kathryn Joyce, Civil Discourse Program Director, OSU Center for Ethics and Human Values, “Characterizing Relationships Among Equals."

Apr 22, 2024, Dana Howard, OSU Center for Bioethics and Philosophy, “Abortion Care Research Ethics Post-Dobbs.” 

Fall 2023 Schedule

Sept 11, 2023, Pim Trommelen, Political Science, Ohio State, "The People Feel Powerless: Oligarchic Fatigue as an Explanation for the Lack of Class Conflict."  Discussant: Bear Brown, Political Science, Ohio State.

Oct 16, 2023, Lavender McKittrick-Sweitzer, Philosophy, Butler University, "Moderate Structural Exploitation and the Exploitation of Care."

Oct 30, 2023, Andrew Fiala, Philosophy, Fresno State University, "War Abolition and the Whole War Critique."

Nov 13, 2023, Martin Armstrong, Political Science, Ohio State, "Alienation in Military Labor."

Dec 4, 2023, Bear Brown, Political Science, Ohio State, "Theories of Anti-Elitism in the US."

Spring 2023 Schedule

Jan 27, 2023, Alison McQueen, Political Science, Stanford University, "Machiavelli on Popular Rule." Discussant: Dominic Pfister, Political Science, Ohio State.

Feb 27, 2023, Sahar Heydari Fard, Philosophy, Ohio State. Discussant: Euchan Jang Political Science, Ohio State.

Apr 3, 2023, Dominic Pfister, Political Science, Ohio State, and Adrian Calmettes, Political Science, Ohio State, "Rescuing Neoliberalism: the World Economic Forum in Global Governance." Discussant: Jared Rabinowitz, Political Science, Ohio State.

Apr 17, 2023, Dana Howard, Bioethics and Philosophy, Ohio State.

Fall 2022 Schedule

Sept 26, 2022, Charisse Burden-Stelly, African American Studies, Wayne State University, “We Charge Genocide as Mutual Comradeship Praxis.” Discussant: Cameron Macaskill, Political Science, Ohio State.

Oct 10, 2022, Benjamin McKean, Political Science, Ohio State, “How to Blow Up Climate Despair.” Discussant: Joel Wainwright, Geography, Ohio State.

Oct 24, 2022, Eric MacGilvray, Political Science, Ohio State, "The Serpent and the Whale: Leviathan in Billy Budd." Discussant: Angus Fletcher, English, Ohio State.

Nov 21, 2022, Désirée Weber, Political Science, College of Wooster, “The Shape of Political Judgment: Past, Present and Future in Black Liberationist Rhetoric.” Discussant: Martin Armstrong, Political Science, Ohio State.

Spring 2022 Schedule

Feb 7, 2022, Amy Shuster, Philosophy, Ohio State, "'The Finest Rule of Life We Have:' On Ambiguity in the US Declaration." Discussant: Bear Brown Political Science, Ohio State.

Mar 7, 2022, Eric Wisniewski, Political Science, Ohio State, "The Digital Revolution and the New Boundary Problem in Democratic Deliberation."

Mar 28, 2022, Martin Armstrong, Political Science, Ohio State, "You Paid Me To: The Labor and Affective Politics of Military Violence." Discussant: Jared Rabinowitz, Political Science, Ohio State.

Apr 11, 2022, Dominic Pfister, Political Science, Ohio State, "Rethinking Hobbesian Security: Violence, Disease, and the Foundations of International Relations." Discussant: Donghye Kim, Political Science, Ohio State.

Fall 2021 Schedule

Oct 11, 2021, Donghye Kim (Political Science, Ohio State), “Care in Mill’s Liberal Utilitarianism.” Discussant: Piers Turner (Philosophy, Ohio State).

Oct 25, 2021, Grant Sharratt (Political Science, Ohio State), “Intergenerational Freedom and Republican (Re-) Foundings." Discussant: Euchan Jang (Political Science, Ohio State).

Nov 8, 2021, Book Manuscript Workshop: Inés Valdez’s, "Democracy and Empire: Labor, Migration, and the Reproduction of Western Capitalism." Co-sponsored by the Center for Practical Ethics and Philosophy (Ludwig Maximilian University) and the Department of Political Science (Ohio State University), with participation by Duncan Bell (University of Cambridge), Ajay Chaudhary (Brooklyn Institute for Social Research), Michael Dawson (University of Chicago), Jane Gordon (University of Connecticut), and Shatema Threadcraft (Vanderbilt University).

Nov 22, 2021, Inés Valdez (Political Science, Ohio State), “Which Politics of Immigration? A Critical Theory Appraisal of the Political Behavior Literature.” Discussant: Dominic Pfister (Political Science, Ohio State).

Spring 2021 Schedule

Jan 25, 2021, Alison McCarthy, UCLA Health Ethics Center, and Dana Howard, Philosophy, Ohio State, “Supported Decision-Making: Non-Domination Rather Than Mental Prosthesis.” Discussant: Dominic Pfister, Political Science, Ohio State.

Feb 8, 2021, Winston Thompson, Educational Studies, Ohio State, and John Tillson, Education Studies, Liverpool Hope University, “Punishment, Pupils, and School Rules.”

Feb 22, 2021, Tom Chen, Political Science, Ohio State, “Indeterminacy and Intentions.”

Mar 22, 2021, Amber Knight, Political Science and Public Administration, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, “Care by and for Mothers of Children with Disabilities.” 

Mar 29, 2021, co-sponsored by the Ohio State Office of Diversity and Inclusion, Michael Dawson, Political Science, University of Chicago, "Conflicting Claims: Race, Capitalism & the Current Crisis. Conundrums for Those Who Envisage a Socialist Future."

Apr 5, 2021, Donghye Kim, Political Science, Ohio State, “Situating Care in Contemporary and Historical Liberalism.”

Fall 2020 Schedule

Sept 21, 2020, Emma Saunders-Hastings, Political Science, Ohio State, "Send Back the Bloodstained Money: Frederick Douglass on Tainted Gifts." Discussant: Inés Valdez, Political Science, Ohio State.

Oct 5, 2020, Michael Neblo, Political Science, Ohio State, and Jeremy Wallace, Government, Cornell, "The Covid Crisis, Legitimation Crisis, and the Future of Technocracy." Discussant: Dominic Pfister, Political Science, Ohio State.

Oct 19, 2020, Grant Sharratt, Political Science, Ohio State, "Vulgar Republicanism."

Oct 20, 2020, Benjamin L. McKean, Political Science, Ohio State, author of "Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limit of Freedom." (Oxford University Press, 2020), in conversation with Elisabeth Ellis, Philosophy and Politics, University of Otago. 

Nov 2, 2020, Eric MacGilvray, Political Science, Ohio State, "Markets and the Birth of Freedom." Discussant: Jon Kingzette, Political Science, Ohio State.

Nov 16, 2020, Lavender McKittrick-Sweitzer, Philosophy, Ohio State, "Identifying Responsibility for Structural Care Exploitation." Discussant: Emily Ann Israelson, Political Science, Ohio State.

Spring 2020 Schedule

Feb 3, 2020, Inés Valdez, Political Science, Ohio State, Mat Coleman, Geography, Ohio State, and Amna Akbar, Law, Ohio State, “The ‘Empirical Ends’ of Police Violence: Law, Practice, and a Grounded, Embodied State of Exception.” Discussant: Heather Pool, Political Science, Denison University.

Feb 17, 2020, Joan Tronto, Professor Emerita, Department of Political Science, University of Minnesota, “Neopopulism as a Discourse of Protectionist Care: A Democratic Caring Perspective.” Discussant: Donghye Kim, Political Science, Ohio State.

Mar 2, 2020, Hye Yun Kang, Post Doctoral Fellow, Mershon Center, Ohio State, “Performance as a Method: Understanding ‘Unintended Consequences’ in Military Actions.” Discussant: Martin Armstrong, Political Science, Ohio State.

Mar 16, 2020, Amber Knight, Department of Political Science and Public Administration, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, "Prenatal Genetic Screening, Epistemic Justice, and Reproductive Autonomy." Work co-authored with Dr. Joshua Miller, UNCC. Discussant: Dana Howard, Bioethics and Philosophy, Ohio State.

Mar 30, 2020, Jon Kingzette, Political Science, Ohio State, “Which Norms? Distinguishing Democratic Norms in Theory and Practice.” Discussant: Emma Saunders-Hastings, Political Science, Ohio State.

Fall 2019 Schedule

Sept 9, 2019, Lavender McKittrick-Sweitzer (Philosophy, Ohio State), “The Conditions of Care Exploitation.” Discussant: Donghye Kim (Political Science, Ohio State).

Sept 23, 2019, Benjamin McKean (Political Science, Ohio State), “Populism and Global Justice: A Sibling Rivalry?” Discussant: Shannon Winnubst (Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, Ohio State).

Oct 7, 2019, Michael Goodhart (Political Science, University of Pittsburgh), “How Should Political Theory Get Real?” Discussant: Dave Whitsett (Political Science, Ohio State).

Oct 21, 2019, Elisabeth Anker (American Studies & Political Science, The George Washington University), “Ugly Freedoms: Practices of Liberty in American Politics.” Discussant: Tom Chen (Political Science, Ohio State).

Nov 4, 2019, Donghye Kim (Political Science, Ohio State), “Liberalism with Care.” Discussant: Grant Sharratt (Political Science, Ohio State).

Nov 18, 2019, Lyn Tjon Soei Len (Law, Ohio State), “Hermeneutical Injustice and Contract.” Discussant: Lavender McKittrick-Sweitzer (Philosophy, Ohio State).

Dec 2, 2019, Grant Sharratt (Political Science, Ohio State), “The People as Praxis: Toward a Theory of Republican Populism.” Discussant: Benjamin McKean (Political Science, Ohio State).

Spring 2019 Schedule

Jan 14, 2019, Eric MacGilvray, Political Science, Ohio State, "Free Actions and Free Persons." Discussant: Matthew Landauer, Political Science, University of Chicago.

Jan 28, 2019, Dave Whitsett, Political Science, Ohio State, “Fake News According to Trump.” Discussant: Jeff Trimble, Communications & Political Science, Ohio State.

Feb 4, 2019, Shmulik Nili, Political Science, Northwestern University, “Dictatorship, Coerced Accomplices, and the Helplessness of Morality." Discussant: Linnea Turco, Political Science, Ohio State.

Feb 18, 2019, Brandon Zaffini, Political Science, Ohio State, “Megacorporations as Model Neoliberal Persons.” Discussant:  Emma Saunders-Hastings, Political Science, Ohio State.

Mar 4, 2019, Dana Howard, Bioethics & Philosophy, Ohio State, “Civil Disobedience, Not Conscientious Objection, in Medicine.” Discussant: Aly Massof, Philosophy, Ohio State.

Mar 25, 2019, Emma Saunders-Hastings, Political Science, Ohio State, “The Egalitarian Case Against Welfare Paternalism.” Discussant: Avery White Political Science, Ohio State.

Apr 8, 2019, Winston Thompson, Education & Human Ecology, Ohio State, “On Varieties of Educational Justice.” Discussant: Grant Sharratt, Political Science, Ohio State.

Apr 22, 2019, Candice Delmas, Philosophy & Political Science, Northeastern University, "From Resistance to Dissent and Back: De-Constitutionalizing Civil Disobedience." Discussant: Don Hubin, Philosophy, Ohio State.

Spring 2017 Schedule

Jan 27, 2017, Michael MacKenzie, Assistant Professor of Political Science, University of Pittsburgh, "Ourselves in Time: Intergenerational Humility, Deliberation and Democracy." Discussant: Dave Whitsett, Political Science, OSU.

Feb 20, 2017, Reed Kurtz, Political Science, OSU, “Towards an Ecological Critique of the Political.” Discussant: Corey Katz, Center for Ethics & Human Values, OSU.

Mar 6, 2017, Benjamin McKean, Political Science, OSU, Manuscript Workshop: "Disposed to Justice." Discussants: Joshua Cohen, Distinguished Senior Fellow, UC Berkeley, Sharon Krause, Professor and Chair of Political Science, Brown, and Stephen K. White, James Hart Professor of Politics, University of Virginia.

Apr 24, 2017, Heather Pool, Political Science, Denison University, “Sovereignty, Legitimate Authority, and White Domination: South Carolina and the Confederate Battle Flag.”

May 26, 2017, Inés Valdez, Political Science, OSU, Manuscript Workshop: "Kant, Du Bois, and Cosmopolitanism in a New Color." Discussants: Lawrie Balfour, University of Virginia, Juliet Hooker, University of Texas at Austin, and Adom Getachew, University of Chicago.

Fall 2016 Schedule

Sept 22-23, 2016, Fall COMPAS Conference, "When Do Inequalities Matter?"

Sept 26, 2016, Andrew Sabl, Visiting Professor of Ethics, Politics, and Economics, Yale University, Political Theory Workshop: "Actually Existing Liberalism." 

Oct 10, 2016, Corey Katz, Sustainability Ethics Post-Doctoral Researcher, OSU, Political Theory Workshop: "The Paris Climate Decision: A Major Step in Protecting Human Rights."

Oct 20-22, 2016, 14th Annual Meeting of the Association for Political Theory.

Oct 24, 2016, A panel discussion featuring Elizabeth Markovits, Associate Professor of Politics, Mount Holyoke; Inés Valdez, Political Science, OSU; and Benjamin McKean, Political Science, OSU, moderated by Eric MacGilvray, Associate Professor of Political Science, OSU, "Political Theory and the Election: Populism, Rhetoric, and Resentment."

Jan 25, 2016, Hélène Landemore, Political Science, Yale University, “Rousseau's Mistake: The Myth of Direct Democracy.” Discussant: Avery White, Political Science, OSU.

Feb 1, 2016, Leif Wenar, Chair of Philosophy & Law, King’s College London, "Blood Oil: Tyranny, Resources, and the Rules That Run the World."

Feb 12, 2016, Melissa Lane, Class of 1943 Professor of Politics, Princeton University, "The Democratic Ethics of Communicating Climate Change: Insights from Aristotle."

Mar 7, 2016, Lawrie Balfour, Politics, University of Virginia, "Repairing the Carceral Polity."

Apr 11, 2016, Bogdan Popa, Politics, Oberlin College, "Rethinking Safe Spaces: Mill's 'Frightful Brutality of the Poorest Class' and the Shaming of the Domestic Abusers." Discussant: Piers Turner, Philosophy, OSU.

Apr 18, 2016, Farah Godrej, Political Science, UC Riverside, "The Politics of Yoga: The Neoliberal Yogi and the Question of Yogic 'Authenticity'." Discussant: Ted Sammons, Comparative Studies, OSU.

Sept 10, 2015, Charles W. Mills, Philosophy, Northwestern University, “Racial Equality.”

Oct 19, 2015, Elisabeth Ellis, Political Science, University of Otago, "Democratic Justice and Environmental Policy." Discussant: Loren Goldman, Political Science, Ohio University.

Nov 2, 2015, Avery White, Political Science, OSU, "Overconsumption as an Adaptive Preference." Discussant: Brian McLean, Philosophy, OSU.

Nov 16, 2015, Ishan Ashutosh, Geography, Indiana University, "Regimenting Migrants: Post-colonial Nationalism and the South Asian Diaspora." Discussant: Martin Joseph Ponce, English, OSU.

Spring 2015 Schedule

Jan 26, 2015, David Watkins, University of Dayton Political Science, "The Right to Exclude Immigrants and its Limits." Discussant: Theresa Delgadillo, OSU Comparative Studies.

Mar 9, 2015, Michael Neblo, Associate Professor of Political Science, OSU, “Thrasymachus's Blush: Emotion, Deliberation, and the Politics of Motivated Reasoning.” Discussant: Heather Pool, Denison University Political Science.

Apr 6, 2015, Kailash Srinivasan, OSU Political Science,"Totality and Empirical Social Psychology: A Critique of Research into Democratic Legitimation." Disscusant: Nicholas Kiersey, Ohio University Political Science.

Apr 20, 2015, Arash Abizadeh, McGill University Political Science, "The Legitimacy of Border Coercion: Freedom of Association, Territorial Dominion, and Self-Defense." Discussant: Amna Akar, OSU Law School.

Fall 2014 Schedule

Sept 29, 2014, Greg Anderson, OSU, "Retrieving the Lost Worlds of the Past: The Case for an Ontological Turn." Discussant: Joel Wainwright, OSU.

Oct 10, 2014, Philip Pettit, Princeton University, “Justice, Social and Political.” 

Oct 27, 2014, Cristina Beltrán, New York University, "Aestheticizing Action: Latino Republicans and the Art of Diversity.”

Nov 6, 2014, Juliet Hooker, University of Texas at Austin, “DuBois’ Afro-Futurism and Vasconcelos’ Indología.”

Nov 17, 2014, Vidar Thorsteinsson, OSU, Discussant: Marcus Green, Otterbein University.

2010-2011 Schedule

Mar 4, 2011, Piers Norris Turner, Department of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, "Authority, Progress, and the 'Assumption of Infallibility' in On Liberty."

May 6, 2011, David McIvor, The Kettering Foundation / Duke University, "'A Splintering and Shattering Activity': Race, Reconciliation, and the Work of Mourning."

2009-2010 Schedule

Apr 30, 2010,  Inés Valdez, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, "Beyond the Borders of the Public Sphere: Unearthing the Politics of Immigration."

Feb 5, 2010,  Eric Grynaviski, The Ohio State University, "The Morality of the Bloodstained Spear: Declaring the Just War."

Feb 19, 2010, Mark Warren, University of British Columbia, "Two Trust-Based Uses of Minipublics in Democratic Systems."

Nov 20, 2009, Alexander Wendt, The Ohio State University, "Preface to a Quantum Social Science."

Nov 13, 2009, William Scheuerman, Indiana University, "What Cosmopolitans Can Learn From Classical Realists."

Nov 6, 2009, Eric MacGilvray, The Ohio State University, "The Invention of Market Freedom."

2008-2009 Schedule

Feb 6, 2009, Archon Fung, Harvard University, “The Principle of Affected Interests and Inclusion in Democratic Governance.”

May, 5, 2009, Joshua Cohen, Stanford University, "Philosophy, Social Science, Global Poverty."

2007-2008 Schedule

May, 23, 2008, S. M. Amadae, OSU Political Science, “Wittgenstein on Counting in Political Economy.”

May 9, 2008, Rafi Youatt, OSU Political Science, "Rethinking Anthropocentric Politics."

Apr, 25, 2008, Eric MacGilvray, OSU Political Science, "The Rise and Fall of Republican Freedom."

Simone Chambers, University of Toronto, "Rhetoric and the Public Sphere: Has deliberative democracy abandoned mass democracy?"

James Johnson, University of Rochester, "The Arithmetic of Compassion: Rethinking the Politics of Photography."

Dennis Thompson, Harvard University, "Who Should Govern?"

Highlights from 2006-2007

Seyla Benhabib, Yale University, "Twilight of Sovereignty or the Emergence of Cosmopolitan Norms: Rethinking Citizenship in Hard Times."

Mary Dietz, University of Minnesota, "Between Polis and Empire: Aristotle's Politic."

Robert Gooding-Williams, University of Chicago, "Between the Masses and the Folk: Du Bois as Political Philosophe."

Jeremy Waldron, New York University, "Safety and Security."

Highlights from 2005-2006

Victoria Kahn, University of California, Berkeley, "Nationalism and Internationalism in Milton, Grotius, and Hobbes."

Bryan Garsten, Yale University, "Saving Persuasion: A Defense of Rhetoric and Judgment."

David Luban, Georgetown University, "The Commander-in-Chief Power and Civilian Control of the Military."

Mattias Iser, Johann Wolfgang Goethe-Universität, "Paradoxes of (Un)just War Theory."

Highlights from 2004-2005

Iris Marion Young, University of Chicago, "Responsibility and Global Labor Justice."

Donald Moon, Wesleyan University, "Justice as Social Cooperation."

Jane Mansbridge, Harvard University, "The Case for Less Accountability."