Public Political Theory
Global Justice Book Recommendations
I composed a list of some of my favorite books on global justice—and why I love them—for the book recommendation site Shepherd.com, which also features many other thematic book recommendation lists spanning multiple genres.
Open Access Article on the Democratic Costs of Framing Wartime Reporting as “Media Warfare”
In November 2023, I published “Not Just War by Other Means: Cross-Border Engagement as Political Struggle” in Constellations. This article discusses “hybrid” conflicts that contain elements of traditional kinetic warfare (e.g., the use of guns and bombs) and elements of non-kinetic political engagement (e.g., public advocacy, journalism, and media campaigns). Though some are tempted to understand even the non-kinetic elements of hybrid conflicts under the rubric of warfare (e.g., presenting public claims that a military operation has failed to sufficiently safeguard civilian life as “media warfare”), I argue this comes with serious democratic costs.
In particular, I argue framing non-kinetic political engagements this way, using what I call the “war paradigm,” can undermine the potential of transnational political spaces to become and be recognized as sites of genuinely democratic politics. Moreover, it can change the ways institutions (e.g., the media) function, so they become less conducive to catalyzing democratic politics. I propose these costs can be mitigated by adopting an alternate frame, the “political struggle paradigm,” which casts participants in non-kinetic cross-border politics not as enemies in a war, but as co-participants in a political struggle.
WPSA Political Theory Virtual Community Mini-Conference
In light of the labor dispute that took place in Los Angeles during APSA’s 2023 annual meeting, the WPSA Political Theory Virtual Community (which I co-chair with Yuna Blajer de la Garza, Glenn Mackin, and Jamie Mayerfeld) organized an online mini-conference to support our members who were unwilling or unable to present work at APSA.
The panels were open to all, regardless of WPSA membership. We hosted an Author Meets Critics session and two paper panels. You can find the full lineup on the conference flyer.
Virtual Sentiments Podcast Interview
I was interviewed for an April 2023 episode of the Virtual Sentiments podcast, hosted by Kristen Collins. We had a wide-ranging discussion, touching on global justice, AI ethics, collective agency, and the ethics of resistance.
“The Ethics of Resistance in Global Context” Speaker Series
I organized a speaker series on the ethics of resistance hosted by George Washington University’s Elliott School of International Affairs in Spring 2023. All events were either hybrid or virtual and registration was open to the public. The full lineup is below.
Feb. 14, 12:30-2 pm ET: Avia Pasternak, Violent Protest and Harm to Police (1957 E St. 602 & Zoom)
Feb. 28, 2-3:30 pm ET: Burke Hendrix, Political Rhetoric and American Indian Political Resistance in Jacksonian America (Zoom)
Mar. 23, 12:30-2 pm ET: Inés Valdez, Sovereignty and the Cloud: Technology, Territory, and Decisionism in U.S. Immigration Policing (Monroe 428 & Zoom)
Apr. 4, 2-3:30 pm ET: Karuna Mantena, Why and How Gandhi Civilized Disobedience (Zoom)
Open Access Article on Ethics and AI
In February 2022, I published a commentary piece in Big Data and Society on ethics and AI. Written for an interdisciplinary audience, it is part “explainer” on what political theorists and philosophers are talking about when we talk about “justice” and part illustration of some ways theories of justice can and should inform the use and design of AI technologies.
Podcast Interviews on Promoting Justice Across Borders
In February 2022, Jeffrey Church interviewed me about my book, Promoting Justice Across Borders: The Ethics of Reform Intervention, for The Political Theory Review podcast. And in June 2022, Lilly Goren interviewed me for the New Books in Political Science podcast. We discussed some of my book’s central arguments and how their uptake might transform global politics.
Elliott School Book Launch Talk on the Ethics of Intervention
In September 2021, I introduced my book, Promoting Justice Across Borders: The Ethics of Reform Intervention, in conversation with Alyssa Ayres, Dean of the Elliott School of International Affairs. The talk was open to the public and live-streamed, and the recording is now freely available online. Topics covered include the range of ways global political actors (both states and non-state actors) try to promote their own ideas of justice in foreign societies, and how they can do so without treating people in those societies intolerantly, disrespecting their legitimate political institutions, or undermining their collective self-determination. We also discussed the ethical questions raised by several actual interventions, such as Tostan’s human rights and democracy promotion work in western Africa, Latin American opposition to Arizona immigration law SB 1070, European opposition to the continued use of the death penalty in the US, IMF/World Bank structural adjustment programs, and a US trade deal with Oman conditioned on workers’ rights protections.
Interdisciplinary Panel on COVID-19 and Global Inequality
In May 2020, I served as a discussant (along with Prof. Remi Jedwab) on a panel in the Facing Inequality series hosted by The George Washington University’s Institute for International Economic Policy. The series aims to bring academics and non-academics of different disciplines together to discuss pressing issues of economic inequality. This panel was entitled “Will Covid-19 Raise Inequality? Evidence from Past Epidemics and Crises,” and featured Prakash Loungani and Jonathan D. Ostry of the IMF.
La Quinta High School Career Symposium
In February 2019, I gave a presentation at La Quinta High School’s annual career symposium about working in academic political theory. This was a great opportunity to introduce high school students to political theory (What is it? What kinds of questions do political theorists ask and research?), what it’s like to work in the field (What does a professional political theorist do, from day to day?), what kind of education it requires (Do you need a graduate degree? Does getting one cost money?), and what the long-term career prospects look like.
Princeton University Day of Action
I co-led a “teach-in” with Chloé Bakalar at Princeton’s 2017 Day of Action. The Day of Action was meant to bring Princetonians together (attendees included university affiliates, as well as community members not affiliated with the university) to discuss the political challenges facing us—in particular how to use our expertise and resources to promote diversity and equality—after the 2016 presidential election. Our session, entitled “Speech & Rhetoric in American Democracy: How Discourse Shapes Activism and Civic Life,” explored how features of public discourse (such as Trump’s “America First” rhetoric and the use of social media) affect the nature of national and transnational civil society.