Research
Political Theory
Faculty
Faculty
- Scott Althaus
- Samantha Frost, Area Chair
- Melissa Orlie
- Steve Seitz
Faculty research on Political theory endeavors to explain, interpret, and evaluate political transformations. During periods of dramatic change especially, we need not only to describe the ordinary functioning of politics, but also to theorize the political itself, that is to say, the fundamental assumptions that structure our own and other societies. The philosophical and interdisciplinary perspectives of political theory help students gain a wider sense of the theoretical options available to them in the study of politics and a deeper understanding of the political implications of the choices they are inclined to make.
Political theory is an interpretive, critical, clarifying, and visionary enterprise. Its task is to identify the moral beliefs and ideals that animate social practice, to subject those beliefs and practices to critical scrutiny, to clarify and defend the standards and ideals implicit in the task of social and cultural criticism, and to advance distinctive and liberating visions of justice and the good life. Among the chief goals of work in political theory are therefore to promote students’ independence of mind and critical abilities, and to provide them with an opportunity to expand their imagination as a result of an encounter with unfamiliar visions of political life.
Whether your primary interest is political theory, national or global politics, the best work in the study of politics begins with conceptual insight. At Illinois, courses drawing upon classical, modern and contemporary political thought provide historical perspective and add theoretical breadth to our understanding of fundamental political concepts, from citizenship, democracy, welfare, and rights, to legitimacy, order, political economy, and war. Political theory seminars draw students from across campus and provide an ideal gateway to interdisciplinary scholarship. The University of Illinois is rich in interdisciplinary programs that foster interplay between competing methodologies and approaches in the interpretive human sciences, including the Illinois Program for Research in the Humanities and the Unit for Criticism and Interpretive Theory. In addition to opportunities to take graduate courses in cognate disciplines such as anthropology, comparative literature, communications, English, philosophy, and sociology, the University offers graduate certification in cultural studies and in the study of women, gender, and sexuality.
For students interested in concentrating in political theory, the political theorists at the University of Illinois share an approach that relies upon a substantial grounding in the history of political thought with the primary aim of contributing to our understanding of contemporary political and social life. Among the areas of concern shared by our faculty are identifying the critical conceptual and theoretical resources available to liberalism, moral psychology, the relationship between ethics and politics, materialist accounts of subjectivity, and theories of justice.