Personal Statement

I specialize in the history of political thought, especially Renaissance and early modern political philosophy. My core research interests lie in the early modern theory of sovereignty and its critics, Renaissance absolutism, and political theology. My dissertation project, Absolute Democracy, reconstructs absolutist conceptions of democracy in early modern Europe and their revival in Weimar political thought. I also have a longstanding interest in Aristotle and the Aristotelian commentary tradition, in Niccolò Machiavelli, and in Jean Bodin. 

My research has been published or is forthcoming in Political TheoryHistory of Political ThoughtThe Review of Politics, and The Cambridge History of Democracy, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages and Early Modern Period

Before beginning my graduate studies, I received my B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science from the University of Chicago (2018), then taught English as a second language through Fulbright Austria's USTA Program (2018-2020). Beginning in October 2024, I'll hold a one-year predoctoral fellowship from the Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst (DAAD) at Ruhr-Universität Bochum. 

Dissertation Committee Chair
Kinch Hoekstra
Primary Subfield
Political Theory & Philosophy
Secondary Subfield
Comparative Politics
Articles

"Absolute Democracy: Bodin and Hobbes" (co-authored with Kinch Hoekstra). In The Cambridge History of Democracy, Vol. 2: The Middle Ages and Early Modern Period, edited by Sophie Smith and Markku Peltonen. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (forthcoming). 

"Machiavelli Against Sovereignty: Emergency Powers and the Decemvirate," Political Theory 52, no. 5 (2024): 697-725. 

"Aristotle on Political Friendship and Equality," History of Political Thought 44, no. 4 (2023): 655-75. 

"Machiavelli's Principio: Political Renewal and Innovation in the Discourses on Livy," The Review of Politics 82, no. 4 (2020): 525-47.