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Benjamin McKean

Benjamin McKean

Benjamin McKean

Associate Professor of Political Science

mckean.41@osu.edu

Benjamin McKean is a political theorist whose research concerns global justice, populism, and the relationship between theory and practice. His work has been published in the American Political Science Review, Political Theory, and the Journal of Politics. His book Disorienting Neoliberalism (Oxford University Press) argues that people subject to unjust institutions and practices should be disposed to solidarity with the others who are also subject to them, even when those relations cross state borders.

Disorienting Liberalism cover

He received his PhD from the Princeton University Department of Politics in 2010 and received a Harper-Schmidt fellowship in the Society of Fellows in the Liberal Arts at the University of Chicago from 2010-2013. 

Peer-Reviewed Publications
"Toward an Inclusive Populism? On the Role of Race and Difference in Laclau’s Politics" Political Theory Volume 44 Issue 6 (2016): 797-820
http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0090591716647771

"What Makes a Utopia Inconvenient? On the Advantages and Disadvantages of a Realist Orientation to Politics" American Political Science Review Volume 110, Issue 4 (November 2016): 876-888
https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/american-political-science-review/article/div-classtitlewhat-makes-a-utopia-inconvenient-on-the-advantages-and-disadvantages-of-a-realist-orientation-to-politicsdiv/642E576C82E942C8218916B1F2B2CB67

"Ideal Theory After Auschwitz? The Practical Uses and Ideological Buses of Political Theory as Reconciliation" Journal of Politics (forthcoming) http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/692589

Writing for a Popular Audience
"Is it possible to have populism without racism?" The Monkey Cage
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-cage/wp/2016/05/18/is-it-possible-to-have-populism-without-racism/?utm_term=.0777ac75c10a

“’Blood Money’ and Mass Membership” on understanding the NRA as a social movement in Jacobin Magazine Februrary 20th, 2018 https://jacobinmag.com/2018/02/national-rifle-association-members-florida-school-shooting

 “A Venezuela of the North?” in the blog of Democracy: A Journal of Ideas October 19th, 2017; https://democracyjournal.org/arguments/a-venezuela-of-the-west/