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Arthur F. Thurnau Associate Professor

• Affiliation(s)

  • Arthur F. Thurnau Associate Professor of Political Science

• Fields of Study

  • Political Thought (17th Century to Present)
  • Political Action and Agency
  • Liberal and Democratic Theory

• About

  Mika LaVaque-Manty was trained as a philosopher, but has been a political scientist for more than a decade. He is interested in political thought from the seventeenth century to today, particularly in questions regarding political action and agency, and in their explanation. His main historical research interests are in eighteenth-century continental liberals, especially Immanuel Kant. In contemporary  political theory, he focuses on liberal and democratic theory. His current projects focus on autonomy and agency in educational institutions and practices.

• Education

  • University of Michigan, Ph.D. (Philosophy)
  • University of Southern California, B.A. (Philosophy)

• Awards

  • Arthur F. Thurnau Professorship, University of Michigan (2011)
  • University of Michigan Press Book Award (2009)
  • University Undergraduate Teaching Award, University of Michigan (2009)

• Grants

  • Teaching with Technology Initiative Faculty Grant, University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching (2010)
  • American Philosophical Society Sabbatical Fellowship (2008-2009)
  • Ford Faculty Fellows, University of Michigan (2006–2007)

• Presentations

  • Instructor Perspective on Implementing Metacognitive Interventions in an Upper-Level Political Theory Course (Writing Research Across Boundaries, 2011)
  • Some Reflections on What It Means to be a Non-normative Theorist (APSA Annual Meeting, 2009)
  • Kant’s Children (Department of Germanic Studies, University of Michigan, 2009)

• Selected Publications:

• Books

  • (2009) The Playing Fields of Eton
  • (2002) Arguments and Fists

• Articles

  • (2011) Our Kant, Political Theory