Ph.D. Candidate in Political Science, University of Chicago

I am currently finishing my dissertation in the Department of Political Science at the University of Chicago, and expect to receive my Ph.D. in early 2010.

I work in the field of Political Theory, with wide-ranging interests in contemporary democratic theory, the history of political thought, comparative constitutional law, and theoretically-informed political historiography. My current work also engages the German critical tradition running from Kant through Arendt, and one of my next projects will take up a series of questions at the intersection of political theory and international relations.

My dissertation, “Democratic Progress: Paradox, Struggle, and Constitutional Change,” has been generously supported by an Andrew W. Mellon Foundation/ACLS Dissertation Completion Fellowship, and by a Research Exchange Fellowship from Sciences Po in Paris, France.

My article, “The Struggle for Democracy: Paradox and History in Democratic Progress,” is now appearing in the current issue of Constellations, 16 no. 3 (September) 2009: 410-28.

Please browse the pages to the right for more materials. If you have any further questions, please do not hesitate to contact me at meck@uchicago.edu.