Jennifer G. Pitts
jpitts@uchicago.edu

773-702-8868

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Curriculum Vitae



Faculty Appointments

2007-         Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago,

2004-07     Assistant Professor of Politics, Princeton University,

2000-04     Assistant Professor of Political Science, Yale University

 

Education

2000          Ph.D., Political Science, Harvard University (1994-2000)

                  "Nation, rights, and progress: the emergence of liberal imperialism, 1780-1850"

                  Committee: Richard Tuck (chair), Stanley Hoffmann, Pratap B. Mehta

1992          B.A., summa cum laude, English, Yale University 

 

Publications

Books

2005          A Turn to Empire: the rise of imperial liberalism in Britain and France (Princeton)

                  Co-winner of the 2006 Best First Book award, Foundations of Political Theory section, American Political Science Association; A Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2005

 

                  French translation: Naissance de la bonne conscience coloniale (Paris: Éditions de l'Atelier, 2008). Chinese translation in preparation.

 

2001          Editor and translator, Alexis de Tocqueville: Writings on empire and slavery (Johns Hopkins).

 

Articles and Essays

In press     "Political Theory and Empire," Annual Review of Political Science

In press     "Hobson's Imperialism: A Reconsideration," Raritan

In press     " 'Great and Distant Crimes': Bentham on Empire and International Law," Bentham: Rethinking the Tradition, ed. Stephen Engelmann, Yale UP.

In press     "Liberalism and Colonialism in Early Nineteenth-Century France," in Empire and Modern Political Thought, ed. Sankar Muthu, Cambridge

In press     "Empire, progress, and the 'savage mind'"; in Colonialism and its Legacies, Jacob Levy and Iris Marion Young, eds. Rowman and Littlefield

2009          "Staat und colonialismus bei Bentham und Mill," Vom Nutzen des Staates: Das Staatsverstnädnis des klassischen Utilitarismus Hume - Bentham - Mill, ed. Olaf Asbach. Baden-Baden: Nomos-Verlagsgesellschaft.

2009          "Constant's Thought on Empire and Slavery," in The Cambridge Companion to Benjamin Constant, ed. Helena Rosenblatt, Cambridge, pp.  115-45

2009          "Liberalism and empire in a nineteenth-century Algerian mirror," Modern Intellectual History 6.2, pp. 287-313

2007          "Boundaries of Victorian International Law," in Victorian Visions of Global Order, Duncan Bell, ed. Cambridge, pp. 67-88

2007          "Liberalism, Democracy, and Empire: Tocqueville on Algeria"; in Tocqueville Today?, Raf Geenens and Annelien De Dijn, eds., Palgrave Macmillan

2005          "Jeremy Bentham: Legislator of the World?"; in Utilitarianism and Empire, Bart Schultz and Georgios Varouxakis, eds., Lexington Books, 57-91.

2005          "L'Empire britannique, un modèle pour l'Algérie française: Nation et civilisation chez Tocqueville et J.S. Mill," in L'esclavage, la colonisation, et après... Etats-Unis, France, Royaume-Uni, ed. Stéphane Dufoix, Paris, Presses Universitaires de France, 55-81.

2004          "Edmund Burke's peculiar cosmopolitanism," Diacritica (Portugal) 18.2, 173-204.

2003          "Legislator of the world? A rereading of Bentham on India," Political Theory 31.2, 200-234.

2000          "Liberalism and Empire: Tocqueville on Algeria," Journal of Political Philosophy 8.3, 295-318.

 

Book reviews

In press     Patrick Weil, How to be French: Nationality in the Making since 1789, Duke 2008

In press     Frederick Whelan, Enlightenment Political Thought and Non-Western Societies: Sultans and Savages, Routledge 2009, in Perspectives on Politics

In press     Aurelian Craiutu and Jeremy Jennings eds., Tocqueville on America after 1840, Cambridge 2008, on H-France

2005          Jeanne Morefield, Covenants without Swords, Princeton 2004, in Perspectives on Politics

2005          Martin Staum, Labeling People: French Scholars on Society, Race, and Empire 1815-1848, McGill-Queen's 2003, in Journal of Modern History

2005          Georgios Varouxakis, Victorian Political Thought on France and the French Palgrave 2002, in Nations and Nationalism

2003          Cheryl Welch, De Tocqueville (Oxford UP, 2001), in French Politics, Culture, and Society

2002          Bruce Baum, Rereading Power and Freedom in J.S. Mill(U of Toronto Press, 2000), in Political Theory 30.2

 

Fellowships and Awards

2006          Co-winner of the Best First Book award, Foundations of Political Theory, APSA

2006-07     Institute for Advanced Study, Member in Social Science,

2003-04     John K. Castle Scholar of Ethics in Political Science, Yale University

2003-04     Junior Faculty Fellowship, Yale University, (competitive fellowship for year's leave)

2003-04     Visiting research associate, Center for Human Values, Princeton University,

2000          Best paper, Foundations of Political Theory, APSA (for "Legislator of the World? A rereading of Bentham on India")

2000          Chase Dissertation Prize, Department of Government, Harvard University

1998-99     Charlotte W. Newcombe Doctoral Dissertation Fellowship, 1998-1999

1998          Mellon Dissertation Writing Fellowship, summer

1994-98     Jacob K. Javits Fellowship,

1994-95     John Montgomery Prize Fellow in Government, Harvard University,

1992          John Hersey Prize, the top journalism prize in Yale College     

 

Invited Lectures

2009          "Democracy and Domination: Empire, Slavery, and Democratic Corruption in Tocqueville's Thought," University of Richmond Tocqueville Symposium

2009          Keynote lecture, Biennial conference of Australian Association of European Historians, Adelaide

2009          "Europe, Empire, and the Boundaries of the International," University of Sydney

2008          "The Rise of Imperial Liberalism," Keynote lecture, "Imperium and Liberal Values," Free University of Bolzano, Italy. Also Midwest Faculty Seminar, University of Chicago (31 October 2008).

2008          "Les penseurs libéraux et la question impériale." Harper Lecture, University of Chicago Center in Paris; additional talks in Dijon, Grenoble, Poitiers, Université de Nanterre, Sorbonne

2005          "Empire and Democratic Anxiety in Victorian Britain," University of Chicago Nicholson Center for British Studies

Invited Talks

2009          Stanford University, Political theory workshop

2009          Yale University, Seminar on Transitions to Modernity

2009          Columbia University, Seminar on Modern Europe

2008          New York University, Remarque Institute seminar

2007          University of California, San Diego political theory workshop

2006          French Studies Seminar, National Humanities Center, North Carolina

2006          University of London

2005          Brown University, Political Theory Colloquium

2004          Columbia University, Seminar in Social and Political Thought

2003          Harvard University, Political Theory Colloquium

Conference Papers

2009          "Sovereignty and intervention in Wolff and Vattel," presented at "The Ethics of Military Intervention" Columbia University, September 2009.

 

2007          "Legal Pluralism and Burke's Law of Nations," presented at "Edmund Burke and the Business of Affection," Oxford University. Also presented at APSA annual meeting, Chicago.

2007          "Nationality and Empire in Nineteenth-Century French Liberalism," Presented at "From Early-Modern to Modern Empire and from Empire to Nation-State, UCLA and Clark Memorial Library. Also presented at Oxford-Princeton workshop on international relations, Princeton.

2006          " 'Great and Distant Crimes': Bentham on Empire and International Law," presented at "Lineages of Empire," British Academy, London.

2006          "Le libéralisme et la suprématie européenne," Conference on C.A. Bayly's Empire in the Modern World, organized by Le Monde Diplomatique, UNESCO, Paris.

2006          "Barbarism and civilization, Islam, and international law: Nineteenth-century debates," presented at "What Is "Civilization," United Nations Alliance of Civilizations initiative, New York

2006          "Ancient Empires, Modern Empires: Rome and imperialism in 19th-century British thought"; presented at "Imperial Republics? Ancient Rome and the USA," Princeton University.

2005          'Liberalism, Democracy, and Empire: Tocqueville on Algeria'; presented at "Destined to democracy? Tocqueville 1805-2005," UCSIA, Antwerp.

2004          "Boundaries of Victorian International Law." American Political Science Association (APSA) annual meeting, Chicago, September 2-5, 2004. Cambridge University conference on Victorian Visions of Global Order.

2004          "Progress and Empire: Enlightened histories, 'backwardness', and colonial rule." Conference for the Study of Political Thought annual meeting, Chicago, April 2004.

2003          Respondent to lecture by Frederick Whelan. Conference on Edmund Burke, The Edmund Burke Society of America, Washington, DC, November 21-22, 2003.

2003          "This map of misgovernment: Edmund Burke's cosmopolitanism" (Towards Cosmopolitan Citizenship? Arrabida, Portugal, October 12-13, 2003).

2003          "'The stronger ties of humanity': Humanitarian intervention in the eighteenth century" (APSA, Philadelphia; and International Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies (ISECS) meeting, Los Angeles)

 

2002          "Empire and social criticism: Burke, Mill, and the abuse of colonial power" (APSA)

2002          "Legislator of the world? A rereading of Bentham on Empire." (University of Chicago political theory workshop, May 13, 2002; APSA meeting, Washington, D.C., 2000)

 

2002          "Empire, rights, and democratic exclusion in Tocqueville," (University of California at Los Angeles, Center for 17th and 18th century studies History, Theory, and the Subject of Rights, ca. 1640–1848)

 

2001          "Tocqueville, J.S. Mill, and the British Empire as a model for French Algeria." ('The legacies of colonization and decolonization on the integration of migrants in Europe and the Americas', Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, Paris)

 

2000          "Progress and pluralism in the age of empire" (Yale Political Theory Workshop; also presented at APSA, Washington, D.C.)

 

2000          "From conjectural history to the march of civilization: the transformation of 'progress' in the age of empire" (International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Bergen, Norway)

 

1999          "Liberalism and Empire: Tocqueville on Algeria" (APSA)

 

1998          "Nation and empire: Constant, Tocqueville and the liberal volte-face'. Presented at "Europe and Empire," Harvard University

 

Discussant and Roundtable Participant

Participant, "New Directions in Eighteenth-Century Studies," Lewis Walpole Library, October 2009

"Tocqueville on America after 1840," APSA meeting, Toronto 2009

"Tocqueville and the Frontiers of Democracy," University of Chicago, 2/5/09

J.G.A. Pocock's "Historiography and Political Thought," Nicholson Center for British Studies, University of Chicago conference, 12/05/08

"Tocqueville and the Intellectual Origins of French Liberalism," APSA meeting, Boston 2008

"Pluralism Before Pluralism," APSA meeting, Boston 2008

"Law in 18th Century European International Political Thought," Commemorative Conference on Alberico Gentili, New York University Law School, 3/13-15/08

"Bentham in the World," Centre for History and Economics, Harvard University, 6/5/06

"Genealogies of Empire," APSA meeting, Washington, DC, 2005

"Radical reinterpretations of Tocqueville," APSA meeting, Philadelphia 2003

"Sites of Comparison: Empire and Encounter in Modern Political Thought," APSA meeting, Boston, 2002

 "Tocqueville on Democracy," APSA meeting, San Francisco, 2001

 

Conference Organizer

"Europe and Empire: encounters, transformations, legacies," graduate student conference, Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies, Harvard University (October 1998)

 

Professional Affiliations and Participation

2009-         Member, Editorial Board, Ideas in Context Series, Cambridge University Press

2009-         Member, Conseil scientifique, Critique internationale, Presses de Sciences Po

2008-09     Chair of Walter Lippincott Award Committee, APSA

2007-         Member of the executive committee, Conference for the Study of Political Thought

2007-         Editorial Advisory Board, Studies in Burke and his Time

2006-07     Member of David Easton Award Committee, APSA, Foundations of Political Theory

2006          Advisory Committee, John Stuart Mill Bicentennial Conference, 1806-2006, University College London

 

Member: American Political Science Association, Conference for the Study of Political Thought, American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy

 

Referee: Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Princeton University Press, American Political Science Review, Political Theory, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of British Studies, Modern Intellectual History, Review of Politics

 

At the University of Chicago:

2007-         Nicholson Center for British Studies

2008-         Human Rights Program

2008-         Women's Leadership Council

2008-         College Council

2008-         Senior Fellow, Society of Fellows