Dr. Kam Shapiro
Associate Professor/Director of Graduate Studies
Politics and Government
Office
SCH Schroeder Hall 408B
Office Hours
Tuesdays & Wednesdays 10:00 a.m. - 11:00 p.m. & by appointment
Office Phone
Email
- About
- Education
- Awards & Honors
- Research
Biography
Kam Shapiro is Associate Professor of Politics and Government at Illinois State University. His work focuses on somatic and aesthetic dimensions of sovereignty and citizenship.
Current Courses
265.001American Political Theory
161.002Introduction To Political Theory
Teaching Interests & Areas
Specific research and teaching interests include Political Philosophy, Democratic Theory, Radical Democracy, Biopolitics, American Political Thought, Political Economy, Public Culture, and Media Politics.
Research Interests & Areas
Research interests include Democratic Theory, Radical Democracy, Violence, Biopolitics, American Political Thought, Walter Benjamin, Carl Schmitt, William Wordsworth, Mark Twain, Vilfredo Pareto.
Ph D Political Theory
Johns Hopkins University
Baltimore, MD
BA Political Science
Reed College
Portland, OR
Student Impact Award
Illinois State University
2024
Book Review
Kam Shapiro, 'Reviving Habit: Félix Ravaisson's Practical Metaphysics,' Theory & Event, Vol. 12, Issue 4, 2009
Kam Shapiro, 'Leo Strauss and Emmanuel Levinas: Philosophy and the Politics of Revelation,' in Teaching Philosophy Volume 31, Issue 3, September 2008
Kam Shapiro, 'Liberal Democracy and the Social Acceleration of Time,' Perspectives on Politics Vol.2, Issue 3, June 2005. pp.360-362
Book, Authored
Carl Schmitt and the Intensification of Politics. Rowman and Littlefield, 2008
Sovereign Nations, Carnal State, Cornel University Press, 2003
Book, Chapter
Kam Shapiro. 'Biopolitical Reflections.' Cultural Transformations of the Public Sphere. Fischer, Bernd and Mergenthaler, May (eds.). New York. Peter Lang, 2015.
Kam Shapiro, 'The Myth of the Multitude,' Empire's New Clothes (New York: Routledge, 2004)
Encyclopedia
'Carl Schmitt' in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought (2014)
'Violence,' in the Blackwell Encyclopedia of Political Thought (2014)
Journal Article
Shapiro, K. Residues and Derivations: Vilfredo Pareto's Affective Politics. Polity 55.4 (2023): 745-767.
Shapiro, K. Violence and politeness: From Walter Benjamin's 'Critique' to the streets of Chicago. Constellations (2020)
Shapiro, K. 'Assembling Counter-Majorities: Mark Twain's Democratic Mugwumpery'. Polity 48.3 (2016): 308-331.
'Confounding Solidarity: Singular, Universal and Particular in the Life Projects of Tehching Hsieh' in Angelaki V.18, No.4, March 2014
'Critical Feelings and Pleasurable Associations,' in Theory & Event V.13, No.4, 2010
Presentations
Ecological Philosophy and Social Differences. American Political Science Association (APSA) Annual Meeting. APSA. (2024)
What Differences Do Trees Make?. Western Political Science Association (WPSA) Annual Conference. Western Political Science Association. (2023)
Geographies of Turbulence: Racialized Gun Violence in Chicago, Real and Imagined. Western Political Science Association (WPSA) Annual Conference. WPSA. (2022)
Destabilizing Racial Democracy: Coloring Outside the Lines in the Detective Fiction of Chester Himes. APSA (American Political Science Association) annual meeting. APSA (American Political Science Association). (2020)
Sensible Redistributions: Racial Justice and Aesthetic Activism in Chicago. American Political Science Association (APSA). (2019)
Contested Derivations: Affective Politics from Pareto to Trump. Western Political Science Association (WPSA). (2018)
‘Posthumanist Entanglements: Language, Trees, and Politics’. World Humanities Forum. UNESCO. (2018)
'White Democracy and its Discontents'. American Political Science Association (APSA). APSA. (2018)
“American Carnage”: Figuring Race and Violence in Chicago. 'The Changing Contours of American Identity'. American Studies Association of Korea (ASAK). (2017)
‘CeaseFire: Techniques of Nonviolence in Chicago’. Western Political Science Association (WPSA). (2017)