Tamara Metz
Professor of Political Science and Humanities
Email
| 503-777-7299
| Eliot 425
On sabbatical 2024-25.
Contemporary political theory, history of political thought, political philosophy.
Ph.D. in Government, Harvard University, 2004. Reed College 2006–.
My research and teaching interests include contemporary political theory, especially liberal, democratic, feminist, Marxist and queer, and the history of Western political thought. My current research focuses on gender and care in the neoliberal social formation. In Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State and the Case for Their Divorce (Princeton University Press, 2010), I explored the history of liberal treatment of the relationship between marriage and the state and argued that marriage should be disestablished. I co-edited Justice, Politics, and the Family (Paradigm Press, 2014) and have published work in various edited volumes and journals including Just Marriage, Contemporary Political Theory, Politics & Gender, Social Theory and Practice, Journal of Politics, The Encyclopedia of Political Thought, and The Nation. In addition to my work in political theory, I have a special interest in the pedagogy of thesis advising.
Courses
- Political Science 387 - American Constitutional Democracy
- Political Science 393 - Liberalism and Its Critics - Syllabus
- Political Science 394 - Sex, Gender, and Political Theory - Syllabus
- Political Science 396 - Neoliberalism and its Critics - Syllabus
- Political Science 398 - What is Political Freedom? - Syllabus
- Humanities 110 - Ancient Greece and Rome - Hum110 website
Selected Publications
- Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State and the Case for Their Divorce. Princeton: Princeton University Press (2010).
- Justice, Politics, and the Family, edited volume with Daniel Engster, Boulder, CO: Paradigm Press (July 2014).
- “Family Matters,” with Nancy J. Hirschmann, “A Different Freedom,” Boston Review, Cambridge, MA (December 2023)
- “Marriage and the Neoliberal Politics of Care,” Stating the Family: New Directions in American Politics, Carol Nackenoff and Julie Novkov, eds., Lawrence: University of Kansas Press (2020).
- “Review of Judith Butler, The Force of Nonviolence,” American Political Thought, (Spring 2020).
- “Review of Clare Chambers, Against Marriage,” Political Theory, (May 2018).