Kristy King

Kristy King, Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics

Email: kingkm@whitman.edu
Office: Maxey 132
Phone: (509) 527-4914
View my Vita  

Education:

PhD Rutgers University -New Brunswick, Political Science. October 2009
Dissertation Title: Sociability and Self Interest: Liberalism and the Legacy of Natural Law
Advisors: Stephen Eric Bronner, Dennis Bathory, Andrew Murphy, Timothy Kaufman-Osborn
B.A. Political Science and Comparative Literature, University of Massachusetts - Amherst, Magna Cum Laude.

Fall 2011

Gens 145: Encounters Ancient & Modern
Pol 402: Theories of Rights
Pol 490: Senior Seminar

Spring 2012

Gens 146: Encounters Ancient & Modern
Pol 121: Modern Political Thought

Recent Courses:

• Ancient & Medieval Political Thought
• Modern Political Thought
• American Political Thought
• Democratic Theory
• Theories of Rights
• Marx & Marxist Theory
• Conservative Political Thought
• Politics Senior Seminar
• Encounters Ancient & Modern (General Studies)

Research

My research focuses on the history of natural law and liberalism in the early modern period with an eye to broader concerns about other-regardingness within and beyond the nation-state. I am currently working on a manuscript which traces the concepts of sociability and self-interest in the constitution of natural rights and social contract theories in the 17th century. I am especially interested in the transformation of early modern natural law theory into modern rights discourse and the subsequent development of liberal political thought. In particular, I focus on the work of Hugo Grotius, Thomas Hobbes, Samuel Pufendorf and John Locke. 

My current curriculum vita can be viewed here: CV