About

Dr. Stanley joined the department in 2006. She specializes in political theory and public law. Her broad research interests focus upon modern and contemporary political thought, and her current research focuses on the politics of race and gender in the United States and throughout the Americas. Her first book, The French Enlightenment and the Emergence of Modern Cynicism (Cambridge University Press, 2012), traces the relationship between cynicism and enlightenment in eighteenth-century French thought. Her second book, An Impossible Dream? Racial Integration in the United States (Oxford University Press, 2017) engages critically with conceptions of racial integration in contemporary political, philosophical, and legal discourse.  Her third book, Rethinking Abortion Rights After Dobbs: Privacy, Equality, and Reproductive Freedom (Palgrave Macmillan, 2025) theorizes a combined privacy-equality rationale for reproductive freedom after the end of constitutional abortion rights.  She has also written a series of articles juxtaposing Brazilian and U.S. American racial ideologies. She was awarded the Early Career Research Award in 2012, a Dunavant Professorship in 2014-2017, and a Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016. She teaches classes in modern and contemporary political thought, U.S. political thought, feminist political thought, race and politics, and constitutional law.

Research Interests

Modern and contemporary political thought; critical Enlightenment studies; critical race theory; African-American political thought; Latin American political thought; feminist political theory; the politics of reproduction

Teaching Interests/Fields

Modern and contemporary political thought; American political thought; Feminist political thought; Race and Politics in the United States; Constitutional Law, Race and Politics in the Americas

Education

Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley, 2006; M.A. University of California, Berkeley, 2000; B.A., summa cum laude in Government and Linguistics, Dartmouth College, 1999.

Publications

BOOKS:

• Rethinking Abortion Rights After Dobbs: Privacy, Equality, and Reproductive Freedom.  Palgrave Macmillan, 2025.

• An Impossible Dream? Racial Integration in the United States. Oxford University Press, 2017. 

• The French Enlightenment and the Emergence of Modern Cynicism. Cambridge University Press, 2012.

ARTICLES:

• “Weight Stigma, Citizenship, and Neoliberal Democracy,” Polity 55.1 (2023): 81-105.  With Kathryn Hicks.

• “The Persistence of Myth: Brazil’s Undead Racial Democracy,” Contemporary Political Theory 20 (2021): 749-770.

• “Unbridled Stallions and Mad Bulls: Masculinity, Race, and Sexuality in Hemispheric Perspective,” New Political Science 42.3 (2020): 378-396.

• "Alternative Temporalities: U.S. Post-Racialism and Brazilian Racial Democracy," Theory & Event, 21.3 (July 2018): 725-752.

• "Creolizing Gilberto Freyre," Contemporary Political Theory (critical exchange essay for Creolizing political theory in conversation; online first).

• "John Stuart Mill, Children's Liberty, and the Unraveling of Autonomy," Review of Politics 79.1 (January 2017): 49-72.

• "The Enduring Challenge of Racial Integration in the United States," Du Bois Review, 12.1 (May 2015): 5-24.

• "Toward a Reconciliation of Integration and Racial Solidarity," Contemporary Political Theory 13.1 (February 2014): 46-63.

• "Hermits and Cynics in the Enlightenment: Rousseau and Rameau's Nephew," Eighteenth Century Thought 4 (July 2009): 311-345.

• "Unraveling Natural Utopia: Diderot's Supplement to the Voyage of Bougainville," Political Theory 37.2 (April 2009): 266-289.

• "Retreat from Politics: The Cynic in Modern Times," Polity 39.3 (July 2007): 384-407.

Experience

Professor in Department of Political Science (Fall 2017-present); Associate Professor in Department of Political Science (Fall 2012-2017); Assistant Professor in Department of Political Science (Fall 2006-2012); Director of Graduate Studies for Department of Political Science (Fall 2014-present); Representative to Graduate Council for Department of Political Science (Fall 2014-present); Undergraduate Coordinator for Department of Political Science (Fall 2012-Spring 2014); Representative to Undergraduate Curriculum Committee for Department of Political Science (Fall 2012-Spring 2014); Faculty Senator for Department of Political Science (Fall 2008 – Spring 2012)