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Danielle Charette James

Assistant Professor
School of Civic Life and Leadership

danielle.charette@unc.edu

Danielle Charette James is a political theorist with broad research interests in the Scottish Enlightenment and American intellectual history. Her latest work focuses on the interplay between modern political economy and the development of representative institutions in the political philosophy of David Hume. Her research has appeared in journals such as the American Political Science ReviewPolitical StudiesHistory of Political Thought, and History of European Ideas, as well as several edited volumes and popular outlets, including The Chronicle of Higher Education and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She is also the current book review editor for American Political Thought. Previously she taught in the Politics Department at the University of Virginia, where she served as associate director of the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy.  

Education

BA, Swarthmore College, 2014

PhD, University of Chicago, 2021

Notable Publications

“Reconstructing Oceana: Hume’s ‘Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth’,” in Hume’s ‘Essays’: A Critical Guide, eds. Felix Waldmann and Max Skjönsberg (Cambridge, forthcoming October 2024)

Hume and the Politics of Slavery,” Political Studies, 72, no. 3 (2024): 862-82

Petrarch’s Literary Empire,” Political Science Reviewer 47, no. 2 (2023), 57-85

The Political Prophet Harvard Didn’t Want” (with Will Selinger) Chronicle Review (Nov. 2022)

Hume’s ‘Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth’ and Scottish Political Thought of the 1790s,’” History of European Ideas 48, no. 1 (2022), 78-96

David Hume’s Balancing Act: The Political Discourses and the Sinews of War,” American Political Science Review 115, no. 1 (2020), 69-81

State of the Field: The History of Political Thought” (with Max Skjönsberg) History 105, no. 366 (2020), 470-83

Political Theory and American Literature: a Guide through the Archive,” Political Theory (online, 2020)