Projects
Parent Citizens (EU Grant)
While most European wide civic education initiatives focus on school children, the focus of this study is participation of immigrant parents at schools. In many nation states throughout Europe, parents have the right and expectation to participate at schools through legally codified parent councils, yet parent councils remain little understood as a vehicle for productive civic integration. In sum, parent councils at public schools are uniquely situated as civic educational institutions and remain nearly absent from citizenship education initiatives in Europe.
Ward Democracy (Book Project)
In my current book manuscript entitled “Ward Democracy: Plural Citizens and Their Schools,” I first build upon Arendt’s historical examination of political wards to advance a theory of geographically bound council democracy. The book advances a theory of plural responsibility in which public decision making authority vitiates identity differences in the process of shared governance. I ethnographically bring to light the manifold perspectives of minimally educated citizens, women participants, immigrants, and rural citizens in order to illustrate their actualization as political actors.
Democratic Integration: Migrants Who Practice (not learn) Citizenship (Book Project)
Over the past twenty years, European nations have created “Integration Contracts” in which migrants are meant to gain a civic education through standardized civics and language tests. States often engage in what has been named “repressive liberalism” in which they take illiberal measures to ensure civic education. In contrast, I advance a theory of education as democratic practice in which migrants gain experiential education through activity in local schools, municipalities, theaters, police stations, etc…
Democracy in the Wild (Co-Edited Volume)
Democracy in the Wild is a co-edited volume on ordinary citizen competence with Mary F. (Molly) Scudder. In this volume, an international group of political theorists carefully observe citizens acting as rulers in everyday political life. In our account, the notion of citizen rulers contrasts sharply with the predominant paradigms of citizen voters (elitism) or citizen discussants (deliberation) who are understood to contribute periodically or marginally to remote representative processes. Rather, our conception of the citizen is one who is already ruling through various acts of political willfulness.
Pragmatic Citizenship (Dissertation)
In an 18-month ethnographic study of 20 School Community Councils and over 100 parent citizens in Utah, I develop a pragmatic theory of civic development: improved citizenship born of participatory experiences. I argue that the institutions best designed for civic capacity building are those with distributed authority structures that enhance citizen participation by bestowing responsibility upon citizens and giving citizens decision-making power.
