DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Program Area(s):  Political Theory

Dissertation Title:

Political Courage

Dissertation Committee:  Dietz, Mary G. (Chair); Farr, James; Balot, Ryan K.

Research Interests: Courage, ancient Greek political thought, textual hermeneutics, critical theory, critical antiquities, Hannah Arendt

Publications:

• McChesney, Sam. “Rehearsals of Manhood: Athenian Drama as Social Practice, by John J. Winkler [Review].” The European Legacy (Oct 2023) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/10848770.2023.2264648
• McChesney, Sam. “Hermeneutic courage. What Gadamer (and Arendt) can tell us about political thinking.” Labyrinth 24, no. 2 (2022): 44–68 https://www.axiapublishers.com/ojs/index.php/labyrinth/article/view/305
• McChesney, Sam. “The meaning of courage in Montaigne’s Essays.” The European Legacy 26, no. 2 (2021): 131–48 https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10848770.2020.1821473

Conference Presentations:

• “Standing against the hunters: Courage and cynegetic power in the Athenian suppliant plays,” Association for Political Theory Conference, November 2025.
• “Heard like a man: Lysistrata and the politics of listening,” American Political Science Association Conference, September 2025.
• “Heard like a man: Lysistrata and the politics of being heard,” Association for Political Theory Conference, November 2024.
• “Locating the other’s voice: Arendt, Lugones, and ‘world’-traveling,” School of Materialist Research, September 2024. “Locating the other’s voice: Arendt, Lugones, and ‘world’-traveling,” American Political Science Association Conference, September 2024.
• “Parrhēsia and the matter of listening in Foucault,” Midwest Political Science Association Conference, April 2024.
• “Parrhēsia and the matter of listening in Foucault,” Western Political Science Association Conference, March 2024.
• “Tearing the roof off: Political courage and the problem of stasis.” Western Political Science Conference, April 2023.
• “Discovering the other’s voice: Arendt and world-traveling.” Judgment, Pluralism, and Democracy Conference (HAC), March 2023.
• “Soldier, citizen, wanderer: Hannah Arendt and the paradigms of courage.” Midwest Political Science Association Conference, April 2021.
• “Montaigne’s concept of courage.” New Zealand Political Studies Association Conference, November 2017.