Rate My Professor Michael James

Michael James is Professor of Political Science and Associate Dean of Faculty for the Division of Social Sciences at Bucknell University. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University, which he earned in 1996 after completing his dissertation titled "Dialogical Pluralism: Cultural Diversity, Normative Universality, and Critical Intercultural Dialogue," and an A.B. from Georgetown University. James joined the Bucknell Department of Political Science faculty in 1999 and was awarded tenure in 2005. Throughout his career at Bucknell, he has taken on significant administrative responsibilities, including serving as Chair of the Department of Political Science from 2014 to 2017, Coordinator of the Legal Studies Program from 2010 to 2014, and membership on several key university committees. He also serves on the Steering Committee of the Bucknell Institute for Public Policy and has contributed to various institutional initiatives in diversity and public policy.

As a political theorist, Professor James focuses on contemporary democratic theory, theories of political representation, theories of immigration, and the philosophy of race. His research explores topics such as tribal sovereignty, intercultural dialogue, racial constituency in representation, the ontology of race, and rights-based arguments for immigration. Notable publications include "Tribal Sovereignty and the Intercultural Public Sphere" (1999), "Critical Intercultural Dialogue" (1999), "Communicative Action, Strategic Action, and Inter-Group Antagonism" (2003), "The Priority of Racial Constituency over Descriptive Representation" (2011), "The Political Ontology of Race" (2012, Polity), "Can the right to internal movement, residence, and employment ground a right to immigrate?" (2019), and "Spanish Citizenship and Responsibility for the Past: The Case of Sephardic Jews" (2020). These works have appeared in prestigious journals and contributed to ongoing academic debates in political theory. James has received the Class of 1956 Lectureship Award for Inspirational Teaching and has delivered invited lectures, including the Cotter Memorial Lecture, the Class of 1956 Award Lecture, and public forums on the transformation of immigration politics and policy. He continues to advance scholarship in these areas.