Rate My Professor Nancy Love

Nancy S. Love is Professor of Political Science in the Department of Government and Justice Studies at Appalachian State University, a position she has held since 2009. Prior to joining Appalachian State, she served as Associate Professor from 1989 to 2009 and Assistant Professor from 1984 to 1989 in the Department of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University, Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Swarthmore College from 1983 to 1984, and Lecturer in the Government Department at Cornell University from 1981 to 1982. She earned her Ph.D. in 1984 and M.A. in 1981 from Cornell University, with a dissertation titled “Marx and Nietzsche: Critics of the ‘Rational Society’,” and her A.B. summa cum laude in 1977 from Kenyon College. Love's teaching and research emphasize political theory, especially critical theory, democratic theory, and feminist theory, frequently examining connections between politics, music, art, culture, and community.

Love has authored key books including Anthems: Community, Land and Song (State University of New York Press, 2025), Trendy Fascism: White Power Music and the Future of Democracy (State University of New York Press, 2016), Musical Democracy (State University of New York Press, 2006), Understanding Dogmas and Dreams: A Text, 2nd ed. (CQ Press, 2006), and Marx, Nietzsche, and Modernity (Columbia University Press, 1986). She edited Dogmas and Dreams: A Reader in Modern Political Ideologies, 4th ed. (CQ Press, 2010), and co-edited Studying Politics Today: Critical Approaches to Political Science (Routledge, 2014) and Doing Democracy: Activist Art and Cultural Politics (State University of New York Press, 2013). Her articles have appeared in prominent journals such as New Political Science, and she has contributed chapters to edited volumes. Among her honors are the 2024 Charles A. McCoy Career Achievement Award from the Caucus for a Critical Political Science, the 2022 Donald W. Sink Family Outstanding Scholar Award from Appalachian State's College of Arts and Sciences, the 2022 Christian Bay Award for the best paper on a critical political science panel at the American Political Science Association, and the 1991 Christian R. and Mary F. Lindback Award for Distinguished Undergraduate Teaching at Pennsylvania State University. Love has held administrative roles including Coordinator of the Humanities Council from 2015 to 2020, Co-Director of the Political Science MA Program in 2015-2016, Director of the Interdisciplinary Studies Program from 2009 to 2012, and President of the Caucus for a New Political Science from 2017 to 2023. She has also led public projects such as co-Principal Investigator for “Voices and Votes: Democracy in America” with the Smithsonian Institution and North Carolina Humanities in 2023.