Danielle Charette

Fellow

Assistant Professor School of Civic Life and Leadership

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 Review, Political Studies, History 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.

“Reconstructing Oceana: Hume’s ‘Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth.’” Hume’s ‘Essays’: A Critical Guide, edited by Felix Waldmann and Max Skjönsberg, Cambridge University Press, forthcoming Oct. 2024.

“Hume and the Politics of Slavery.” Political Studies, vol. 72, no. 3, 2024, pp. 862–82.

“Petrarch’s Literary Empire.” Political Science Reviewer, vol. 47, no. 2, 2023, pp. 57–85.

Selinger, Will, and [Author]. “The Political Prophet Harvard Didn’t Want.” Chronicle Review, Nov. 2022.

“Hume’s ‘Idea of a Perfect Commonwealth’ and Scottish Political Thought of the 1790s.” History of European Ideas, vol. 48, no. 1, 2022, pp. 78–96.

“David Hume’s Balancing Act: The Political Discourses and the Sinews of War.” American Political Science Review, vol. 115, no. 1, 2020, pp. 69–81.

Skjönsberg, Max, and [Author]. “State of the Field: The History of Political Thought.” History, vol. 105, no. 366, 2020, pp. 470–83.

“Political Theory and American Literature: A Guide through the Archive.” Political Theory, online edition, 2020.