McKenzie

Jonathan McKenzie is an assistant professor of Political Science where he teaches courses mainly in political theory. He earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from Purdue University in 2008, where he wrote a dissertation on the American individualist Henry David Thoreau.  Originally from Wyoming, Jonathan obtained a B.S. and an M.A. in Political Science from the University of Wyoming. His research interests include 19th and 20th century American philosophy, continental political theory, existential phenomenology, and psychoanalytic theory. He has published work on Thoreau, William James, Martin Heidegger, Emma Goldman, and Sigmund Freud.

Jonathan teaches courses in the history of political thought, including pre-and-post Enlightenment political thought, Western
political thought, and courses in 19th and 20th century American political thought.

Outside the classroom you may find Jonathan sauntering with his wife and two kids or playing disc golf.

Jonathan enjoys allowing students to navigate a course as much as possible, giving them the freedom to discover what is most important to them. He follows the counsel of Thoreau both in and out of the classroom: "We must learn to reawaken and keep ourselves awake, not by mechanical aids, but by an infinite expectation of the dawn, which does not forsake us in our soundest sleep."