Marek D. Steedman
805 Second Street E.Department of Political Science
Northfield, MN55057CarletonCollege
(507) 646-7419Northfield, MN55057
(507) 646-7170
EDUCATION:
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Ph.D., Political ScienceAugust 2003
Major, Political Theory; Minor, Comparative Politics
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
B.A., Political Science, with High DistinctionMay 1994
RESEARCH:
Dissertation: Before Dusk: Race, Labor and Status in Louisiana, 1865-1900
For Du Bois, “race” had been “obvious” in the nineteenth century. By the early 20th century he was aware that “despite everything, race lines were not fixed and fast.” This project asks how race was socially constructed in late 19th century America, and how that construction shifted. I focus on Louisiana between 1865 and 1900 (i.e. from emancipation to disfranchisement). I argue that race was constructed as a social hierarchy built around relations of dependence through labor. Wage labor replaced slavery but was conceived as a hierarchical relationship between persons, not an exchange between contractual equals. This conception of labor, as a relation of dependence, mediated the transition from slavery to sharecropping. The resulting connections (among race, economic dependence, and citizenship) were undermined by a shift towards understanding wage labor as an exchange (labor power for wages) between contractual equals at the end of the century.
Committee: Don Herzog, Chair; Jacqueline Stevens; Elizabeth Wingrove; Daniel Carpenter; Rebecca Scott.
Areas of interest: Race Theory, American Political Thought, History of Political Thought, Social Theory, Continental European Political Thought, Philosophy of Science, American Political Development, Race and Southern History, Law and Society.
PUBLICATIONS:
“Resistance, Rebirth, and Redemption: The Rhetoric of White Supremacy in Post-Civil War Louisiana,” accepted for inclusion in “Rights and Practices of Modern Resistance,” a forthcoming special issue of Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques.
“State Power, Hegemony and Political Memory: Lotman and Gramsci,” Poroi, vol. 3, no. 1., June 2004.
A version of this essay is forthcoming in Lotman and Cultural Studies: Encounters and Extensions, Amy Mandleker and Andreas Schonle eds., University of Wisconsin Press.
“Gender and the Politics of the Household in Reconstruction Louisiana, 1865-1879,” forthcoming in Gender and Slave Emancipation in The Atlantic World, Diana Patton and Pamela Scully, eds., Duke University Press (fall 2005). Awarded Second Prize in the Dorothy McGuigan competition for best graduate student essay on women and gender, 2001.
TEACHING POSITIONS:
Visiting Assistant Professor. Department of Political Science.2003 –
CarletonCollege.
Introduction to Political Philosophy; Modern Political Philosophy;
Race Theory: Contemporary Approaches; American Political Development;
Reason and Enlightenment: The Frankfurt School and Political Theory;
Democracy and Its Critics; American Political Thought.
Graduate Student Instructor. Political Science Department.Spring Terms,
University of Michigan.2000, 2002, 2003
Political Science 101: Introduction to Political Theory.
Full responsibility for course.
Adjunct Instructor. Political Science Department.Spring 1998
AlbionCollege.
Politics of American Democracy.
Graduate Student Instructor. English Composition Board Grader.Winter 2000
University of Michigan.
Political Science 402: Topics in Political Theory: Resistance,
Civility and Politics. Discussion section leader and grader for
an intensive writing course, involving multiple draft-writing.
Also ran periodic writing workshops.
Graduate Student Instructor. Political Science Department.Winter 1999
University of Michigan.
Political Science 401: Development of Political Thought,
Modern to Recent. Discussion section leader and grader.
Graduate Student Instructor. Political Science Department.Seven terms,
University of Michigan.1995-1999
Political Science 101: Introduction to Political Theory.
Discussion section leader and grader.
Graduate Student Mentor. Political Science Department.1998-2000
University of Michigan.
Assisted in the development and running of the department
training workshop and course for new instructors, as well
as additional voluntary sessions. Mentor to new instructors.
Grader. Political Science Department.Winter 1996
University of Michigan.
Political Science 406: American Political Thought.
AWARDS:
Ford Fellow. Political Science Department. University of Michigan.2002-2003
Renewal. Included summer stipend.
Outstanding Concentration Advisor Award. Political Science2002
Department. University of Michigan.
Ford Fellow. Political Science Department. University of Michigan.2001-2002
Dorothy McGuigan Competition for Best Graduate Student2001
Essay on Women and Gender, Second Prize.
University of Michigan Women’s Studies Program.
Margaret and Paul Lurie Prize for Excellence in Teaching.2001
University of Michigan Honors Program.
Rackham Predoctoral Fellow. RackhamGraduateSchool. 2000-2001
University of Michigan.
Junior Fellow. GayleMorrisSweetlandWritingCenter.2000-2001
University of Michigan (declined).
Thesis Research Grant. Political Science Department.2000
University of Michigan.
The University of Michigan Outstanding Graduate Student1999
Instructor Award. RackhamGraduateSchool.
University of Michigan.
John W. Kingdon Award for Outstanding Graduate Student1999
Instructor in the Political Science Department.
Rackham Pedagogy Grant. RackhamGraduateSchool.1999
University of Michigan.
Thesis Research Grant. Political Science Department.1999
University of Michigan.
MacArthur Foundation Grant. Social Science Research Council1996
on International Peace and Security. With Professor Ted Hopf.
Received under the auspices of the MershonCenter at Ohio
StateUniversity, Columbus, Ohio.
James B. Angell Scholar.1994
Outstanding Leadership and Contribution to the Quality of1994
Student Life Award.
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION:
“Free Labor and Racial Ideology in the United States: An Historical Examination,” Economies of Race: Identity and Race Formation within the Political Economy of the United States Panel. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois, September 2-5, 2004.
“‘Strangers Among Themselves’: Race and Democracy in Tocqueville’s Democracy in America,” paper presented at the Foundations of Political Theory Workshop on Myth, Rhetoric, and Symbolism, APSA, Chicago, Illinois, September 1, 2004.
“‘Dead Votes’: Race, Labor, and Politics in Louisiana, 1867-1887,” presented, in various formats, to the University of Minnesota Political Theory Colloquium, February 6, 2004; to the Political Theory Convocation at Texas A&M University, March 24, 2004; and to the Political Science Department Faculty, Carleton College, April 15, 2004.
“Labor, Race, and the South: A Case Study of Louisiana During Reconstruction and Jim Crow.” The Politics of Race, Employment, and the Law in the Twentieth Century United States Panel at the Social Science History Association Annual Meeting, Baltimore, Maryland, November 13-16, 2003.
“‘Dead Votes’: Race, Labor, and Political Agency in the Nineteenth Century U.S..” Labor and American Political Development Panel, Western Political Science Association Meeting in Denver, Colorado, March 27-29, 2003
Chair. “Foundations of American Politics: Republican and Liberal?” Panel. Western Political Science Association Meeting in Denver, Colorado, March 27-29, 2003
“Before Dusk: The Concept of Race in Postbellum Louisiana,” Poster Session. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Boston, Massachusetts, August 28-September 1. Also presented as a paper at the Foundations of Political Theory Workshop on Myth, Rhetoric, and Symbolism, APSA, Boston, Massachusetts, August 28, 2002.
“Gender and the Politics of the Household in Reconstruction Louisiana, 1865-1879.” Paper presented, by invitation, at the Race and Law Panel of the Outside Law: (Un)precedented Margins symposium in Toledo, Ohio, April 21, 2001.
Discussant. “Lotman and the Modeling of Culture” Panel. Conference on The Works of Yuri Lotman in an Interdisciplinary Context: Impact and Applicability. University of Michigan, October 29th, 1999.
Discussant. “Race and the Liberal Polity” Panel. Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association, Atlanta, Georgia, September 1st-5th, 1999.
“‘By God, I Thought There Was Going to Be a Revolution There’: Freedwomen and Political Participation in Reconstruction Louisiana, 1862-1880.” Paper presented at the Women's History Network Annual Conference, Borders and Frontiers, Glasgow, Scotland, 12-13th September, 1998.
Participant. Violent Conflict in the Twenty-First Century: Causes, Instruments and Mitigation. A Conference of the Midwest Consortium for International Security Studies, a program of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Oak Brook, Illinois, December 5, 6 and 7, 1997.
MENTORSHIP, SERVICE, AND OTHER EXPERIENCE:
Political Theory Search Committee Member. 2000-2001
Concentration Advisor. Political Science Department.2000-2003
University of Michigan. Advisor to Undergraduate
concentrators in Political Science
Political Theory Student Reading Group, Organizer.1999-2001
Graduate Student Mentor. Political Science Department.1998-2000
University of Michigan. Mentor to new instructors.
Assisted in the development and running of the
department training workshop and course for new
instructors, as well as additional voluntary sessions.
Faculty/Staff Mentor. University of Michigan Mentorship Program.1995-1996
University of Michigan. Mentor to one Peer Mentor,
an upper-level undergraduate student, who was in turn
mentor to group of four incoming freshmen. Organized
social events and offered advice and guidance to peer
mentor and mentees.
Research Assistant. To Professor Jacqueline Stevens.Summer 1997
Department of Political Science, University of Michigan.
Library research, citation checking, copying, printing for
manuscript version of Reproducing the State, Princeton
University Press, Princeton, 1999.
REFERENCES:
Don HerzogElizabeth Wingrove
University of MichiganLawSchoolDepartment of Political
410 Hutchins HallScience
625 South State StreetUniversity of Michigan
Ann Arbor. MI 481095700 Haven Hall
(734) 647-4047505 South State Street
nn Arbor, MI48104
(734) 647-0086
Daniel P. CarpenterJacqueline A. Stevens
Department of Government Law and Society Program
LittauerCenter 224 (North Harvard Yard)1832 Ellison Hall
HarvardUniversityUniversity of California at
Cambridge, MA02138Santa Barbara
anta Barbara, CA93106-4015
(805) 893-7477