Daniel Kapust

Position title: Professor | Judith Hicks Stiehm Chair in Political Theory

Email: djkapust@wisc.edu

Phone: (608) 263-9429

Address:
314 North Hall

Affiliated with Center for Early Modern Studies, Center for European Studies, Department of Comparative Literature and Folklore Studies, Department of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies, Department of Integrated Liberal Studies

Education:

M.A./Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1999/2005

B.A. in Classical Languages and Literature, University of Maryland, 1998

B.A. in Government and Politics, University of Maryland, 1998

Research Interests:

American Political Thought, Ancient Political Theory, Contemporary Political Theory, Democratic Theory, Early Modern Political Thought, Liberalism, Modern Political Theory, Republicanism, Rhetoric and Political Theory, Scottish Enlightenment

Biography:

Daniel Kapust received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005, and came to UW after six years in the Department of Political Science at The University of Georgia. Kapust’s research focuses on the history of political thought, especially Roman, Florentine, early modern, and 18th century, with thematic interests in rhetoric, empire, classical receptions, democratic theory, and the republican tradition.

His first book, Republicanism, Rhetoric, and Roman Political Thought: Sallust, Livy, and Tacitus, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2011; his second book, Flattery in the History of Political Thought: That Glib and Oily Art, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2018. He has published or had accepted for publication articles and chapters on Hobbes, Machiavelli, Rousseau, Cicero, Sallust, Livy, Lucretius, Smith, Tacitus, and 18th century American political thought, along with topics including flattery, republicanism, rhetoric, censorship, and political fear. His work has been published in the American Political Science ReviewJournal of Politics, Contemporary Political TheoryPolitical TheoryPolitical Studies, History of Political Thought, Journal of the History of Ideas, Democracy and Security, and the European Journal of Political Theory.

He is currently working on two new book projects: one on Lucretius and early modern political thought (The Lucretian Moment: Lucretius and the Politics of Early Modernity), the other on imperial republics (The Tragedy of an Imperial Republic). He is also the Director of the Political Economy, Philosophy, and Politics Certificate Program.

Courses:

PS 160: Introduction to Political Theory Fall 2022-2023

PS 932: Empire and Republic in 17th Century British Thought Fall 2021-2022

PS 160: Introduction to Political Theory Fall 2021-2022

PS 461: Interdisciplinary Seminar in Political Economy, Philosophy, and Politics Fall 2021-2022

PS 401: Liberalism, Conservatism, and  the Idea of America Fall 2020-2021

PS 160 Introduction to Political Theory Fall 2019-2020

PS 461 Interdisciplinary Seminar in Political Economy, Philosophy, & Politics Summer 2019

PS 463 Deception and Politics Spring 2018-2019

PS 160 Introduction to Political Theory Fall 2018-2019

PS 931 Seminar-Political Theory Roman Political Thought Fall 2018-2019

PS 601 Civil War & Rev: Hobbes & 17th Cen Pol Thought Spring 2016-2017

PS 506 Deception and Politics Fall 2016-2017

PS 209 Introduction to Political Theory Fall 2016-2017

PS 931 Reading Machiavelli Spring 2015-2016

PS 209 Introduction to Political Theory Spring 2015-2016

Awards:

2018-2019

Chadbourne Residential College Faculty Fellow. UW-Madison. 2018-2019.

Teaching Academy Fellow. UW-Madison. 2018-2019.

Vilas Associates Award. UW-Madison.

2017-2018

Summer Humanities Research Fellowship. Institute for Research in the Humanities. 2018.

Co-recipient of Borghesi-Mellon Workshop support for “(Re)imagining Empires” from the Center for the Humanities. UW-Madison.

Vilas Associates Award. UW-Madison.

2016-2017

Vilas Associates Award, Humanities Division

Class of 1955 Teaching Excellence Award. UW-Madison.

University Honored Instructor.

2015-2016

Resident Fellowship. Institute for Research in the Humanities. UW-Madison.

University Honored Instructor.

2014-2015

Resident Fellowship at the Institute for Research in the Humanities. UW-Madison.

Co-recipient of Mellon Workshops in the Humanities Award for “Ancient Republics and Republicanism.”

2013-2014

 Faculty Development Seminar organizer, Spring 2014, Institute for Research in the Humanities, for the seminar “Machiavelli at 500”

Hear from Professor Kapust on this episode of the 1050 Bascom Podcast!