Susan McWilliams Barndt

  • Expertise

    Expertise

    Susan McWilliams Barndt is a professor of politics at Pomona College, where she has won the Wig Award for Excellence in Teaching four times. She sits on the Executive Committee of the American Political Science Association and serves as the vice president/president-elect of the American Political Thought section of the American Political Science Association.

    McWilliams is the author of The American Road Trip and American Political Thought (Lexington, 2018) and Traveling Back: Toward a Global Political Theory (Oxford, 2014). She is also the editor of A Political Companion to James Baldwin (Kentucky, 2017) and a co-editor of several books, including The Best Kind of College: An Insiders’ Guide to America's Small Liberal Arts Colleges (with John Seery, SUNY, 2015) and The Princeton History of American Political Thought (with Nicholas Buccola and Roosevelt Montás, Princeton, forthcoming).

    McWilliams is the co-editor (with Jeremy Bailey, University of Oklahoma) of the American Political Thought book series at the University Press of Kansas and a past editor of the peer-reviewed journal American Political Thought. Her writing has appeared in both scholarly and popular journals, and she is a regular media commentator on American politics for outlets such as Business Insider, KPCC's AirTalk, LiveNOW From FOX, The Los Angeles Times, Ms. Magazine, The Nation, The New York Times, Newsweek, Pacifica Radio, Politico, the Tavis Smiley Show, and “Today in LA” on KNBC.

    For her work, McWilliams has received many recognitions, including the Graves Award in the Humanities, the National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship and the Jack Miller Center's Teaching Excellence Award.

    McWilliams holds a B.A. in political science and Russian from Amherst College, an M.A. and Ph.D. in politics from Princeton University and a Certificate in Advanced Educational Leadership from Harvard University’s Graduate School of Education.

    Areas of Expertise

    • Political Theory
    • History of Political Thought
    • American Political Thought
    • Politics and Literature
    • Civic Education
    • Liberal Arts Education and the Small Liberal Arts College
  • Work

    Work

    The American Road Trip and American Political Thought (Lexington Books, 2018)

    ed., A Political Companion to James Baldwin (University Press of Kentucky, 2017)

    ed., with John Seery, The Best Kind of College: An Insiders’ Guide to America's Small Liberal Arts Colleges (SUNY Press, 2015)

    Traveling Back: Toward a Global Political Theory (Oxford University Press, 2014)

    ed., with Patrick J. Deneen, The Democratic Soul: A Wilson Carey McWilliams Reader (University Press of Kentucky, 2011)

    ed., with Patrick J. Deneen, Redeeming Democracy in America (University Press of Kansas, 2011)

  • Education

    Education

    Master of Arts, Ph.D. 
    Princeton University
    Princeton, New Jersey

    Bachelor of Arts
    Amherst College
    Amherst, Massachusetts

    Recent Courses Taught

    • Classical Political Theory
    • Modern Political Theory
    • American Political Thought
    • American Democracy in Theory and Practice
    • Politics and Literature
    • American Road Trip
    • W.E.B. Du Bois and The Souls of Black Folk
    • Senior Seminar in Contemporary Politics and Theory
    • Dangerous Books
  • Awards & Honors

    Awards & Honors

    Pomona College: Wig Distinguished Professorship Award for Excellence in Teaching, 2009, 2014, 2019, 2024

    Quarry Farm Fellowship, Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies, 2017

    National Endowment for the Humanities: Fellowship, 2016-2017

    Arnold and Lois Graves Foundation: Graves Award in the Humanities, 2014

    National Endowment for the Humanities: Summer Stipend, 2011

    The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History: Annual Fellowship, 2008

    Lehman American Studies Center: Curricular Development Grant, 2008

    Princeton University: Association of Princeton Graduate Alumni University Teaching Award, 2004; Cotsen Junior Fellowship for Undergraduate Teaching, 2002-2003; James Madison Program Fellowship, 2001-2002; Mamdouha S. Bobst Center for Peace and Justice Fellowship, 2000-2001

    Amherst College: Amherst Memorial Fellowship in Politics, 2003-2005; Plimpton Graduate Fellowship, 2002-2003; Samuel Bowles Prize in Journalism, 1998