Elizabeth Ben-Ishai, Assistant Professor

Ph.D. University of Michigan 2008
Phone: 517/629-0908
Email: EBenIshai@albion.edu
Office: 302 Robinson Hall

My interests in the subfield of political theory are broadly focused on questions of autonomy and agency, citizenship, theories of social welfare and poverty, feminist political theory, state theory, and the politics of the body. My dissertation, “The Autonomy-Fostering State: Citizenship and Social Service Delivery,” explores the ways in which the state can foster autonomy in its citizens through practices of social service delivery. In that project, I further develop the feminist conception of autonomy as developed in the context of social relations, therefore disentangling the often conflated notions of autonomy and independence. I explore three different case studies of social service delivery to develop this theory of the state.

A second project is concerned with questions of the embodiment and political resistance. Maintaining a concern with issues of autonomy and agency, I now shift my focus from service delivery to different arenas – sport, for example – where the body may be conceived of as either consciously or unconsciously expressing resistance to dominant political ideals, particularly gendered norms.

Publications:

“The Autonomy-Fostering State: ‘Coordinated Fragmentation’ and Domestic Violence Services,” The Journal of Political Philosophy (forthcoming 2008-2009).

(under review) “Towards a Revised Conception of Social Citizenship: An Autonomy-Focused Model.”