Reader in Political Thought and International Relations
University Teaching Officer
Christ's College
Office hours: Tuesdays 11.00 - 12.00pm
Websites:
Research Interests
Duncan's primary research interests are in the history of modern political thought and contemporary (international) political theory. More specifically, he works on the following topics:
History of Political Thought
British social and political thought, c.1850-present; modern British and American ideologies of empire and imperial expansion; and the history of the human sciences (especially political science and international relations) in the twentieth century.
Contemporary Political Theory
Contemporary normative theories of global politics; critical theory (broadly understood); varieties of political realism; the nature, scope and foundations of political thought, in particular the relationship between history and theory; aesthetics and political thought, with a focus on architecture; and conceptions of social memory and identity.
In 2012 he was awarded the Philip Leverhulme Prize for his work on the history of political thought.
Teaching
Duncan is the convenor for Pol 3: Ethics and World Politics. He also teaches the philosophy and sociology of social sciences on the PhD program, and various topics on the M.Phil in Political Thought and Intellectual History. He supervises PhD theses on contemporary political theory, international theory, and the history of modern political thought.
Duncan is Director of Studies in Politics and Sociology at Christ’s College.
Key Publications
- Reordering the World: Essays on Liberalism and Empire (Princeton University Press, 2016)
- The Idea of Greater Britain: Empire and the Future of World Order, 1860-1900 (Princeton University Press, 2007) [Winner of the Whitfield Book Prize, Royal Historical Society]
- (ed. With Joel Isaac) Uncertain Empire: American History and the Idea of the Cold War (Oxford University Press, 2012)
- (ed.) Ethics and World Politics (Oxford University Press, 2010)
- (ed.) Political Thought and International Relations: Variations on a Realist Theme (Oxford University Press, 2009)
- (ed.) Victorian Visions of Global Order: Empire and International Relations in Nineteenth Century British Political Thought (Cambridge University Press, 2007)
- (ed.) Memory, Trauma, and World Politics: Reflections on the Relationship Between Past and Present (Palgrave Macmillan, 2006)
For a full list of publications (including on-line papers):