Dr Demetra Kasimis
- Assistant Professor of Political Theory
- University Teaching Officer
Contact
Location
- Department of Politics and International Studies
- The Alison Richard Building, 7 West Road, Cambridge, CB3 9DP
About
I am a political theorist working across ancient Greek political thought, contemporary political theory, and feminist theory with a special interest in democracy. I joined POLIS after several years at the University of Chicago, where I was associate (2022-24) and assistant professor (2015-2022) of political science and affiliated in Classics. Born and raised in New York City, I got my B.A. from Columbia, where I studied philosophy and Modern Greek literature and culture and edited 'The Columbia Daily Spectator'. After graduation, I moved to Athens to do a Fulbright researching the experience of Albanian migrants in Greece. I returned to Columbia for an MA in philosophy and went on to do a PhD in political science at Northwestern where I continued to pursue my interest in migration and democracy but through an ancient Greek lens. I have been a postdoctoral fellow in the humanities at Yale (2010-2012) and an assistant professor of political science at California State University, Long Beach (2012-2015). My research has been awarded fellowships from the American Council for Learned Societies (ACLS), the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, NJ; the Mellon Foundation, the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), and the Onassis Foundation. I have been an editor of the journal 'Contemporary Political Theory' and associate editor of the journal 'Polis'. I am excited to work with graduate students with interests in the history of political thought, contemporary (critical) democratic theory, and feminist theory.
Research
My writing and teaching focus on the enduring dilemmas of democratic life through the thought and politics of classical Greece. I publish broadly on formations of citizenship and subterranean power in both ancient and contemporary democratic contexts. My book 'The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy' (CUP, 2018) sits at the intersection of classics and political science. It makes visible the long-overlooked centrality of immigration to the originary practices of democracy and political theory in Athens. I am currently at work on a new book arguing that Athenian writers turn to conspiracy as a critical lexicon for articulating the oikos (and oikonomia) as the hidden terrain of democratic power. My increasing interest in feminist theory and praxis has also led me to an ongoing project on Cassandra, the feminist archetype, and questions of truth-telling and political action.
Key publications:
Books
The Perpetual Immigrant and the Limits of Athenian Democracy, Cambridge University Press, 2018 [paperback, 2019]
Articles & Chapters
"A Genealogy of Fraternal Alliance and Medicalized Abortion: The Hippocratic Oath in Roe v. Wade", Polity, July 2026
"The Split Surface of Patriotism: Some Remarks on Stow’s Black Patriotic Form", Theory & Event 28 no. 1, January 2025, pp. 38-41.
"The Conspiratorial Mood of Plato’s Republic", in ed. Joseph Masco and Lisa Wedeen, Conspiracy/Theory, Chapel Hill: Duke University Press, 2023, pp. 190-209.
"In Terms of Athens", A Special Issue of Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature vol. 50 [edited, with Johanna Hanink] 2021
"The Play of Conspiracy in Plato’s Republic and the Problem of Democratic Erosion", American Journal of Political Science. Vol. 65, Issue 4, October 2021, pp. 926-937.
"Introduction: In Terms of Athens" [co-authored with Johanna Hanink], Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature vol. 50, no. 1-2 (2021), pp. 1-8.
"Electra Lost in Transit", Ramus: Critical Studies in Greek and Roman Literature 50, no. 1-2, December 2021: 11-24.
"Medea the Refugee", The Review of Politics 82.3, 2020, pp. 393-415.
"Plato’s Open Secret", Contemporary Political Theory 15, pp. 339-357. [Re-printed in Contemporary Political Theory’s special online issue of best recently published work, October 2019.]
"Greek Literature in Contemporary Political Theory and Thought", Oxford Handbook to Classical Studies Online, 2015, 22 pages.
"The Tragedy of Blood-Based Membership: Secrecy and the Politics of Immigration in Euripides’ Ion", Political Theory 41, no. 2, April 2013, pp. 231–256.
Teaching and supervision
Teaching:
- The History of Political Thought (Part I)
- The Modern State and its Alternatives (Part I and II)
- Conspiracy and Democracy (MPhil)
Research supervision:
I supervise MPhil and PhD theses on ancient democracy, classical Greek political thought (philosophy and tragedy), the contemporary receptions of classical Greek thought, and feminist theory.