Benjamin McKean is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science. He teaches courses in political theory and peace studies. His first book is Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limit of Freedom (Oxford University Press, 2020) and in 2021, he received the College of Arts and Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award.

Tell us about your educational history

Education
BA, Social Studies, Harvard College, 2002
PhD, Politics, Princeton University, 2010

I grew up in Los Angeles and ended up moving across the country to go to Harvard University for college. I didn’t really know many people there, but there was one guy from my high school who was a couple years ahead of me. He had just helped start a student activist group that focused on workers rights and economic justice, which I ended up getting involved with. I got my BA in the interdisciplinary “Social Studies” program there in 2002, but I learned just as much from my involvement in our campaigns for workers on campus to be paid a living wage and to support the sweatshop workers making college licensed apparel. I then spent a couple years working on those issues fulltime as a national organizer for United Students Against Sweatshops. I wanted to get a better understanding of how the global economy works and to develop my own view of what a more just alternative could look like so I returned to school and got my PhD from the Politics Department at Princeton University in 2010. I then got a post-doctoral job teaching at the University of Chicago as a Harper-Schmidt Fellow until I came to Ohio State in 2013.

Describe your current research or area of interest

My research concerns three main areas. First, what is global justice and what would it take to achieve it? I’m particularly interested in the transnational supply chains that link people all around the globe. For example, the phones we use every day contain components from more than 40 countries. What do we owe the people who assembled them? Or those who mine the lithium and tantalum in their batteries? And how should those workers think about us, the workers in the developed world who are relying on them? In my book Disorienting Neoliberalism: Global Justice and the Outer Limit of Freedom, I argue that the global economy which connects us in these ways makes us unfree so we should act in solidarity with people struggling to remake it. 

My second area of interest is in the populist movements around the world that arose in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis. Some of these movements have targeted powerful economic elites, but others have directed their anger at immigrants and other vulnerable populations. Why are some populist movements oppressive and exclusionary? What are the prospects for inclusive and emancipatory populist movements? These days I’m particularly interested in whether populist movements can be an effective way of addressing climate change.

Finally, I’m interested in the relationship between politics and ideas. Can political theories help us be better and more effective political actors? I think the answer is yes — otherwise I’m not sure I’d be a political theorist! — so I’ve tried to explain how even utopian ideas can help us see politics more clearly as well as change the way we feel about engaging in politics.

What undergraduate classes do you teach? Why would you encourage students to take these classes, and how might they be of interest to students majoring in other disciplines?

Every year I teach "International Studies 2800: Introduction to Peace Studies." It’s a class I love teaching because it gives students so many different kinds of tools for understanding what’s going on in the world. It’s an interdisciplinary class that draws from political science, philosophy, anthropology, history and more to think about the causes of violence and conflict in the world and whether they can be overcome. For better or worse, there’s never any shortage of current events for us to analyze so it’s easy to show students the relevance of what we’re doing together. And in addition to the subject knowledge, I think it helps students to develop important skills, particularly the ability to distinguish empirical and normative claims (that is, claims about how the world actually works and claims about what we should do or how things should be), to see how these two kinds of claims are related, and how to make arguments that incorporate them both.

I also teach classes in global justice, 20th-century political thought, and the politics of evil as well "Introduction to Political Theory."

What aspects of your teaching give you the most satisfaction?

I take Ohio State’s motto “education for citizenship” seriously. My sense from talking to students is that they’re often very distressed about the state of the world but aren’t sure what they can do about it or whether real change is even possible. So I hope my classes give students a few things. First, we use words like "freedom," "democracy," and "justice" all the time, but we don’t always reflect on them; I hope my classes are spaces where students can think critically about important concepts like these and develop their own views about them. Second, Ohio State students come into the classroom with an amazingly diverse set of experiences and views; I want my classroom to be a place where we all get much-needed practice have respectful conversations across those differences. Finally, I want students to leave my course feeling like they better understand the systems and institutions that govern our world so that they can do something to address the injustices they see in them.

Are there opportunities for undergraduates to connect with you for research or creative activity?

I welcome collaboration with undergraduates interested in researching global supply chains, social movements for climate justice or multiracial populism. Please just email me!

What book/movie would you recommend, or what music do you enjoy?

So much great music is from Ohio. I grew up listening to Devo, Pere Ubu, Guided by Voices, and the Breeders. I loved local bands like The New Bomb Turks and Scrawl before I even moved to Columbus. In a different vein, The Numero Group is an archival record label that puts out obscure or previously unreleased music and they’ve done amazing work drawing attention to Columbus’s history of soul music. They’ve done a whole series of releases of what they call “Eccentric Soul,” but their first one featured the local Capsoul Label and it’s just amazing.

What is the most interesting place you’ve visited, who has inspired you and/or would you like to share your reflections on an event that influenced you?

Going to college really was a transformative experience for me, as much for what happened outside the classroom as inside. I had an amazing opportunity to read these great books and talk with amazing scholars, but it just didn’t make sense to me that the people who made that possible for me by cooking in the dining hall and cleaning the classrooms were making poverty wages. Getting to know them and to work with them to change things taught me as much about power, freedom and community as anything I read.

What is the best advice you’ve received?

Jeez, I don’t know. I’m not sure if this counts as advice but I think a lot about a saying made famous by an Australian Aboriginal advocate named Lilla Watson, who said, “If you have come here to help me, you are wasting your time. But if you have come because your liberation is bound up with mine, then let us work together.” That’s been a real guiding thought for me.

What advice would you give to undergraduate students?

Try a political theory course! I’ve talked to so many students who didn’t know what political theory was and so didn’t take any political theory courses until their last year on campus, only to find out that they really loved it. I really think political theory is indispensable training for being a citizen.

When you encourage students to stop by your office hours, what do you most love talking about?

I love to talk about movies, everything from trashy movies like "Bloodsport" to classic art house films like "The Rules of the Game." I almost always incorporate movies into my classes in one way or another.

Would you like to share a fun/interesting fact about yourself?

I think I’ve probably talked enough about myself at this point!

Learn more about Professor McKean's work, email and office location on his department page.