Interests:

Who or what can we rely on in the face of catastrophe? What hope is there for democracy in a warming globe? My research explores these questions by examining how the tangible manifestations of climate change, like hurricanes, challenge or re-define how we understand our political and social ties. I am currently writing my dissertation on this topic, examining the politics of tropical cyclones (a.k.a "hurricanes") in both the US and Oman, with the use of interpretive methods--interviews, ethnography, and archival research. I mobilize these findings to make empirically based interventions into debates regarding the relationship between authority and emergency, drawing upon the works of contemporary political theorists such as Sheldon Wolin, Hannah Arendt, and Jürgen Habermas. My research has been funded by multiple grants, including a ten-month Fulbright Fellowship in Oman.

I have an M.A. in political science from the University of Toronto, and I did my B.A. at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse in Philosophy and History.  I also studied at the New School’s Graduate Program of International Affairs, the University of Damascus, and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Courses Taught:

UMass: Government and Politics in the Middle East; Interpretation and Analysis

TA at UMass: Introduction to Legal Studies; Post-Colonial Thought; World Politics; American Politics Through Film; Introduction to Political Theory; Politics of Food; American Political Thought; Comparative Politics; American Foreign Policy.

TA at University of Toronto: Introduction to International Relations; Conflict and Peacekeeping

My CV and other information is available at my website: www.tylerschuenemann.com