I’m an assistant professor in the School of Civic Life and Leadership at the University of North Carolina, where I teach courses in political theory and intellectual history. My latest research focuses on problems of political representation and political economy in the eighteenth century, especially in the writings of the Scottish philosopher David Hume. Prior to coming to UNC, I taught in the Politics Department at the University of Virginia and served as associate director of the Program on Constitutionalism and Democracy.
My current book project, titled Hume’s Imperfect Commonwealth, reinterprets Hume’s political work in light of his career-long attempt to adapt the insights of Thomas Hobbes (as well as Hobbes’s critics) to the conditions of capitalist society. My next monograph will explore how the global slave trade shaped the ways major figures in the Scottish Enlightenment addressed theories of labor and freedom. My work has appeared in journals such as the American Political Science Review, Political Studies, History of Political Thought, and History of European Ideas, as well as several edited volumes and outlets for the broader public. A CV is available here.
I earned my BA from Swarthmore College and my PhD from the University of Chicago. I live in Raleigh with my husband and baby daughter.
Danielle Charette James 