Biography
Robert E. Watkins, PhD is Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Culture at Columbia College Chicago, where he teaches courses in political science and cultural studies, including "Power and Freedom on Screen" and "Equality and Justice." He is a political theorist with broad and interdisciplinary interests in the intersection of politics and culture, specifically political theory and cinema. He is author of Freedom and Vengeance on Screen: Precarious Lives and the Politics of Subjectivity (I.B. Tauris, 2016), a book that examines a selection of contemporary feature films that illuminate precarious lives and the ways in which individual subjects are always already dependent upon and acting in contexts not of their own choosing. He has published articles in Theory and Event and History of the Human Sciences, and reviews in Perspectives on Politics, New Political Science, Contemporary Political Theory, and Political Theory. He received his BA from the Johns Hopkins University and his MA and PhD degrees from the University of Pennsylvania.
Instructional Areas
Political Theory, Cultural Studies, American Politics
Creative Practice and Research Interests
Political Theory, Cultural Theory, Film Studies
Degrees
B.A., Political Science Johns Hopkins University 1996
M.A., Political Science University of Pennsylvania 1999
Ph.D., Political Science University of Pennsylvania 2004