P.J. Brendese is a political theorist in the Department of Political Science at Haverford College where he is a visiting assistant professor.   He received his Ph.D. in political science from Duke University in 2005.  He has studied at the University of Paris, Sorbonne,  The University of California, Santa Cruz, the University at Albany, Siena College and The Center for Cross Cultural Study in Seville, Spain.   Before joining the faculty at Haverford, he taught at Duke University, Penn State University, The College of William & Mary and Bates College.  His research interests include the politics of memory, race & transitional justice, critical theories of power and freedom, democratic theory, and political theology.   P.J. Brendese's work has been supported by grants and fellowships.  His articles and reviews have appeared in journals, edited volumes, and the popular media.  He is the recipient of several awards for excellence in undergraduate education.   Recent course offerings span ancient and modern political thought, contemporary continental theory, American political thought, political theology, and transitional justice.  

Professor Brendese's book entitled The Power of Memory in Democratic Politics will be published by the University of Rochester Press in 2012.  The book explores the question of what relationships to memory invigorate, or threaten, democratic futures. Beginning in ancient Athens and spanning modern and contemporary political theory and race relations, the work examines how political power shapes memory and how the ghosts of the past influence the inclusions and exclusions that are taken to be democratic.   The Power of Memory advances a multi-dimensional theory of memory that engages the presence of the past in conscious recollection, as well as the ways memory breathes beneath unconscious, habituated practices and passions---all of which shape the limits of free speech, action and political imagination.

Currently, Brendese is working on two books.  The first is on racial inequality and temporality, entitled The Race of Secular Time.   The second book is an edited volume on the political thought of Toni Morrison.