Dr. John McMahon

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John McMahon teaches courses on political thought and the politics of race and gender. He enjoys teaching classes that challenge us to think about the fundamental questions of political life, and that use political ideas to help us think more critically about our own politics today. In addition to courses supporting the political science and law and justice majors, his teaching also engages Africana studies, gender and women’s studies, the Honors Center and Cardinal Foundation seminars.

Originally from Colorado, Dr. McMahon joined SUNY Plattsburgh in 2018. Prior to that, he received his Ph.D. in Political Science, with a certificate in women’s studies, from The Graduate Center, CUNY, and was visiting assistant professor of political science at Beloit College in Wisconsin. His research interests include modern and contemporary political theory, feminist thought, Black political thought, political theories of work, labor, and neoliberalism, and the politics of emotion and affect. He has published in journals such as Political Theory, Contemporary Political Theory, Polity, Journal of Political Science Education and more.

Dr. McMahon was recently appointed as Co-Director of Communications and Member of the Governance Committee of the Association for Political Theory, an international organization that seeks to advance scholarly interaction, collaboration, and debate among political theorists; to support teaching and research in political theory; to organize conferences; and to promote political theory in the academy.

Outside of work, Dr. McMahon enjoys bicycling, live music, listening to and creating podcasts, tv and film, chess and spending time with his cat Larry.

• Education
  • Ph.D., Political Science, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY
  • M.Phil., Political Science, The Graduate Center, CUNY, New York, NY
  • M.A., International Studies, Josef Korbel School of International Studies, University of Denver, Denver, CO
  • B.A., International Studies and Russian, University of Denver, Denver, CO
• Teaching Areas
  • Political theory
  • Race, gender, and political thought
  • Environmental political thought
  • Anti-colonialism
• Research Areas
  • Modern and contemporary political theory
  • Critical race theory and African-American political thought
  • Feminist theory
  • Political theories of work and labor
  • Politics of emotion and affect
• Recent Publications
  • Simpson, S., Weber, D., and McMahon, J., “Towards a Critical Space Theory: The Politics of Space Exploitation”, accepted at European Journal of Political Theory, forthcoming
  • McMahon, J. and Hanley, D. “Loki: Sovereignty and Political Violence for All Time, Always.” In The Politics of the Marvel Cinematic Universe: Phase 4 (2021-2022), ed. Nicholas Carnes and Lilly Goren, University Press of Kansas, forthcoming
  • Crandall, E., McMahon, J., and Brown, R. 2024. “Get a Democratic Life: Politicizing Post-Work Critiques and Democratic Theory.” In Debating a Post-work Future: Perspectives from Philosophy and the Social Sciences, ed. Denise Celentano, Michael Cholbi, Jean-Philippe Deranty, and Kory Schaff, Routledge.
  • McMahon, J. 2021. “Sonia Sotomayor’s Legal Phenomenology, Racial Policing, and the Limits of Law,” Polity 53 (4), 718-742
  • Crandall, E., Brown, R. and McMahon, J. 2021. “Magicians of the Twenty-First Century: Utopia, Work, and Domination in Silicon Valley,” Theory & Event 24 (3), 841-873
  • McMahon, J. 2021. “Producing Political Knowledge: Students as Podcasters in the Political Science Classroom,” Journal of Political Science Education 17 (3), 448-457
  • Beatty, J., Hartnett, T., Kimok, D., and McMahon, J. 2020. “‘And Still We Rise’: Open Pedagogy and Black History at a Rural Comprehensive State College.” In Open Pedagogy: Faculty, Library, and Student Collaborations, ed. Alexis Clifton and Kimberly Davies Hoffman, Rebus Publishers/Milne Library
  • Schiller, A. and McMahon, J. 2019. “Alexa, Alert Me When the Revolution Comes: Gender, Affect, and Labor the Age of Home-Based Artificial Intelligence,” New Political Science 41 (2), 173-191
• Professional Affiliations & Memberships
  • American Political Science Association
  • Association for Political Theory