Professor and Department Chair
Office: Kirby 317
Phone: 758-3535
Email: browerm@wfu.edu
Areas of Expertise: Arab and Islamic Political Thought, Feminist Theory, Democratic Theory, Comparative Political Theory
Michaelle Browers is Professor and Chair of Politics and International Affairs and directs the Middle East and South Asia Studies Program and the Arabic Program at Wake Forest University. She is author of Political Ideology in the Arab World: Accommodation and Transformation (Cambridge University Press, 2009) and Democracy and Civil Society in Arab Political Thought: Transcultural Possibilities (Syracuse University Press, 2006), and has edited (with Charles Kurzman) a book, entitled An Islamic Reformation? (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003). Her articles have appeared in the International Journal of Middle East Studies, Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, Journal of Political Ideologies, Critical Review of Social and Political Philosophy, Theory and Event, and Third World Quarterly.
Education
B.A. in Politics, Whitman College, 1990
M.A. in Government, University of Virginia, 1994
Ph.D. in Political Science, University of Minnesota, 2001
Academic Appointments
Professor, 2016-present, Wake Forest University
Associate Professor, 2007-2016, Wake Forest University
Assistant Professor, 2000-2007, Wake Forest University
Administrative Appointments
Department Chair, Politics & International Affairs, Wake Forest University, 2020-present
Associate Chair, Politics & International Affairs, Wake Forest University, 2017-2020
Director, Middle East & South Asia Studies Program, Wake Forest University, 2010-2020
POL 272 Democratic Theory. (3h) Examines the theoretical underpinnings of democracy and some of the critiques of those foundations. Focuses on understanding some of the major theories of democracy and on how key democratic concepts are defined differently within these various traditions.
POL 273 Marx, Marxism and Post-Marxism. (3h) Examines Marx’s early humanistic writings, his later philosophy, the vicissitudes of 20th-century Marxism and attempts to reorient Marx’s theory in light of developments in contemporary political thought and practice.
POL 274 Arab and Islamic Political Thought. (3h) Examines the history, basic concepts, central questions and preoccupations of political thought in the Arab region, while critically analyzing what it means to engage political theory comparatively. (CD)
POL 277 Feminist Political Thought. (3h) Introduces feminist thought and its implications for the study and practice of political theory. Topics include feminist critiques of the Western political tradition and schools of feminist political theory. (CD)