Michael Goodhart is Professor of Political Science and of Gender, Sexuality, and Women's Studies. He is also Professor (by courtesy) of Philosophy and a faculty fellow in the University Honors College. From 2017-2021 he directed the University's Global Studies Center. In AY 2021-22, he is a fellow in residence of the Swedish Collegium for Advanced Study in Uppsala. He is a past Alexander von Humboldt Foundation research fellow (2008-09) and was Guest Professor in the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin (2008-10). In 2018 he won the Provost's Award for Diversity in the Curriculum, and he is a member of the Provost's Committee on Anti-Black Racism and Transformative Pedagogy.
Goodhart's core research interests include democracy, human rights, (in)justice, and emancipatory political struggles. He is the author of Injustice: Political Theory for the Real World (Oxford 2018), Democracy as Human Rights: Freedom and Equality in the Age of Globalization (Routledge, 2005), contributing editor of Human Rights: Theory and Practice (Oxford University Press, 2009, 2012, 2016, 2022), and contributing co-editor of Social Movements and World-System Transformation (Routledge 2017) and Human Rights in the 21st Century: Continuity and Change since 9/11 (Palgrave, 2011). He is also author of numerous articles and book chapters and has lectured widely in North America and around the world.
Dr. Goodhart was co-President of the Association for Political Theory from 2017-2020 and is a past President of the American Political Science Association's Human Rights section. He also chaired the APSA Presidential Task Force on Democracy, Economic Security, and Social Justice in a Volatile World. Goodhart is an affiliate of the Human Rights Institute at the University of Connecticut, a member of the Center for Ethics and Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, and sits on several editorial boards. He is currently President of the board of directors of The Global Switchboard, a network stewardship organization that promotes equitable global engagement in the Pittsburgh region, and a member of the steering committee for the Pittsburgh Human Rights City Alliance.
Courses
PS 0600 Political Theory
PS 1607 American Political Thought
PS 1674 Politics of Global Inequality
PS 1675 Politics of Human Rights
PS 2040 Normative Political Science
PS 2675 Politics of Human Rights
Education & Training
- PhD, University of California, Los Angeles, 2000
Representative Publications
Injustice: Political Theory for the Real World. Oxford University Press (2018).
“Constructing dignity: Human rights as a praxis of egalitarian freedom,” Journal of Human Rights (2018).
Smith, Jackie, Michael Goodhart, Patrick Manning, and John Markoff, eds. Social Movements and World-System Transformation New York: Routledge (2017).
Interpreting Responsibility Politically." Journal of Political Philosophy 25.2 (2017).
“Recent Works on Dignity and Human Rights: A Road Not Taken,” Perspectives on Politics 12.4 (2014).
“Accountable International Relations,” in The Oxford Handbook of Public Accountability, Mark Bovins, Robert Goodin, and Thomas Schillemans, eds. Oxford University Press (2014).
"Human Rights and the Politics of Contestation." In Human Rights at the Crossroads, edited by Mark Goodale. Oxford: Oxford University Press (2013).
Research Interests
Political Theory, Ethics, Democracy, Human Rights, Justice and Injustice, Responsibility, Neoliberalism
