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Alisa Kessel’s research and teaching in political theory reflect her broad interests in membership, agency, and power in democratic communities. Her work adopts an intersectional approach to explore issues like sexual violence, abortion, misogyny, and more. Her 2025 book, Rape Fantasies: Rape Culture and the Persistence of Sexual Violence, is published by Oxford University Press and explores rape culture in unexpected places, from anti-trans “bathroom bills,” to “man-camps” on the Bakken oil formation (fracking sites), to consent apps, and more. Her work is also published in American Political Science Review, Political Theory (with Michaele Ferguson under (under the pen-names A. Fergus Kastle-Michaelson III and Eunice Westlund) and Contemporary Political Theory. Her new book project, Sexy, is co-authored with Puget Sound Associate Professor of English Regina Duthely, and explores how misogyny works. 

Professor Kessel’s classes explore how the structural power exerted by white supremacy, patriarchy, capitalism, and settler colonialism threaten democratic communities. She teaches an introductory course in political theory and upper division courses on race in the U.S., intersectionality, reproductive rights, democracy, political ideologies, and more. In her classes, Professor Kessel helps students develop critical thinking and writing skills, reflect on the structures and histories that shape their political communities, and cultivate students’ personal senses of political power and commitment.

You can also find Professor Kessel at .