Bonnie Honig

Bonnie Honig, Nancy Duke Lewis Professor at Brown University, holds joint appointments in Modern Culture and Media and Political Science, with courtesy roles in Religious Studies and Theater and Performance Studies. Her scholarly work intersects democratic theory, feminist critique, and cultural analysis, examining how inherited political narratives shape collective action.

• Education: PhD (Johns Hopkins, 1989), MSc (London School of Economics, 11981), BA (Concordia University, 1980)

Central to her research is a reexamination of classical texts like Sophocles' Antigone and Euripides' Bacchae to develop agonistic democratic models. Her Antigone, Interrupted (2013) challenges heroic readings of Antigone, proposing instead a collective feminist politics rooted in textual counter-interpretations.

Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair (2017) argues for shared objects as democratic orientation devices, while Emergency Politics (2009) analyzes crisis responses beyond Schmittian frameworks. The 2021 dual publications A Feminist Theory of Refusal and Shell Shocked: Feminist Criticism After Trump extend these themes through Trump-era analysis and queer theoretical lenses.

• Scientific Awards:
  • 2023-24 Guggenheim Fellowship
  • 2012 David Easton Prize
  • 2012 Okin-Young Award
  • 2007-08 American Philosophical Society Fellowship
  • 1994 Scripps Prize

Affiliated with the American Bar Foundation and Digital Democracy Group at Simon Fraser University, Honig's teaching spans feminist theory, Politics and Film, and advanced seminars on Arendt. Her Shell Shocked analysis of Trump-era disaster patriarchy connects classical feminist frameworks to contemporary political crises.