Kieran Mabey is a Postdoctoral Associate at the Center for Civic Thought and Lecturer in Political Science. He teaches broadly throughout the history of western political thought, specializing in early modern theories of popular sovereignty. His most recent research explores the political dangers associated with status competition, especially as presented through the thought of Machiavelli, Hobbes, and Rousseau. His current interests concern the problems of rising economic inequality and concentrations of vast private wealth, the risks they pose to democratic governance, and how creative constitutional solutions, such as sortition and wealth restrictions, might help safeguard against these threats.
Mabey has held teaching positions at Concordia University, McGill University, and most recently, Deep Springs College, where he was also a faculty member on the Application Committee. He received a BA and MA from the University of Calgary, a PhD in Political Science from McGill University, and was a Fulbright Visiting Scholar in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University.