Dr. Samuel A. Chambers
BA (Pomona), MA (Vanderbilt), PhD (Minnesota)

Senior Lecturer in Politics

Office: 029
Email:
Phone: +44 (0)1792 513180

Career Biography
Sam spent five years as Assistant Professor of Political Science at St. Mary’s College of Maryland. He then taught at the University of Redlands and Pennsylvania State University before joining the department at Swansea. Sam is General Series co-editor of the new Routledge book series, Innovators in Political Theory. He is also the area convenor for Western Britain chapter of the International Conference for the Study of Political Thought (CSPT), which is housed at Swansea.

Research
Sam has very broad interests in contemporary political theory. His writings focus on the intersection of culture and politics (especially in the form of film and television), on the theory and practice of gender and sexuality, and on debates over language and history as they affect theories of democracy and concepts of the political. Sam has published more than two dozen journal articles and book chapters, with his work appearing in a variety of outlets, including the following journals: American Journal of Political Science, Political Theory, Political Studies, New Political Science, Politics and Gender, Theory & Event, and Contemporary Political Theory.

He has published 2 books, with a third currently in press:

Untimely Politics (2003)

Judith Butler and Political Theory

(with Terrell Carver, 2008)

The Queer Politics of Television (2008)

He has also published 2 edited volumes:

Democracy, Pluralism, and Political Theory

(ed. with Terrell Carver, 2007)

Judith Butler's Precarious Politics

(ed. with Terrell Carver, 2008)

Sam is currently doing work on the relationship between political theory and queer theory, and is starting a project in contemporary democratic theory.

Teaching
Sam has previously taught in all areas of the history of political thought and contemporary political theory, as well as teaching in philosophy and gender studies. Here at Swansea his teaching is also diverse. At the undergraduate level, he teaches on the Level 1 Module, Politics and the People, co-convenes the Level 2 module History of Political Thought, and convenes the Level 3 module The Politics of Pluralism. At the MA level he convenes the Approaches to Political Theory module. Sam welcomes inquiries from research students concerning a broad swath of topics in political theory, cultural politics, gender studies and queer theory.