Political theory; contemporary political theory; ethics and international affairs; theories of human rights and global justice; collective agency and collective personhood

The global political arena is diverse and dynamic, alive with multitudes of state and non-state actors striving to influence each other with every tool at their disposal. We need a political theory of global politics to help us navigate this arena in all its complexity. And this requires moving beyond the field’s traditional focus on states engaging in global politics by waging wars or employing other conventional tools of coercive foreign policy. Professor Rafanelli’s book, Promoting Justice Across Borders: The Ethics of Reform Intervention, takes on this task. It addresses topics such as toleration, legitimacy, collective self-determination, and the perils of activism in a non-ideal world to develop an ethics of foreign political influence well-suited to our geopolitical moment.

Professor Rafanelli is currently working on a second book project about the ethics of resistance in global context. She also has research interests in corporate agency and corporate personhood and the ethical issues surrounding the use of artificial intelligence.

PSC 2991 - Global Justice

PSC 2991 - Obligation, Obedience, and Power

IAFF 6118 - Global Justice

IAFF 6118 - The Ethics of Foreign Aid

As of March 8, 2022:

Books

– Promoting Justice Across Borders: The Ethics of Reform Intervention (New York: Oxford University Press, 2021)

Peer-Reviewed Articles

– “Promoting Justice Across Borders,” Political Studies 69, 2 (2021): 237-56, doi: 10.1177/0032321719875402

– “A Defense of Individualism in the Age of Corporate Rights,” The Journal of Political Philosophy 25, 3 (2017): 281-302, doi: 10.1111/jopp.12112

Commentaries & Research Notes

– “Justice, Injustice, and Artificial Intelligence: Lessons from Political Theory and Philosophy,” Big Data and Society 9, 1 (2022): 1-5, doi: 10.1177/20539517221080676

Invited Contributions & Book Reviews

– “Toleration and Political Change,” in Mitja Sardoč ed., The Palgrave Handbook of Toleration (Cham: Palgrave Macmillan, 2021): 173-87, doi: 10.1007/978-3-030-03227-2_57-1

– “Toward an Individualist Postcolonial Cosmopolitanism,” Millennium: Journal of International Studies 48, 3 (2020): 360-71, doi: 10.1177/0305829820935520 (Contribution to a book forum on Adom Getachew’s Worldmaking After Empire: The Rise and Fall of Self- Determination (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2019)

– Review of C.A.J. Coady, Ned Dobos, and Sagar Sanyal eds., Challenges for Humanitarian Intervention: Ethical Demand & Political Reality (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018), Journal of Moral Philosophy 17, 2 (2020): 229-32, doi: 10.1163/17455243-01702005

2018: Ph.D. in Politics, Princeton University

2015: M.A. in Politics, Princeton University

2013: B.A. in Government and Philosophy, Cornell University (magna cum laude in government, distinction in all subjects)