Remembering Professor Kirstie McClure

In Memoriam

Prof. Kirstie McClure (July 15, 1951 – December 21, 2023)

It is with much sadness that I share with you the news that UCLA’s Prof. Kirstie McClure has passed away of coronary disease.

Prof. McClure was a formidable colleague and friend to many of us who will no doubt remember her with fond trepidation for her critical energies, her brilliance, her encyclopedic knowledge of the history of political thought, and her refusal to leave a thought unfinished. Her contributions to political theory, the history of political thought, feminist theory, and critical political theory were many, both published, institutional, and as a mentor to innumerable students and scholars currently teaching throughout the world.

A Ph.D. graduate from Princeton University, Prof. McClure began her professional career at the Arizona State University, quickly followed by an extended period of teaching at The Johns Hopkins University, finally arriving at UCLA in the late 1990s. Judging Rights: Lockean Politics and the Limits of Consent (Cornell, 1996) was a magisterial contribution, both in terms of content and method, to the study of the history of political thought, the history of rights language, and the political theory of John Locke; and the same can be said about her many published essay contributions in various volumes throughout her career.

Her work helped define the interdisciplinary turn in political theory and introduced many of us to critical reading practices from various fields of inquiry not available in traditional American political science research. Indeed, her scholarly achievements are acknowledged by many as culminating in her commitment to multidisciplinary and pluralist reading practices that she forcefully put on display in her engagements with the finished and unfinished works of many of us at conferences, in personal exchanges, and as editor. In this respect, her contributions to the profession of political theory extend to her leadership as a member of the American Political Science Association and as Political Theory editor of the American Political Science Review. Not the least was Prof. McClure’s championing of feminist theory and scholarship at a time and a in a discipline where this avenue of inquiry was relegated to a domesticated corner of political science departments. It is safe to say that Kirstie’s contributions to the study of political theory opened a Pandora’s Box, and we are all grateful for it.

Prof. McClure was also a devoted teacher who shared her passion for political theory inquiry with her students throughout her professional career. She cared deeply that students learn the complexities of critical thinking through the development of reading and writing practices that one might carry with them beyond the completion of their degree requirements. Never a softie, Prof. McClure made certain that we were all taken to task for our commitments and our political arguments so that we may be sure that our convictions were as brilliant and honest as they could be.

With sadness,
Davide Panagia
Chair, Political Science
UCLA