Biography

Naomi Ellis is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in political theory. Prior to entering UCLA, she received her BA in international relations from the University of Tokyo, Japan. Her research interests include democratic theory, performativity, narratives of defeat and failure, antiwar pacifism, and postwar Japanese political thought.

Her article, “Rousseau’s Lawgiver and Nascent Societies: Rethinking ‘Contingency’ in Agonistic Democracy” has been published in Polity (https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/736051).

Her article, “From Universalism to Situated Universality: Reconfiguring Kantian Pacifism Naomi Ellis” is forthcoming in Contemporary Political Theory.

Her article, “Foreign-Imposed Constitutions: Problematizing Revolutionary Foundings of Democracy” is under review (R&R) at Political Theory.

From 2022-2023, she served as an assistant editor for the journal Political Theory.

Research Interests

Political Theory

Graduate Advisors

Joshua Foa Dienstag