Biography
Dr. Claudia Leeb is a tenured Associate Professor of Political Theory in the School of Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs at Washington State University. She is also a research affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. Dr. Leeb is originally from Austria and received her Ph.D. in Political Theory and her M.A. in Gender Studies and Feminist Theory from The New School for Social Research in New York City. She also holds a Ph.D. in Psychology and Philosophy of Science and an M.S. in Psychology from the University of Vienna in Austria. Before coming to Washington State University in 2012, she taught at Roanoke College and Dartmouth College and held post-doc positions at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.
Dr. Leeb works at the intersection of early Frankfurt school critical theory, feminist political theory, and psychoanalytic theory to address questions of power and socio-political change in contemporary societies. She is best known for bringing together German critical theory, psychoanalytic thought, and contemporary Continental thinkers to critically analyze structures of power, political subjectivity, and, more recently, the far right.
She is the author of five books: Contesting the Far Right: A Psychoanalytic and Feminist Critical Theory Approach (2024, Columbia University Press, New Directions in Critical Theory); The Politics of Repressed Guilt: The Tragedy of Austrian Silence (2018, Edinburgh University Press); Power and Feminist Agency in Capitalism: Toward a New Theory of the Political Subject (2017, Oxford University Press), for which she has received the ASCINA (Austrian Scientists and Scholars in North America) Award for research excellence; Working-Class Women in Elite Academia: A Philosophical Inquiry (2004, Peter Lang Publisher); and Die Zerstӧrung des Mythos von der Friedfertigen Frau [The Destruction of the Myth of the Peaceful Woman] (1998, Peter Lang Publisher).
Currently she is also working on Power: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, under contract).
She has published peer-reviewed articles in several journals, including Political Theory, Perspectives of Politics, Theory & Event, Contemporary Political Theory, Constellations, Social Philosophy Today, The Good Society, Open Cultural Studies, Philosophy & Social Criticism, The Berlin Journal of Critical Theory, and Radical Philosophy Review. She has also contributed several peer-reviewed book chapters to anthologies.
She lectures about her work around the world. In addition, several distinguished grants and fellowships have supported her research, including a Fulbright Fellowship and an APART (Austrian Program for Advanced Research and Technology) Fellowship.
Dr. Leeb is also a dedicated educator. She teaches graduate and undergraduate courses in political theory and philosophy in Washington State University’s Politics, Philosophy, and Public Affairs School. She also supervises doctoral candidates in political theory and philosophy.
Finally, Dr. Leeb also actively serves the profession and Washington State University.
She also loves to travel the world and explore new countries and cultures.