Biography
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. She is now a tenured Associate Professor of Political Theory at Washington State University. She is also a research affiliate of the Center for European Studies at Harvard University. Before coming to Washington State University, she was an Assistant Professor at Roanoke College and a Visiting Assistant Professor at Dartmouth College, and held post-doc positions at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.
Dr. Leeb is a feminist political theorists who 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 capitalist societies. Two questions drive her research: First, what are the mechanisms of power that subordinate the working classes, women, and minorities in contemporary societies? Second, what can we do to transform these mechanisms of power to create more just societies in which everybody has a chance to thrive? In her recent and upcoming research, Dr. Leeb addresses these questions in four coinciding research areas: political subjectivity, the rise of the far right, political guilt and democracy, and academic institutions. She has published and forthcoming books, journal articles, and book-chapters in these research areas.
She is the author of five books with two more in the making: 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).
She just completed her new book Power: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, under contract). Her books in progress analyze why women join the anti-feminist far right, and why women leave their countries of origin to pursue their academic careers in the United States of America.
She is also responsible for updating and maintaining the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entry on "Psychoanalytic Feminism" (the most recent update was on October 3, 2025).
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 and appears regularly on media.
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.
Dr. Leeb also actively serves the profession and the university.
Last, but not least, she also loves to travel the world and explore new countries and cultures.