Quinn Lester

Quinn Lester is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Politics, primarily teaching Political Theory and American Politics. He is returning to W&L after a two-year postdoc in the University Writing Program at Johns Hopkins University, where he also received his Ph.D. in Political Science. He has taught courses widely in Modern and Contemporary Political Theory, American Political Thought, Criminology, Law & Society, and Film Studies. He is excited to engage with students at W&L on both the perennial questions of political life and the latest challenges, both domestic and global, to governing well. 

His research lies at the intersection of Democratic Theory, American Political Thought, and Police Studies. He is especially interested in how contemporary police practices impact definitions of the healthiness, or failures, of liberal democracies today. His research also investigates how political actors both for and against changes in policing produce, refine, and debate their ideas from city streets to Congress. His solo-authored, peer-reviewed writing has been published at Contemporary Political Theory; Law, Culture, and the Humanities; Constellations; Politics, Groups, and Identities; New Political Science; and Social Science Quarterly.