# Michelle T. Clarke

**Curriculum Vitae** · Updated October 2026

**Associate Professor of Government, Dartmouth College**

Department of Government, Dartmouth College, Silsby Hall 219A, HB 6108, Hanover, NH 03755

Michelle.T.Clarke@dartmouth.edu · [michelletclarke.com](https://michelletclarke.com) · ORCID [0000-0001-5427-2413](https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5427-2413)

## Academic appointments

**Dartmouth College**, 2007 – present

- Associate Professor of Government, July 2015 – present
- Assistant Professor of Government, July 2007 – July 2015 (tenure clock stopped 2009–10 and 2010–11)

## Education

- **Yale University**, Ph.D. with Distinction, Political Science, 2007. Dissertation: *Machiavelli’s Political Pluralism*. Committee: Steven B. Smith (chair), Ian Shapiro, Bryan Garsten.
- **Tufts University**, B.A. in Philosophy and Political Science, *summa cum laude*, 2001.

## Publications

### Books

1. Clarke, Michelle T. 2018. *Machiavelli’s Florentine Republic*. New York: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/9781316410776

### Books in preparation

1. *The Oxford History of Political Thought, Volume 5: The Renaissance (1400–1517)*. Under contract with Oxford University Press.
2. *Roman Political Thought*. In progress.

### Articles and book chapters

1. Clarke, Michelle T. 2025. “Liberty, the People, and Republican Constitutionalism in Cicero’s *Pro Rabirio perduellionis reo*.” *Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought* 42 (1): 9–28. https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340461
2. Clarke, Michelle T. 2023. “*Boni* Gone Bad: Cicero’s Critique of Epicureanism in *De finibus* 1 and 2.” *Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought* 40 (1): 25–43. https://doi.org/10.1163/20512996-12340389
3. Clarke, Michelle T. 2022. “Curing Virtue: Epicureanism and Erotic Fantasy in Machiavelli’s *Mandragola*.” *Political Theory* 50 (6): 913–938. https://doi.org/10.1177/00905917221095859
4. Clarke, Michelle T. 2022. “Machiavelli’s Virtuous Princes: Rhetoric, Power, and the Politics of Ironic Historiography.” *Journal of Politics* 84 (1): 483–495. https://doi.org/10.1086/715596
5. Clarke, Michelle T. 2022. “Style Is the Man Himself: Eloquence and the Revival of Roman Virtue in Renaissance Humanism.” *The Good Society: A Journal of Civic Studies* 31 (1–2): 150–157.
6. Clarke, Michelle T. 2021. “Machiavelli: Menace to *Societas*.” In *The Ciceronian Tradition in Political Theory*, edited by Daniel J. Kapust and Gary Remer, 86–102. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
7. Clarke, Michelle T., and Vickie B. Sullivan. 2016. “Machiavelli’s Political Thought.” *Oxford Bibliographies in Political Science*. Oxford University Press, 27 July 2016.
8. Clarke, Michelle T. 2015. “Machiavelli and the Imagined Rome of Renaissance Humanism.” *History of Political Thought* 36 (3): 452–470.
9. Clarke, Michelle T. 2014. “Doing Violence to the Roman Idea of Liberty? Freedom as Bodily Integrity in Roman Political Thought.” *History of Political Thought* 35 (2): 211–233.
10. Clarke, Michelle T. 2013. “The Mythologies of Contextualism: Method and Judgment in Skinner’s *Visions of Politics*.” *Political Studies* 61 (4): 767–783. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-9248.2012.01000.x
11. Clarke, Michelle T. 2013. “The Virtues of Republican Citizenship in Machiavelli’s *Discourses on Livy*.” *Journal of Politics* 75 (2): 317–329. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022381613000030
12. Clarke, Michelle Tolman. 2008. “Uprooting Nebuchadnezzar’s Tree: Francis Bacon’s Criticism of Machiavellian Imperialism.” *Political Research Quarterly* 61 (3): 367–378. https://doi.org/10.1177/1065912908318845
13. Clarke, Michelle Tolman. 2005. “On the Woman Question in Machiavelli.” *Review of Politics* 67 (2): 229–255. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0034670500033507

### Book series edited

1. *Concepts in the History of Political Thought*, Oxford University Press (with Jeffrey Church).

### Journal issues edited

1. Clarke, Michelle T., Daniel J. Kapust, and John T. Scott, eds. 2023. *Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought* 40 (1). Special issue, “A Memorial in Honor of Rex Stem, Scholar and Friend.”

### Book reviews and responses

1. Response to Yves Winter. Critical dialogue, *Perspectives on Politics* 17 (2) (2019): 505.
2. Review of Yves Winter, *Machiavelli and the Orders of Violence*. Critical dialogue, *Perspectives on Politics* 17 (2) (2019): 505–507.
3. Review of John P. McCormick, *Reading Machiavelli: Scandalous Books, Suspect Engagements, and the Virtue of Populist Politics*. *Law and Liberty*, 26 August 2019. Reprinted by RealClearPolicy.
4. Review of Daniel J. Kapust, *Flattery and the History of Political Thought*. *Perspectives on Politics* 17 (2) (2019): 560–562.
5. Review of Catherine Zuckert, *Machiavelli’s Politics*. *Political Theory*, 20 June 2018.
6. Review of Benjamin Straumann, *Crisis and Constitutionalism: Roman Political Thought from the Fall of the Republic to the Age of Revolution*. *New England Classical Journal* 44 (2) (2017): 123–126.
7. Review of Nicholas Scott Baker and Brian Jeffrey Maxson, eds., *After Civic Humanism: Learning and Politics in Renaissance Italy*. *Speculum* 92 (3) (2017): 789–791.
8. Review of Waller R. Newell, *Tyranny: A New Interpretation*. *Contemporary Political Theory* 16 (1) (2017): 165–168.
9. Review of Joy Connolly, *The Life of Roman Republicanism*. *Perspectives on Politics* 14 (1) (2016): 213–216.
10. Review of Jan H. Blits, *The Heart of Rome: Ancient Rome’s Political Culture*. *Review of Politics* 78 (1) (2016): 156–159.
11. Review of Paul A. Rahe, *Against Throne and Altar: Machiavelli and Political Theory under the English Republic*. *Perspectives on Political Science* 38 (2) (2009): 118–119.

## Workshops and invited talks (since 2013)

1. Invited speaker, “Machiavelli as Poet and Playwright.” Everscholar Program, Cambridge, MA, October 2025.
2. Invited speaker, Inaugural Conference of the Association for the History of Political Thought. University of Texas at Austin, March 2024.
3. Invited speaker, “Old Lessons for New Challenges: What the Past Can Teach about AI and New Media.” Tocqueville Forum on American Ideas and Institutions, University of Houston, January 2024.
4. Invited speaker, LeFrak Forum and Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy. Michigan State University, November 2023.
5. Keynote speaker, “The Reception of Roman Ideas and Practices.” European Research Council and University of Padua School of Law, Padua, March–April 2023.
6. Invited speaker, “The Literary, Historical, and Philosophical Sources of Machiavelli’s Thought and Works.” Villa Vigoni, German-Italian Centre for European Dialogue, Menaggio, March 2023.
7. Invited speaker, “New Directions in Roman Political Thought.” Ashland, OH, September 2022.
8. Invited speaker, “Elections, Partisanship, and Political Reform in America.” Tocqueville Forum, Georgetown University (online), April 2022.
9. Invited speaker, FISIER (Fédération Internationale des Sociétés et Instituts pour l’Étude de la Renaissance) Seminar (online), December 2021.
10. Invited speaker, Multi-University History of Political Thought Seminar (online), May 2021.
11. Invited speaker, Political Theory Workshop, University of Wisconsin–Madison (online), May 2021.
12. Plenary speaker, Inaugural Conference of the International Machiavelli Society, Rome. Scheduled December 2020; postponed to 2022 and 2023; withdrew.
13. Invited speaker, Harvard Early Modern Workshop, Harvard Political Theory Colloquium, and Colloquium for Intellectual History. Harvard University, November 2019.
14. Invited speaker, International Conference for the Study of Political Thought. Yale University, May 2019.
15. Respondent, Center for the Study of Representative Institutions. Yale University, February 2019.
16. Invited speaker, “*Mandragola* at 500.” University of Wisconsin–Madison, October 2018.
17. Invited speaker, “Hamlet in Wittenberg: Civic and Princely Education in Early Modern Europe.” Institute of Philosophy, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, September 2018.
18. Invited speaker, Conference Honoring Vickie B. Sullivan, Cornelia M. Jackson Professor of Political Science. Tufts University, October 2017.
19. Invited panelist, Inauguration of the Churchill Institute. Trinity College, April 2017.
20. Workshop participant, Yale Political Theory Workshop, February 2017.
21. Invited speaker, “The Italian Roots of Modernity: Machiavelli and Galileo.” Harvard University and Tufts University, November 2016.
22. Invited speaker, Second John C. Rouman Symposium, “Political Thought and Political Engagement in the Roman Empire.” University of New Hampshire, October 2016.
23. Invited speaker, Center for the Study of Representative Institutions. Yale University, May 2016.
24. Workshop participant, Dartmouth Medieval Studies Colloquium, April 2016.
25. Invited speaker, Speaker Series on Republicanism. College of the Holy Cross, January 2016.
26. Invited speaker, “Ancient Republics: An International Workshop” (second of three conferences on ancient republicanism hosted by Durham University, UW–Madison, and UC San Diego). University of Wisconsin–Madison, April 2015.
27. Workshop participant, Political Theory Workshop, University of California, San Diego, March 2015.
28. Workshop participant, Political Theory Workshop, Georgetown University, November 2014.
29. Invited speaker, UC Davis Speaker Series, “Machiavelli and the Atlantic Republican Tradition, Revisited.” University of California, Davis, January 2014.
30. Invited speaker, Conference on the 500th Anniversary of the Writing of Niccolò Machiavelli’s *Prince*. Harvard University, September 2013.

## Conference presentations (since 2013)

- “Divine and Conquer: Machiavelli’s Criticism of Cicero in *Discourses* 1.52.” Renaissance Society of America, March 2023.
- “Curing Virtue in Machiavelli’s *Mandragola*.” New England Political Science Association, April 2022; American Political Science Association, August 2019.
- Roundtable on James Hankins, *Virtue Politics*. American Political Science Association, September 2021.
- “Machiavelli and Cicero.” International Society for the History of Rhetoric, July 2019.
- Roundtable on Daniel J. Kapust, *Flattery and the History of Political Thought*. Southern Political Science Association, January 2019.
- Roundtable on Michelle T. Clarke, *Machiavelli’s Florentine Republic*. Southern Political Science Association, January 2019.
- Roundtable on Alison McQueen, *Political Realism in Apocalyptic Times*. American Political Science Association, August 2018.
- “Machiavelli’s Virtuous Princes.” American Political Science Association, August 2016; Western Political Science Association, April 2015; Northeastern Political Science Association, November 2014.
- “Rome, Real or Imagined? Machiavelli’s Rejoinder to Humanism in the *Discourses on Livy*.” American Political Science Association, August 2014; Western Political Science Association, April 2014.
- “Liberty as Civility: Machiavelli’s *Vivere Civile* and Its Basis in Roman Political Thought.” American Political Science Association, August 2013.

## Media

- Interviewed for “Machiavelli: The Prince of Paradox,” *Ideas with Paul Kennedy*, CBC Radio, 6 November 2013. Shortlisted, New York Festivals International Radio Program Awards.

## Grants

- 2009 — Dewey Crawford ’63 Endowment Fund for Forums in Professional Ethics
- 2009 — Rockefeller/McNulty Faculty Research Grant

## Fellowships and prizes (since 2013)

- 2020 — Apgar Award for Innovative Teaching, Dartmouth College
- 2019 — Senior Fellowship, Institute for Advanced Study, Central European University (declined)
- 2015 — Elizabeth R. and Robert A. Jeffe 1972 Fellowship
- 2015 — Walter and Constance Burke Junior Faculty Research Award
- 2014 — Walter and Constance Burke Junior Faculty Research Award
- 2013 — Dartmouth Junior Faculty Fellowship

## Courses taught

- Political Ideas
- Humanities I and II
- Plutarch’s Guide to Leadership
- Democratic Theory
- Roman Political Thought
- Machiavelli and Machiavellianism
- Classical Political Realism: Power and Statecraft in the Ancient World
- The Political Philosophy of Nietzsche
- The Political Philosophy of J.J. Rousseau
- An Intellectual History of Racism
- The Political Theory of *Game of Thrones*
- Government Honors Program

## Offices and affiliations

- Co-Chair, APSA Division 1: Political Thought and Philosophy (2025)
- Book Award Committee, Association for the History of Political Thought (2024–2025)
- Nominating Committee, American Political Science Association (2024)
- Executive Council, New England Political Science Association (2013–2015)
- Political Theory Section Chair, New England Political Science Association (2013)

Member: American Political Science Association; Foundations of Political Theory (organized section of APSA); Association for Political Theory; Yale Elizabethan Club.

## Reviewer service

**Journals:** *American Journal of Political Science*; *American Political Science Review*; *Classical Review*; *History of Political Thought*; *I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance*; *Journal of Classical Philology*; *Journal of the Philosophy of History*; *Journal of Politics*; *Political Research Quarterly*; *Political Studies*; *Polis*; *Polity*; *Review of Politics*; *Theoria: A Journal of Social and Political Theory*.

**Presses:** Columbia University Press; Harvard University Press; Lexington Books; Polity Press; Routledge; University of Chicago Press.

**Other:** National Endowment for the Humanities; external review committee, Department of Political Science, Skidmore College.