Sophie Marcotte Chénard
Contemporary political and social philosophy, 19th and 20th-century German thought, French democratic theory, Weimar thought, philosophy of history and interpretative approaches to the history of political ideas
| Degrees: | BA, MA (U Ottawa); Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS), Paris |
| Phone: | 613-520-2600 x 2577 |
| Email: | sophie.marcottechenard@carleton.ca |
| Office: | D690 |
| CV: | View |
Associate Professor
Sophie Marcotte Chénard is a political theorist who specializes in modern and contemporary political philosophy, 19th- and 20th-century German thought, philosophy of history, French democratic theory as well as interpretive approaches in the history of political ideas.
She is the author of Devant l’histoire en crise. Raymond Aron et Leo Strauss (University of Montreal Press, 2022), which offers a fresh interpretation of the intellectual exchange between two key figures in 20th-century political thought. The book examines how the crisis of historicism—particularly in interwar Germany and France—shaped debates about the possibilities and limits of political judgment.
Her published work also includes contributions in continental political thought, democratic theory, epistemology of the social sciences and theory of history. Her research appeared in The Review of Politics, Journal of the Philosophy of History, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, H-Diplo, Cahiers Philosophiques, Politique & Sociétés among others. Sophie Marcotte Chénard also led a SSHRC IDG funded project investigating how the concept of “crisis” functions in contemporary political discourse. Drawing on Reinhart Koselleck’s Begriffsgeschichte approach, her research traces the evolution, uses, and performative power of “crisis” as a rhetorical and conceptual tool in politics.
Before joining the Department of Political Science at Carleton, she completed a Postdoctoral Fellowship in political theory at the University of Toronto. A native of Quebec, she earned her BA in Political Science and Philosophy and an MA in Philosophy from the University of Ottawa before completing her PhD in Political Philosophy at the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (EHESS) in Paris. She has also held a Visiting Doctoral Fellowship at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.
Selected Publications
Devant l’histoire en crise. Raymond Aron et Leo Strauss (University of Montreal Press (PUM), Coll. Pensée allemande et européenne, 2022), 360 p.
“The Critique of Historical Reason and the Challenge of Historicism“, Dialogue: Canadian Philosophical Review, Advance online publication, June 9, 2022.
Review: H-Diplo Roundtable XXI-54 on I. Stewart. Raymond Aron and Liberal Thought in the Twentieth Century
“What Can We Learn from Political History? Leo Strauss and Raymond Aron, Readers of Thucydides”, The Review of Politics, Vol. 80, No. 1 (2018), 57-86.
“Is Collingwood a Historicist? Remarks on Leo Strauss’s Critique of Collingwood’s Philosophy of History”, Journal of the Philosophy of History, Vol. 11, No. 3 (2017), 324-341.
“A Practical Past Beyond the Historical Past?”, Book Forum, Journal of History of Ideas Blog, April 2017.
“Qu’est-ce qu’une oeuvre de pensée? Réflexions sur l’art de lire lefortien”(What is a ‘Work of Thought’? Remarks on Claude Lefort’s Art of Reading), Politique & Sociétés, Vol. 34, No. 1 (2015), 149-171.