Alexander W. Diones
Instructor of Political Science | Loyola Marymount University
Los Angeles, CA, UNITED STATES
Biography
Alexander Diones’s research looks to the history of political thought, with particular regard to theories of economy and emotion. He received his PhD from the University of California, Los Angeles.
Prof. Diones’s research examines theories of organizing, collective action, and social transformation. His dissertation, entitled “Habit in Modern Political Thought,” explores how political theorists have understood repetition—whether through custom, tradition, or routine labor—to be a crucial resource for political action. Although we tend to think of habit and social transformation as contrary ideas, this dissertation demonstrates that there is a minor tradition of political thinking that understands the contest over the meaning and significance of habit to be a contest over the terms of social transformation. This work surveys a set of figures who not only provide arguments for how to act morally but understand the everyday activities of habit as the central dimension of moral and political life. By examining the prehistory of what has come to be known variously as behaviorism, affect theory, Prof. Diones’s work hopes to better understand how action results in but also sometimes frustrates enduring political transformation.
Prof. Diones taches classes on modern political thought, democratic theory, and the history of emotions. While at UCLA, Prof. Diones taught extensively in both the political science department and the honors-level “cluster” program. He has also served as an assistant editor for the journal Political Theory.
For more information, please visit alexdiones.com
Education (3)
UCLA: Ph.D., Political Science 2022
UCLA: M.A., Political Science 2018
Amherst College: B.A., Mathematics and Political Science 2014
Accomplishments (8)
Dissertation Year Fellowship, UCLA
2021
William S. Minor Dissertation Fellowship, AIPCT
2020
Promise Institute Graduate Fellowship, UCLA Law
2019
Graduate Research Mentorship Grant, UCLA
2017 - 2018
Amherst Memorial Fellowship, Amherst College
2018 - 2019
Forris Jewett Moore Fellowship, Amherst College
2016 - 2018
Graduate Summer Research Mentorship Grant, UCLA
2016, 2017
Edwin W. Pauley Fellowship, UCLA
2015 - 2018
Links (1)
Languages (4)
- Mandarin (fluent)
- French (intermediate)
- Spanish (intermediate)
- Latin (Intermediate writing)
Articles (3)
“As It Regards Poetry.” Review of Anne Boyer, A Handbook of Disappointed Fate
Cleveland Review of Books2018
On Logic and the Theory of Ensembles: Formalism and Alain Badiou’s Experience of Politics
Theory & Event2017
Play, Work, and Marcuse’s Critique of Opposition
PolityUnder Review
