MARA G. MARIN
Post-doctoral Fellow, Justitia Amplificata Center, Frankfurt University
Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities
Am Wingertsberg 4
61348 Bad Homburg v. d. Höhe, Germany
+49 (0) 162 1688752
mara@uchicago.edu
maramarin.weebly.com
EDUCATION
Ph.D., University of Chicago, Political Science
2008
Dissertation: Taking Commitments Seriously
Committee: Charles LARMORE, Jacob LEVY (co-chairs), Patchen MARKELL
Robert GOODING-WILLIAMS (former chair: Iris M. YOUNG)
M.A., University of Chicago, Political Science
M.A. paper: “Community and Social Criticism”
2003
M.A., Central European University, Budapest, Gender and Culture
2000
M.A. paper: “The National Dream between the Home Threshold and
the Agora: A Feminist Perspective on Liberal Nationalism”
Visiting Graduate Student, Nuffield College, Oxford University
1998-99
M.A., University of Bucharest, Philosophy
1998
B.A., University of Bucharest, Philosophy
1997
ACADEMIC POSITIONS
Frankfurt University, Institute for Advanced Studies in the Humanities 2012-13
Postdoctoral fellow, Justitia Amplificata Center
University of Chicago
Harper Schmidt Fellow in the Society of Fellows and
Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences Collegiate Division
2008-12
RESEARCH INTERESTS
Feminist theory, social theory, theories of oppression, social contract tradition, theories
of justice, domination, authority, political obligation, history of political thought.
PUBLICATIONS
Articles in English
“Care, Oppression and Marriage” (forthcoming in Hypatia).
”Marriage as Commitment: A Revisionary Argument” in American Multicultural Studies,
edited by Sherrow O. Pinder, Sage Publications, 2012.
“Reflective Equilibrium: A Misconceived Requirement?” in Polis, Journal of Political
Science vol. 6, no.1/1999
Mara Marin – CV – Page 2
PUBLICATIONS (Articles in English) (Continued)
“The Role of Textbooks in the Process of Gender Socialization” in. Djurdja Knezevic
(ed.) Women and Politics - Seminar Documentation, Zagreb: Zenska Infoteka Press, 1998
“Women in Politics and Politics for Women”, in Djurdja Knezevic, Koraljia Dilic
(editors) Vlast bez zena ili dugi mars/Governments Without Women or the Long March,
Zagreb: Zenska Infoteka, 1997.
Working Papers
“What is Structural about Structural Injustice? A Critique of Iris Young’s Reliance on
the Rawls-an Idea of the Basic Structure”
“Commitment and Unpredictable Obligations: A Blind Spot of Contract Theory”
“Rousseau’s Transformed Aristotelianism”
“Gender Oppression and the Discourse of Choice”
“The Incoherence of Consent Theory”
Articles in Romanian
“John Rawls: A Theory of Justice” in Laurentiu Stefan (ed.), Dictionar de scrieri politice
fundamentale (A Dictionary of Fundamental Political Writings), Bucharest: Humanitas, 2000.
“An analysis of high school textbooks from a gender perspective" (as a joint author) in
Laura Grunberg and Mihaela Miroiu (eds.), Gen si educatie (Gender and Education),
Bucharest: ANA Press, 1997.
Reviews
“Looking Backward: Theoretical Problems and Practical Risks of the Romanian Leftist
Conservatism” in The Romanian Journal of Society and Politics, vol.1, no.1/2001
Review of George Voicu’s The Evil Gods. The Culture of Conspiracy in Post-communist
Romania in The Romanian Journal of Society and Politics, vol.1, no.1/2001
“The Reflection on Social Sciences as a Source for the Problem of Relativism,” in Polis,
vol. 4, No.4/1997
Translations into Romanian
Gregor McLennan, Pluralism, Editura Universal DuStyle, Bucharest, 1998
“Gender Roles" and “Gender Needs” in Laura Grunberg and Mihaela Miroiu (eds.), Gen
si societate (Gender and Society), Alternative, Bucharest, 1997
I-M. Young: "Pregnant Embodiment: Subjectivity and Alienation" in Sophia, a reader of
feminist philosophy.
R. Dworkin: "The Original Position" in Teorii ale dreptatii sociale (Theories of social justice),
editor Adrian Miroiu, Editura Alternative, Bucharest, 1996.
D. Gauthier: "Justice as Social Choice" in Teorii ale dreptatii sociale.
Mara Marin – CV – Page 3
BOOK MANUSCRIPT – CONNECTED BY COMMITMENT: RETHINKING RELATIONS OF OPPRESSION
ABSTRACT
I argue that our obligation to undermine oppression is an obligation of commitment, not of
contract or consent, because the oppressive effects of our actions extend beyond the
intentions we hold when we act. My book makes two contributions: a conceptual and a
normative one. At the conceptual level, I elaborate a notion of commitment. In a
“commitment,” the agent incurs obligations in virtue of his or her voluntary actions but
without knowing in advance the precise content of these obligations. Thus understood,
commitment constitutes an alternative to the two prevalent conceptions of social relations
and their obligations: as chosen (on the contractual or consensual models) or as given (on
the familial relations model). These conceptions are unable to give an account of the
distinctive type of actions that reinforce oppressive structures. The latter model
overemphasizes the given character of actions, and treats their effects as unconnected to
human action and therefore as unchangeable. The contract model overemphasizes the
voluntary character of such actions by treating them as deliberately chosen and creating
only obligations of consent. Given that we have not consented to oppression, this model
cannot justify an obligation to undermine it. On the contrary, it justifies individual
isolation in a sphere strictly delimited by actions we have control over. I argue that my
notion of commitment overcomes the shortcomings of these other models because it
combines two features usually thought to be mutually exclusive: commitments are
voluntary, yet not fully subject to the agents’ control. Oppression is sustained by
individual actions in virtue of their cumulative effects, not of the agents’ intentions, which
makes commitment a superior model for understanding oppressive social relations. This
conceptual argument is the basis of my normative position. We have an obligation to
dismantle oppressive structures because they are effects of our actions. As they are effects
of accumulated action, our obligation to dismantle oppressive structures takes the form of
repeatedly acting against norms that support them.
I expect to send the full manuscript to publishers in Autumn 2013.
PAPER PRESENTATIONS
Invited presentations
Unpredictable Obligations of Commitment. A Blind Spot of Contract Theory, Reed College,
April 2013
Marriage as Commitment: A Revisionary Argument, Université de Montréal, June 4, 2010
Political Obligation as Commitment, Cornell Political Theory Colloquium, October 24,
2007
Reflective Equilibrium – A Misconceived Requirement?, Nuffield College, Oxford
University, May 1999
Conferences
Gender Oppression and the Language of Choice, WPSA, Los Angeles, 2013
Rousseau on the Thesis of Natural Sociability, MPSA, Chicago, 2012
Rousseau’s Transformed Aristotelianism, WPSA, Portland, 2012
Oppressive Social Relations as Responses to Human Vulnerability, APSA, Seattle, 2011
A Revisionary Understanding of Marriage as Commitment, MPSA, Chicago, 2011
Marital Subordination and the Case for a Revisionary Concept of Marriage as Commitment,
APSA, Washington, DC, 2010
What Consent Theory Can Tell Us about Political Authority, CPSA, Montreal, 2010
The Failure of Consent Theory, MPSA, Chicago, 2010
Mara Marin – CV – Page 4
PAPER PRESENTATIONS (Conferences) (Continued)
What Is the Problem with Consent Theory?, WPSA, San Francisco, 2010
The Marriage Institution: Status or Contract?, MPSA, Chicago, 2009
Commitment and the Problem of Judgment, NEPSA, Providence, 2008
Political Obligation as Commitment, APSA, Chicago, 2007
What is Wrong with the Work Contract?, NEPSA, Portsmouth 2006
The Political Significance of Commitments, MPSA, Chicago, 2006
The Justice of Work. Two Conceptual Models, SWPSA, San Antonio, 2006
Is Liberal Marriage Possible?, APSA, Washington, DC, 2005
Marriage as Commitment, MPSA, Chicago, 2005
Reflective Equilibrium as a Misconceived Requirement, Warwick Graduate Conference in
Political Thought, Department of Politics & International Studies, 1999
Workshop presentations
Commitment Obligations. Rethinking Relationships of Oppression, Frankfurt University
Justitia Amplificata Colloquium, November 29, 2012.
What Consent Theory Can Tell Us about Political Authority, Chicago Political Theory
Workshop, October 18, 2010.
Work as Commitment, Chicago Political Theory Workshop, March 3, 2008
Contract or Commitment? Making Political Obligation Legitimate, Chicago Political Theory
Workshop, April 17, 2006
Is Marriage a Liberal Institution? Chicago Political Theory Workshop, April 4, 2005
Community and Social Criticism, Chicago Political Theory Workshop, May 17, 2004
OTHER CONFERENCE PARTICIPATIONS
Participant in Author Meets Critics: Law’s Relations by J. Nedelsky, WPSA, Portland, 2012
Participant in and organizer of Structures of Oppression and the Discourse of Rights, APSA,
Seattle, 2011 (with Nancy Hartsock, Mary Hawkesworth, Claudia Leeb and Jacqueline
Stevens)
Organizer of (and paper presenter on) Rethinking Gender Subordination, APSA, 2010
(with Amy Allen, Hagar Kotef, Keisha Lindsay and Claire McKinney)
Organizer of (and paper presenter on) The Problem of Political Obligation, APSA, 2007
(with Margaret Gilbert, George Klosko, Russell Muirhead, Daniel Viehoff, and Jeremy
Waldron)
Discussant on MPSA panels (2011: Political Responsibility; 2010: Biopolitics: Reproduction
and the Family; 2009: Perspectives on Equality; 2007: Rousseau)
Discussant on APSA panels (2010: The Good Citizen: Re-thinking Political Obligation;
2008: Feminist Theory and “Redistribution”; 2006: Care and Social Justice)
Chair and discussant for The Uses and Limits of Ideals in Political Judgment, CPSA, Montreal, 2010
Chair on APT panels (2009: Global Justice and Injustice; 2011: Identity and Exclusion)
Discussant at the Chicago Political Theory Workshop on papers by Charles BEITZ, Jill
FRANK, Elisabetta GALEOTTI, Edith GARNEAU, Breena HOLLAND, Leigh JENCO, David
MILLER, Elizabeth WINGROVE, 2002-2005
Discussant for Panel on Max Weber, Area Studies Redux: Situating Knowledge in a
Globalizing World, A conference in Recognition of Susanne H. and Lloyd I. Rudolph,
2003
Mara Marin – CV – Page 5
PRIZES AND FELLOWSHIPS
Wayne C. Booth Graduate Student Prize for Excellence in Teaching (2008)
Mellon Foundation/Social Sciences Dissertation-Year Fellowship (2006-07)
Grodzins Prize Lectureship (for teaching Introduction to Feminist Political Theories)
(2007)
APSA Travel Grant, American Political Science Association (2005)
Dissertation Teaching and Research Fellowship (2005-06)
Global Supplementary Grant Award, Open Society Institute (2005, 2006)
Nicholson Center Student Initiative Award for organizing the conference Principles of
Associations in British History, with Victor Muniz-Fraticelli (April 2005)
Doolittle-Harrison Fellowship, University of Chicago (2003)
Access To Research Infrastructure Action, European University Institute, Florence (2002)
Century Scholarship, University of Chicago (2001-05)
Central European University Scholarship (1999-00)
Soros/Foreign and Commonwealth Office Chevening Scholarship (1998-99)
Tempus grant at Paris-X Nanterre University (February-May 1997)
CLASSES TAUGHT
University of Chicago:
Classics of Social and Political Thought, 2005, 2006, 2008-12
Theories of Oppression, Autumn 2011
Introduction to Feminist Political Theories, Autumn 2007.
Problems in the Study of Sexuality, Autumn 2007 (co-taught with Lauren BERLANT).
TA: Classics of Social and Political Thought
MA workshop leader, Department of Political Science 2004-05.
University of Bucharest
Political Institutions, 2001
TA: History of Political Thought and Political Philosophy
PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Referee for Hypatia: A Journal of Feminist Philosophy
Referee for Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Member of the College Council, University of Chicago (elected term: 2009-2012)
Member of the Chicago Political Science Department search committee (2006-2007)
Co-editor for Foundations of Political Theory Book Reviews (Fall 2003-Fall 2006)
Student coordinator for the Chicago Political Theory Workshop (Fall 2003-Spring
2005)
Editor for the Romanian Academic Society (January 2001-July 2001).
FOREIGN LANGUAGES
Romanian (native); French (reading proficiency, speaking ability)
Mara Marin – CV – Page 6
REFERENCES
TEACHING REFERENCES
ROBERT GOODING-WILLIAMS, Ralph and
Mary Otis Isham Professor, Political
Science and the College, University of
Chicago
LAUREN BERLANT, George M. Pullman
Professor, Department of English
Language and Literature, Center for
Gender Studies and the College,
University of Chicago
University of Chicago
Department of Political Science
5828 S. University Ave.
Chicago, Illinois, 60637
773 702-8060
bgoodingwilliams@uchicago.edu
CHARLES LARMORE, Professor of
Philosophy, W. Duncan MacMillan
Professor in the Humanities, Brown
University
University of Chicago
Department of English
1115 East 58th Street
Chicago, IL 60637
773 702-8060
l-berlant@uchicago.edu
JENNIFER PITTS, Associate Professor,
Political Science and the College,
University of Chicago
Brown University
Department of Philosophy
204 Gerard House
54 College St.
Providence, Rhode Island, 02912
401 863-3001
Charles_Larmore@Brown.edu
University of Chicago
Department of Political Science
5828 S. University Ave.
Chicago, Illinois, 60637
773 702-8868
jpitts@uchicago.edu
JACOB LEVY, Tomlinson Professor of
Political Theory, McGill University
NATHAN TARCOV, Professor of Social
Thought, Political Science and the College,
University of Chicago
McGill University
Department of Political Science
855 Sherbrooke Street West
Montreal, Quebec, H3A 2T7, Canada
514 398-5519
jacob.levy@mcgill.ca
University of Chicago
Committee on Social Thought
1130 E. 59th Street
Chicago, Illinois, 60637
773 702-8064
nst1@uchicago.edu
PATCHEN MARKELL, Associate Professor,
Political Science and the College,
University of Chicago
University of Chicago
Department of Political Science
5828 S. University Ave.
Chicago, Illinois, 60637
773 702-8057
pmarkell@uchicago.edu