Scott Ritner

Scott B. Ritner joined the Political Science department at CU in 2022 following appointments at SUNY Potsdam (2021-2022) and Temple University (2018-2021). He earned his PhD from The New School for Social Research in 2018. Scott's research focuses on 20th and 21st Century Critical Social Theory, Race & Ethnic Politics, conceptions of progress and pessimism, and Popular Culture including literature and music.  He previously served as Vice President (2019-2022) and President (2022-2025) of the American Weil Society (http://www.americanweilsociety.org). 

His book manuscript, Revolutionary Pessimism: Simone Weil's Antifascism was the subject of the First Book Manuscript Workshop at the 2024 conference of the Association for Political Theory and is currently under advanced contract. The book brings the work of French philosopher, activist, and mystic, Simone Weil (1909-1943) on to the stage of political theory and critical theory and mobilizes her thought to analyze contemporary questions of neo-authoritarianism, neo-fascism and contemporary conditions of work.

 He teaches courses in Political Theory, American Politics, and Comparative Politics. When not researching or teaching, you can [try to] find him in the mountains.