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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

There are a number of people and institutions that have helped this book come into existence and deserve thanks. The project advanced at key moments thanks to the support of the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy of the University at Albany, the University of British Columbia, and Northwestern University. Northwestern offered me a small and richly interdisciplinary environment that has indelibly shaped my intellectual interests, especially in the Paris Program in Critical Theory led by Samuel Weber. It was my great fortune to present my work to the political theory community at UBC, and especially to have Barbara Arneil as a colleague. At SUNY Albany, I am grateful to David Rousseau and Julie Novkov for supporting research and family leave as well as organizing a manuscript workshop. The comments that I received in this workshop were both generous and useful in bringing this project to completion. Thank you to Douglas Casson, James Farr, Don Herzog, and Melissa Schwartzberg for this.

Over the life of this project, I have enjoyed the encouragement of close friends, both fellow academics and bemused onlookers. Thanks to Jennifer O’Donnell Erbs, Geneviève Rousselière, Zakir Paul, Jessica Keating, Jenny Peterson, Lisa Fuller, Sudarat Musikawong, Stephanie Olson, and Ron Schmidt. Conversations with and welcome criticism from a number of political theorists have enriched this project: Dean Mathiowetz, James Martel, Vicki Hsueh, Jimmy Klausen, Patchen Markell, Michaele Ferguson, Davide Panagia, Mary Dietz, Kennan Ferguson, Ivan Ascher, Karen Zivi, Jill Locke, Cristina Beltrán, Asma Abbas, Andrew Dilts, Robyn Marasco, Libby Anker, Matt Scherer, Cricket Keating, Brian Danoff, Laura Janara, Bruce Baum, and Mark Warren, in addition to anonymous reviewers for Political Theory and Penn State University Press. Several graduate students offered valuable support as research assistants on this project: Christine Klunk Dow, Sean McKeever, and Reed Williams.

I happily find myself part of a thriving theory community in upstate New York, centered around the SUNY Albany political theory workshop. My colleagues, Morton Schoolman and Peter Breiner, have been continuously supportive and encouraging. The lively circle of feminist political theory that I share with Laurie Naranch and Lori Marso has made Albany feel like home.

I am fortunate to have had teachers, advisors, and intellectual interlocutors who remain unparalleled models for me of rigorous and creative scholarship in political theory. Although not connected with this project, Michael Rogin and Hanna Pitkin first introduced me to the study of political theory, and its relation to language and culture especially. This project benefited greatly from Kirstie McClure’s generous comments, which have richly repaid close rereading and re-thinking (both the comments and Locke). I am grateful to Bonnie Honig, whose seminars first introduced me to Locke’s Essay and its strange and fascinating denizens. Her insightful comments have often inspired me to think more expansively and creatively. Thanks to Linda Zerilli, whose exemplary engagement in political and feminist theory has taught me so much. Her ongoing support of this project has been invaluable.

I am grateful to my family, who have followed the ups and downs of this project for many years and provided much needed breaks from it: my parents, Janetta and Noel Shumway and Ralph and Lisa Shanks, as well as Laurel Shanks and Mark Wegner, John Thompson, and Shailaja and Ramesh Chandra, and not least, Clover, my cosmopolitan cat. Thanks to Brandi Alund-Welsh for her outstanding care for my son.

There is no repaying the debts of patience and support from my partner, Ambarish. I can only say happily that in other futures, there will now be other projects, for both of us. I most look forward to continuing our shared project that arrived just as this manuscript approached completion, our son, Jasper Bal, who brings joy and havoc.