Dr. Andrea Ciliotta-Rubery is the Department’s political theorist. She came to SUNY Brockport in 1996, after several years of teaching at NYU. She received her Bachelor’s degree from Colgate University in 1985, with a degree in political science. She then went on to get a Master’s Degree and Doctorate from Georgetown University in political theory. Specializing in the Middle Ages and Renaissance periods, Dr. Rubery interests focus on Machiavelli and the impact of his writings upon Christianity. Dr. Rubery has also served as a discussant for various APSA theory sections on Machiavelli and has presented on various topics including Machiavelli’s spiritual fathers, Shakespeare and Turgenev, Political Realism and the films of De Seca and Emanuele Crialese, Food Politics and political identity in the works of Sebastian Barry. While Dr. Rubery’s main pedagogical focus is on Machiavelli, she also has great interest in the American Founding period, as well as the relationship between politics and literature. Presently, Dr. Rubery heads the Department’s assessment efforts, serves on the APT Committee and is a member of the campus wide Professors Forum. She resides with her husband and four children.
Education
BA in Political Science from Colgate University – 1985
MA and PhD in Political Theory from Georgetown University – 1994
Areas of Specialty
Ancient and Medieval Worlds
Courses Taught
The History of Western Political Thought
American Political Thought
Women in Western Political Thought
Politics and Literature
Politics and Food
Senior Capstone Course
Issues in Political Science, Virtue and Politics
American Political Systems.
Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching (2011)
Piety and Humanity: Essays on Religion and Early Modern Political Philosophy (Rowman and Litlefield, 1997)
“Gender and Fathers: The Rejection of Spiritual Fathers in Machiavelli’s Castruccio Castracani of Lucca” (Journal of Political Science, 2000)
“Congressional committee simulation: An Active Learning Experiment” (PS: Political science and Politics, December, 2000)
“An Opposing World View: Transient Morality in Shakespeare’s Measure for Measure and Machiavelli’s Mandragola” (Logos, 2003)
“A Crisis of Legitimacy: Shakespeare’s Richard II and the Problems of Modern Executive Leadership” (Journal of Political Science Education, February, 2008)
“Machiavelli: An Invitation to Political Thought” (Thomson and Wadsworth, 2009).”
“Machiavelli and the Role of Fortune in Emanuele Crialese’s The Golden Door, (The Journal of Political Science, Volume 38, 2010).
“Realism and Reasoning: Machiavelli and De Sica, A Critical Perspective, (Socrates and Dionysus: Philosophy and Art in Dialogue, 2013)
“The Political Novel,” (Encyclopedia of Political Thought, Wiley Online Library, 2014)
“Turgenev, Extremism, and Aristotle’s Solution of the Mean: An Interdisciplinary Case Study of Theory, Literature, and Contemporary Events. (International Journal of Humanities Education, Volume 12, 2015)
“Food Identity and its Impact Upon the Study Abroad Experience,” (Journal of International Students, Volume 6, 2016)
“A Socratice Revelation: Sebastian Barry’s Roadmap to Understanding Identity,” (Studi Irlandesi: A Journal of Irish Studies, June 2023)
