Rebekah Sterling is a Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. Her research and teaching interests include the history of political thought, contemporary political theory, democratic theory, and the politics of migration and mobility. Professor Sterling’s current project, Politics in Motion, traces counter-narratives within modern political thought that have emphasized movement and motion as intrinsic to politics. This work aims to recover “movement” as a central concept for political theory, in order to rethink possibilities for democratic politics within conditions of global mobility. Before her graduate work at UCLA, Professor Sterling worked as a researcher at the University of Glasgow in Scotland.

In the classroom, Professor Sterling encourages students to see political theory as an activity connected to live political debates and everyday experience, both today and in the past. She seeks to bring a historical sensibility to pressing questions in contemporary politics, and to foster reflection about how political ideas and debates have been shaped historically. Her teaching approach emphasizes close and collaborative readings of texts, careful analysis, and vigorous discussion and debate.