Honig, Bonnie

Bonnie Honig (born 1959), is a political, feminist, and legal theorist specializing in democratic theory. In 2013–14, she became Nancy Duke Lewis Professor-Elect of Modern Culture and Media and Political Science at Brown University, succeeding Anne Fausto-Sterling in the Chair in 2014–15. Honig was formerly Sarah Rebecca Roland Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University and Research Professor at the American Bar Foundation. In April 2013, Honig delivered the “Thinking Out Loud” Lectures in Sydney, Australia. In the lectures, entitled “Public Things,” Honig draws on D.W. Winnicott and Hannah Arendt to conceptualize the importance of public things to democratic life. Honig elaborated this theory in a lecture delivered at the annual Neal A. Maxwell Lecture in Political Theory and Contemporary Politics at the University of Utah entitled “The Fight for Public Things.” It was subsequently published as part of a symposium in Political Research Quarterly. The ensuing book, Public Things: Democracy in Disrepair, was published by Fordham University Press in 2017. The argument of the book is encapsulated in her 2017 Boston Review essay, "The President’s House Is Empty."