Peter Bratsis
Associate Professor
Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice
EMAIL: pbratsis@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-651U
Office Hours: Mon. 2-4
Phone: +1 (212) 220-8000;ext=5334
Peter Bratsis joined the faculty in 2012, he also teaches in the Liberal Studies program at the CUNY Graduate Center.
His research mainly concerns the categories and ideas that our political world is based upon and how these ideas are created and reproduced. This has included studies on the production of the state, the categories of the public and private, the ways that nationalized individuals are created, and the perception of the clean and dirty in political life. Peter’s work often combines Marxist and psychoanalytic theories.
His publications include the books Everyday Life and the State and, with Stanley Aronowitz, Paradigm Lost: State Theory Reconsidered. He has also published numerous essays in academic journals, including Social Text, International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, and Historical Materialism, among others. In addition to the foregoing he is a founding editor of the journal Situations and occasionally contribute editorials and news analyses to outlets such as Jacobin, Truthout, and the Indypendent.
Expertise
Social Movements, Race and Ethnicity, Populism, Popular Culture, Political Theory, Political Sociology, Political Corruption, Ontology, Marxism, Greek Politics
Degrees
- B.A. University of Maryland, Economics and Political Science,1991
- Ph.D. City University of New York, Political Science,2002
Courses Taught
- The history, development, and intellectual origin of American government are studied and analyzed. Special consideration is given to the structure and operation of the executive, legislative and judiciary branches, and the role of government and politics in a modern industrial society.
- This class involves students in observation and critical analysis of political affairs. Topics and themes will include both American and global perspectives and both contemporary and historical cases. The class introduces a range of approaches to the study of politics, such as empirical research, quantitative analysis, theoretical questioning, and the examination of literary or artistic works. Central concepts will include politics, power, government, conflict, and justice.
- This course investigates the nature of power, order, and authority and examines how they appear in American life. What is power? How is it exercised, both inside and outside government? What brings order to a community? How can authority be legitimate? Themes that may be studied in this class include American political institutions, organizations, culture, and thought; class, race, and gender in the United States; and literary portrayals or classic theories of power.
Prerequisite: Any 100-level Social Science course - This is a summer course taught abroad in Greece. Ancient Greek thinkers and the experiences of the ancient polis will be studied with a view to their influence, validity, and contemporary relevance. Readings will include Plato and Aristotle, among others.
Research and Projects
- An Anatomy of Corruption
- Twenty Years of Boredom: Veganism and the Cultural Logic of Late Liberalism
Publications
- Everyday Life and the State, (2016) Routledge
- “Legitimation Crisis and the Greek Explosion”, (2010) International Journal of Urban and Regional Research
- “Political Corruption in the Age of Transnational Capitalism: From the Relative Autonomy of the State to the White Man’s Burden”, (2014) Historical Materialism
- Paradigm Lost: State Theory Reconsidered, (2002) University of Minnesota Press
- “The Construction of Corruption: Rules of Separation and Illusions of Purity in Bourgeois Societies”, (2003) Social Text
- “The Greek Crisis as Concrete Universal: On the Impossibility of Reform and the Impasse of Subjectivity”, (2016) Situations
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
Additional Information
A more complete list of publications be found at: Academia.edu
Some Recorded Talks:
