ABSTRACT
I have loved theory, or my ideas of theory, since I first took political science and philosophy classes as an undergraduate at a small Jesuit university in the Midwest. Arguing about ideas, imagining the ethical, economic, and political outcomes of different arrangements of societal priorities and legal structures felt very important to me, and even as I struggled to understand the theorists I was reading I was excited to know that such a conversation existed and to imagine that as a reader and a student I could be part of it. I sought out friends who also liked to debate Marxism, American pragmatism, and theories of justice. I studied revolutions, ethics, and epistemology and, like many undergraduates, began to understand the interconnected nature of fields of knowledge and the ways that it gets constructed in different disciplines. I was not sure, however, what place this theoretical conversation would have in my work life.
