Vincent Jungkunz is Visiting Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science. He received his B.A. from Ohio Dominican University, his M.A. from Ohio University, and did his doctoral work at the University of Washington in Seattle. His areas of interest include democratic theory, critical race theory, gender, sexuality, and popular culture. He is especially interested in intersections of privilege surrounding race, gender, and sexuality, as well as envisioning innovative approaches to democratic resistance, contestation, and community.

His dissertation, entitled Insubordinate Silence, offers a radical re-interpretation of silence as an alternative site for engaging the political. In the past, those who study and theorize the political have approached silence as apathy, indifference, or general acceptance of the status quo; or, alternatively, as evidence of the workings of power—the phenomenon of “being silenced.” Neither approach, however, has explored the ways in which silence might be utilized and practiced democratically. Instead of organizing our democratic theory and politics exclusively around the power of speech, this project highlights the various meanings and manifestations of silence, particularly as a tool of resistance and empowerment in a garrulous world. Insubordinate Silence challenges us to think in new ways about democracy, speech, and participation.

His teaching includes Introduction to Political Theory, Critical Race Theory, Democratic Theory, Legal Theory and Social Problems, Contemporary Political Thought, Politics and Film, Law and Sexuality, Introduction to American Government, and Issues in American Politics.