Adam Lerner wearing a blue button up shirt and smiling at the camera.

Adam B. Lerner, Ph.D.

Associate Professor, Director of the Bachelor of Liberal Arts program

Pronouns
he/him
College
Fine Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences
Department
Political Science
Email
adam_lerner@uml.edu
Links

Expertise

International Relations; International Political Theory; International Ethics

Research Interests

My research sits at the intersection of International Relations and Political Theory. I am primarily interested in the legacy of historical injustices in international politics, as well as varied approaches to global reconciliation, repair, and redress.

Education

  • Ph.D.: Politics and International Studies, (2020), University of Cambridge
  • M.Phil.: Modern South Asian Studies, (2016), University of Cambridge
  • B.A: English, (2009), Cornell University

Biosketch

I was born in Washington, DC, and have lived in five countries. I previously worked as a journalist in Delhi, India, and Washington, DC, before completing my MPhil and PhD at the University of Cambridge in the UK. In my free time, I enjoy running, basketball, guitar, and stand-up comedy.

Selected Awards and Honors

  • Peter Katzenstein Prize for best first book in IR, comparative politics, and IPE, 2023
  • Hedley Bull Prize, 2023 (honourable mention)
  • Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, 2023-present
  • ISA International Ethics Section Book Award, 2023
  • ISA Theory Section Book Award, 2023 (honorable mention)
  • ISA Online Media Caucus Award for Best Blog Post by a Junior Scholar, 2022
  • Fellowship with the Higher Education Academy of the United Kingdom (FHEA), 2021-present
  • College Excellence Teaching Commendation, Royal Holloway, University of London, 2021
  • American Political Science Association (APSA) Public Scholar, 2019-2020
  • Emanuel Miller Prize for Philosophy of Social Science, University of Cambridge, 2018
  • Northedge Prize, Millennium: Journal of International Studies, 2018
  • Cambridge International Trust Scholarship (£93,591), 2016-2020
  • St. John’s College Scholarship, 2016-2020
  • Henry Luce Scholar, 2013-2014

Selected Publications

  1. Lerner, Adam B. From the Ashes of History: Collective Trauma and the Making of International Politics (Oxford University Press, March 2022) ISBN 13: 9780197623596
  2. Lerner, Adam B. and O’Loughlin, Ben. “Strategic Ontologies and Meso-Level Theoretical Innovation in International Politics” International Studies Quarterly, 67, no. 3: 1-13. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad058.
  3. Lerner, Adam B. “Harnessing Intuition and Disciplining Abstraction: Thought Experiments in International Relations” International Studies Quarterly, 67, no. 1: 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqad015.
  4. Lerner, Adam B. “Pathological Nationalism? The Legacy of Crowd Psychology in International Theory.” International Affairs, 38, no. 3 (2022): 995-1012. https://doi.org/10.1093/ia/iiac020.
  5. Lerner, Adam B. “Blurring the Boundaries of War: PTSD in American Foreign Policy Discourse.” Perspectives on Politics, December 22, 2020: 1–18. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1537592720004223.
  6. Lerner, Adam B. “Theorizing Unpredictability in International Politics: A New Approach to Trump and the Trump Doctrine.” Cambridge Review of International Affairs 34, no. 3 (May 4, 2021): 360–82. https://doi.org/10.1080/09557571.2020.1842329.
  7. Lerner, Adam B. “What’s It like to Be a State? An Argument for State Consciousness.” International Theory 13, no. 2 (July 2021): 260–86. https://doi.org/10.1017/S1752971919000277.
  8. Lerner, Adam B. “The Uses and Abuses of Victimhood Nationalism in International Politics.” European Journal of International Relations 26, no. 1 (March 2020): 62–87. https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066119850249.
  9. Lerner, Adam B. “Theorizing Collective Trauma in International Political Economy.” International Studies Review 21, no. 4 (December 1, 2019): 549–71. https://doi.org/10.1093/isr/viy044.
  10. Lerner, Adam B. “Collective Trauma and the Evolution of Nehru’s Worldview: Uncovering the Roots of Nehruvian Non-Alignment.” International History Review 41, no. 6 (November 2, 2019): 1276–1300. https://doi.org/10.1080/07075332.2018.1473276.
  11. Lerner, Adam B. “Political Neo-Malthusianism and the Progression of India’s Green Revolution.” Journal of Contemporary Asia 48, no. 3 (May 27, 2018): 485–507. https://doi.org/10.1080/00472336.2017.1422187.
  12. Lerner, Adam B. “Manufactured Silence: Political Economy and Management Of The Bhopal Disaster.” Economic and Political Weekly 52, no. 30 (July 29, 2017): 57-65. https://www.epw.in/journal/2017/30/special-articles/manufactured-silence.html.