Staff profile

Kavi joseph Abraham joined SGIA as an Assistant Professor in International Relations in Fall 2020. Prior to coming to Durham, he held a visiting position in Global Studies at the University of Pittsburgh. He received his PhD from Johns Hopkins University.

Situated at the intersection of political theory and IR, Dr Abraham's research examines pragmatist political and social theory and the contributions it can add to discussions of global governance and democracy. His current project genealogically examines the production of a novel democratic subject, the stakeholder, and how this figure has reoriented democratic practice in a variety of institutional spaces. 

Dr Abraham has further interests in race and Eurocentrism in the practice of theorizing, genealogies of (neo)liberalism, and postcolonial critiques of liberal violence.

• Democracy
• Global Governance
• IR Theory
• Postcolonial Theory
• Pragmatism
• Race

Journal Article

• Taggart, J., & Abraham, K. J. (2023). Norm dynamics in a post-hegemonic world: multistakeholder global governance and the end of liberal international order. Review of International Political Economy, https://doi.org/10.1080/09692290.2023.2213441
• Abraham, K. J. (2022). Modeling Institutional Change and Subject-Production: The World Bank's Turn to Stakeholder Participation. International Studies Quarterly, 66(3), Article sqac032. https://doi.org/10.1093/isq/sqac032
• Abraham, K. J. (2022). Midcentury Modern: The Emergence of Stakeholders in Democratic Practice. American Political Science Review, 116(2), 631-644. https://doi.org/10.1017/s0003055421001106
• Abraham, K. J. (2017). Making Machines: Unlikely Resonances between Realist and Postcolonial Thought. International Political Sociology, 11(3), https://doi.org/10.1093/ips/olx009
• Abraham, K. J., & Abramson, Y. (2017). A pragmatist vocation for International Relations: The (global) public and its problems. European Journal of International Relations, 23(1), https://doi.org/10.1177/1354066115619018