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Brian R. Duff, Ph.D

Associate Professor

Location

Decary Hall 330A

Brian Duff received his Ph.D. from UC Berkeley. He is the author of the books Restaurant (An Object Lesson), (Bloomsbury) and The Parent as Citizen, (The University of Minnesota Press). He has also published research on feminist theory, voting, and the politics of race and ethnicity.
 

Credentials

Research

Current research

My most recent book offers a political theory of the restaurant. It explores the particular sort of conversations that restaurants make possible — conversations that we often avoid in other spaces.

My next project delves deeper into these questions with a focus on gender.

My first book explores the way ideas about parenthood have influenced the development of the concept of citizenship in modern democracies. 

I continue to do research regarding ideas about family and parenthood in American politics. I do this through the critical examination of public policy, engagements with political theory, and the examination of public opinion data about ideas about parenthood and children affect political attitudes and behavior. 

I also have an ongoing project, begun with a student at UNE, examining new ways to understand who votes and who does not in America, which you can read about in Time Magazine.

Selected publications

Books:

Restaurant (An Object Lesson).  Bloomsbury, 2025.

The Parent as Citizen: A Democratic Dilemma.  The University of Minnesota Press, 2011.

Research interests

The family and politics

Democracy, citizenship and discourse

The politics of food