Dr. Erika Coe is a SNF Paideia Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches The Politics of Emotions in the political science department, helps facilitate the newly developed Slow Dialogue project, and contributes to a research initiative on how deliberative dispositions are cultivated within the Paideia program.
She holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Indiana University, Bloomington. A political theorist specializing in civic engagement and democratic theory, her research examines the promises and limitations of civic renewal narratives and dialogue as responses to democratic challenges such as affective polarization and systemic racism in the United States. She analyzes how these narratives shape democratic participation, construct norms of nonpartisanship, and frame notions of political reason.
Erika’s work is especially concerned with the role of critical affect in civic education and its potential to bridge the power gap between grassroots civic practices and public decision-making to confront authoritarian threats. Drawing inspiration from scholars such as Sarah Amsler, Joel Olson, and Iris Marion Young, her scholarship contributes to ongoing debates about how civic dialogue can revitalize democratic engagement in increasingly polarized societies.