Emma Kast

Kast researches the attractions, pitfalls, and tensions of capitalism as an economic and political system that organizes social life. Specifically, her work examines notions of deservingness in the history of political economic thought, the politics of money, the role of currency hierarchies in international inequality, and what it means to have economic sovereignty and economic rights. 

 

Kast also specializes in theories of pedagogy. Her classes strive to create lasting learning communities in which students are inspired to discover and pursue their own stakes in political economy. Her teaching fosters students' immanent engagement with the course readings, their ability to compare contending perspectives, and to build confidence in their voices through dialogues with difference.

 

Recently, her work has appeared in American Public Media's Marketplace, and academic journals such as New Political Economy, Review of Political Economy, and Millennium: Journal of International Studies. Her first book, Merit and the Market: Capitalism and the Political Economy of Deservingness, is forthcoming with Bloomsbury Press.

 

Originally, Kast is from Burlington, Vermont. Before coming to Bennington, she lived in Wales, UK where she earned her PhD and MA in International Politics from Aberystwyth University. She also holds a BA in Politics from Ithaca College. 

 

Kast has been recurring visiting faculty since Fall 2021.