John Michael Parrish teaches and studies political theory, focusing especially on the history of political thought and on the ethics of political leadership. A native of Oklahoma and a graduate of William Jewell College, he has studied at Oxford and Cambridge and earned his Ph.D. in political science from Harvard.
Prior to coming to Loyola Marymount, he was assistant professor of political science at Ohio State University. He has published a book, Paradoxes of Political Ethics: From Dirty Hands to the Invisible Hand (Cambridge University Press, 2007), as well as articles in such journals as International Theory, History of Political Thought, and The Historical Journal , and several book chapters.
He has co-edited two volumes of essays: one entitled Manipulating Democracy: Democratic Theory, Political Psychology, and Mass Media (with Wayne Le Cheminant) (Routledge, 2010); the other entitled, Damned If You Do: Dilemmas of Action in Literature and Popular Culture (with Margaret Hrezo) (Lexington, 2010). He is currently engaged in a book-length study of the development of mercy as a political concept (with Alex Tuckness), funded by a grant from the University of Chicago’s “A New Science of Virtues” project.
Together with Eric Beerbohm, he is the coordinator of the American Political Science Association’s Working Group on Political Ethics.