Alec F Dinnin

PhD Candidate / Department of Political Science

Contact Information

Email: alecdinnin@ufl.edu
Phone: (352) 273-5555
Office: Anderson Hall 311

Areas of Interest/Research

I am a PhD Candidate in the University of Florida’s Department of Political Science. I specialize in political theory, with research interests in the history of 19th and 20th century political thought (especially Spain), José Ortega y Gasset, democratic theory, elitism, liberalism, George Orwell, and the politics of historical methodology.

My dissertation, Democracy and Disorientation: José Ortega y Gasset and the Revolt of Liberalism, engages with Spanish liberal José Ortega y Gasset’s thought and its significance for larger debates surrounding liberalism, democracy, and fascism. Based on extensive archival research and a comprehensive reading of his corpus, I argue that the loss of the Spanish Empire inflected Ortega’s liberal-democratic commitments in ways that made him a key figure in the development of Spanish fascism. Research from this project has recently been published in the journal Political Theory.

Background Info

I entered UF’s Department of Political Science PhD program in Fall 2013. In the past, I have worked as a research assistant for the Journal of Modern African Studies under Dr. Villalón; as a grader for Facets of Sustainability under Dr. Thiele; and as a teaching assistant for Introduction to Political Theory under Dr. O’Neill. I’ve also served as teaching assistant for IUF-1000 (What is the Good Life) five times, and taught POT 4311 (Problems of Democracy) in Spring 2017.

Currently, I work as an editorial assistant for the peer-reviewed journal Perspectives on Politics, housed at the University of Florida’s Department of Political Science.