Biography

Kathleen McCrudden Illert is an intellectual historian and political theorist specialising in the political thought of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe. She specialises in republicanism, liberalism, and democracy, especially the role that sentiment played in the development of these political philosophies. She is committed to exploring the thought and activities of those who are underrepresented in traditional philosophical canons, particularly women, and in developing new methodologies to equip historians in this endeavour.

McCrudden Illert's current book manuscript, A Republic of Sympathy, focuses on the political thought of Sophie de Grouchy (1763-1822) during the French Revolution. As well as exploring the impact of periods of profound political, social and cultural upheaval on the production of political thought, it argues that eighteenth-century republicanism and nineteenth-century French liberalism were not, as has sometimes been maintained, diametrically opposed political theories, but linked by the centrality of other-oriented emotion to both theories. Her next project will explore political theories of laughter in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Europe and the new United States.

McCrudden Illert was awarded her PhD in 2021 by Yale University. She also holds an MPhil and BA from the University of Cambridge.

McCrudden Illert has taught undergraduates in seminar and supervision settings at Cambridge and Yale. Courses include: History of Political Thought 1700-1890; Revolutionary France, 1789-1871; and American Revolution. She has also designed a course for advanced undergraduates entitled Enlightened Women.