Current Work
Thresholds of Atrocity: Violence at the Limits of Political Thought
My current book project investigates why atrocity has so often been bracketed from the conceptual lexicon of Western political theory. When political thinkers have attempted to understand transgressive violence, they have usually done so by treating it as extra-political, as an irrational or bestial phenomenon superseded by the instantiation of political order. I argue that this exclusion is not accidental but symptomatic of a deeper conceptual confusion. By tracing how canonical figures have traditionally drawn the line between legitimate and illegitimate violence, I show that the concept of atrocity exposes the moral blind spots of political rationality itself.
Colonialism as Our Unthought
A book-length anthology of previously untranslated essays on colonialism by the Portuguese polymath, Eduardo Lourenço. Co-edited and translated with Isabel Sobral Campos. Proposal is currently under review.
Books
Karl Marx and the League of the Just, 1847 (Reacting to the Past), forthcoming.
Co-authored with Tristan Husby. Reacting to the Past is an award-winning series of active-learning simulations of real historical events. The book includes a substantial peer-reviewed section on relevant historical and political context. Currently undergoing play-testing prior to publication.
Peer-Reviewed Articles
Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton, “‘What We’re Supposed to Be Doing’: Ideology and Structural Injustice in Kazuo Ishiguro’s Never Let Me Go,” Cultural Critique 130 (2026).
Editorially Reviewed Essays
Literary
Popular Media
Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton, “Torture and Moral Vision,” WarScapes, February 22, 2015.
Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton, “Academic Freedom and the Boycott,” The Advocate, February 2014.
Kristofer J. Petersen-Overton, “Not About BDS,” The Huffington Post, February 6, 2013.
Presentations
“Revisiting the Platonic Tyrant: Violence as Form and Content,” Western Political Science Association, Seattle, WA, April 2025.
“The Harmonious Classroom: Teaching Political Theory With Period Music,” American Political Science Association, Los Angeles, CA, September 2023.
“On Tyranny and the Politics of Atrocity,” Babson College Research Day, Wellesley, MA, January 2023.
“Wrongful Benefit and Responsibility for Historical Injustice,” Babson College Research Day, Wellesley, MA, January 2022.
“The Bull of Phalaris: Atrocity and Political Theory,” Association for Political Theory, University of California Irvine, October 2019.
“The Violent Foundations of the Political,” Association for Political Theory, University of California Irvine, October 2019. (chair)
“Overlooking Atrocities: On Liberal-Democratic State Violence,” American Political Science Association, Boston, MA, September 2018.
“Thresholds of Atrocity: Liberal Violence and the Politics of Moral Vision,” American Political Science Association, San Francisco, CA, September 2017.
“Hollywood’s Holocaust Survivor,” Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences Research Colloquium, Montana Tech, Butte, MT, September 2017. (discussant)
“After Zionism: One State for Israel and Palestine,” Earth and Environmental Sciences, Colloquium Series, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY, April 2013. (discussant)
“Beyond the Threshold of Atrocity: Nationalism, Biopower and Israel’s Occupation of Gaza,” Graduate Student Research Conference, CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY, February 10, 2012.
“Beyond the Threshold of Atrocity: Nationalism, Biopower and Israel’s Occupation of Gaza,” American Political Science Association, Seattle, WA, September 2011.
“Academic Freedom and Palestine.” Brecht Forum, New York, NY, April 8, 2011.
“Inventing the Martyr: Struggle, Sacrifice and the Signification of Palestinian Identity,” Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 1, 2011.
“Popular Uprisings: Mid-East to Mid-West,” Professional Staff Congress CUNY, New York, NY, March 25, 2011.
“Academic Freedom and the New McCarthyism,” CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY, March 14, 2011.
“Inventing the Martyr: Struggle, Sacrifice and the Signification of Palestinian Identity.” Graduate Student Research Conference. CUNY Graduate Center, New York, NY, December 3, 2010.
“Security or Demography? The West Bank Barrier as a Demographic Tool.” SSRIC Student Research Conference, California State University Northridge, CA, May 2006.