Summary
Owen Gunehame Fite is a Teaching Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. Both his teaching and research explore questions of citizenship, identity, race, nationalism, and performativity from the lens of political theory.
Fite’s ongoing project, “Performative Citizenship and the Continuation of Ethnocentrism in Ethnoblind Citizenship”, conceptualizes citizenship as a disciplinary practice that is disproportionately enforced across different identities. By analyzing post-9/11 Islamaphobia, patterns of Asian American mental illness, mainstream presentations of DREAMers, and public responses to the Black Lives Matter movement, he demonstrates how contemporary U.S. citizenship is contingent upon performative expectations of respectability. This research is accompanied by co-authored projects that empirically test the enforcement of performative citizenship, and the ways in which democracy is understood by the American public.
Alongside his research, Fite aims to instill political interest and awareness amongst his student. His teaching predominantly draws on real-world case studies and interactive classroom exercises in an effort to make politics relatable and accessible to the everyday world. Through his teaching and his podcast, Poli Sigh, his goal is to enable more people to see their impact and role in politics.
He also oversees undergraduate internships for Political Science and International Affairs students.
Courses taught:
- Identity Politics
- Introduction to Political Theory
- Political Philosophy
- Politics and Literature in the 20th Century
- Nevada Constitution
- Introduction to American Politics
Education
- Ph.D., Political Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2023
- M.A., Political Science, University of Colorado, Boulder, 2019
- B.A., Business (Global Politics), Arizona State University, 2017