Cogut Institute for the Humanities

Zoë Clark-Kawwa is a fifth-year doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science, specializing in political theory. Her dissertation re-conceptualizes the "machine question"—the longstanding debate about what machines do to workers and society—by foregrounding its normative, political, and moral dimensions. Drawing on labor history, worker poetry, empirical research, and political philosophy, she advances a conceptual framework distinguishing "mechanization" from "automation" to examine the specific ethical and political problems that arise when machines increasingly mediate, subsume, or replace human beings in our social and political relationships. She received her M.A. in Political Science from Brown in 2024. Prior to Brown, she received her B.A. in political science with honors from San Francisco State University. She is also the recipient of the Matthew F. Stolz Scholarship in Political Theory (2020), the Stolz Prize for Best Political Theory Paper (2021), and the P. Terrence Hopmann Award for Excellence in Teaching (2023).