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Faculty of Divinity
Faculty of Divinity, Sidgwick Site, off West Road, Cambridge CB3 9BSVisiting speaker Laura K Field offers an interactive session on the forces reshaping modern conservatism, drawing on her expertise in populist intellectualism and the American right.
About
About the speaker
Laura K Field is a writer, political theorist, and nonresident fellow in the Governance Studies program at the Brookings Institution. Based in Washington, DC, she is regarded as one of the United States’ leading experts on populist intellectualism and the contemporary American right.
Field holds a PhD in political theory and public law from the University of Texas at Austin, where she completed her dissertation on Rousseau and Nietzsche and the political importance of emotional rhetoric. She also earned an MA and BA in political science from the University of Alberta.
Over the course of her academic career, Field has held faculty and research positions at Rhodes College, Georgetown University, and American University. She currently serves as a visiting scholar in residence at American University’s School of International Service and as a senior advisor (and associate) with the Illiberalism Studies Program at George Washington University. In addition, she is a Senior Fellow at the Niskanen Center.
Field’s scholarly work spans political theory, political culture, rhetoric, and the intellectual history of liberalism and illiberalism. Her published research includes articles in The Journal of Politics, The Review of Politics, and Polity.
Beyond academia, Field is known for her extensive reporting and analysis of the New Right, including the network of intellectuals and activists who have shaped American conservatism in the Trump era. She has written for The New Republic, Politico, The Bulwark, The Unpopulist, and other public-facing outlets, and is frequently cited in national and international media coverage of right-wing movements.
Her book Furious Minds: The Making of the MAGA New Right—published by Princeton University Press in November 2025—offers a comprehensive account of the thinkers and strategists behind the rise of contemporary right‑wing populism. The book has positioned her as a key interpreter of the intellectual forces driving illiberalism in the United States. She is also the author of numerous public essays and interviews on how political ideas shape culture, institutions, and democracy.
A scholar of Rousseau and Nietzsche, Field maintains a long-standing interest in how thought, rhetoric, and writing influence civic life—an interest that informs her work on the current crisis of liberal democracy and the global rise of authoritarian ideologies.
About the masterclass
This opportunity is provided as an add-on to the 2026 Political Theologies conference and supported by the Cambridge Interfaith Programme at the Faculty of Divinity.
Spaces are limited and registration is restricted to Cambridge postgraduate students in the first instance. Others may ask to join a waitlist.
If the event reaches capacity, those also attending the Political Theologies postgraduate pre-conference on 22 April may be given priority.