Her research areas are ancient political thought, the history of political thought, and comparative political theory, with special attention to freedom of speech and democratic legitimacy. At DKU, her teaching interests include democracy and meritocracy, political justification, as well as liberalism and its critics.

Her forthcoming book (Cambridge University Press) explores the Ancient Greek thinker Herodotus as the founder of comparative political theory. Her book argues that Herodotus offers a substantive vision of human flourishing that attends to local context. He defends freedom in a variety of permutations while offering a stark warning about the perennial threat of despotism to human dignity and freedom. She has also published articles on freedom of expression, as well as the role of the Greeks in Hannah Arendt’s account of authoritarianism. She is currently at work on a second manuscript exploring dissent and critique in Ancient Greek thought, which will include chapters on Plato, Thucydides, Herodotus, and Sophocles.

Mahon Rathnam has a B.Hum in humanities and classics/religion (summa cum laude) from Carleton University, Canada, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political theory from the University of Toronto. In 2017 and 2018, she was a postdoctoral fellow at Emory University.