Sheila Rucki

Sheila Rucki, Ph.D., is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Metropolitan State University of Denver. Her areas of expertise are in foreign policy and security, international political economy, political systems, and women’s politics.

Rucki has taught classes on political theory, comparative politics, international relations, international political economy, international law, defense and development in East Asia, and authoritarian populism. In 2016, she taught foreign policy and American political thought,  at the University of Pécs in Hungary as part of a faculty exchange program.

She published “Global Economic Crisis and China’s Challenge to Global Hegemony” in New Political Science and “Foundations of Authoritarian Populism in an International Context,” in Orbis as well as the chapter “Hegemonic Systems and the Politics of Happiness” in Contemporary Fairy-Tale Magic: Subverting Gender and Genre.  Rucki’s other papers include: “Resurgent Neoliberalism in American Political Discourse,” “Neoliberal Backlash and the Great Recession,” and “Populism and Common Sense:  Gramsci and the Rise of Right-Wing Populism.”

Prior to joining MSU Denver in 2000, she taught courses in sex discrimination and the U.S. Constitution at University of Colorado, Boulder and critical and feminist political theory at the University of Seattle, Seattle, Washington.

Rucki received her doctorate in 2006 and master’s in 1991 in political science from University of Washington.