Rachel Lentz

Biography

Rachel Lentz is a fourth year PhD candidate at Notre Dame. Her research interests include modern political thought, democratic theory, political economy, as well as issues surrounding intergenerational justice and climate change ethics. Before coming to Notre Dame, Rachel received a master’s degree in political science at Iowa State University, writing her thesis on the unique challenge economic inequality poses to the role of sympathy in Adam Smith's sentimentalist moral theory. This project culminated in a presentation at the Adam Smith Tercentenary Week hosted by the University of Glasgow in June 2023. Incorporating archival research conducted at the Bodleian Libraries’ Abinger Collection, she recently published an article on Mary Wollstonecraft’s engagement with Smith’s moral theory and the potential that her integrated approach to national education has for combatting problems arising from inequality. For her dissertation she is writing on the figure of the lawgiver in 18th-century political thought. She is particularly interested in its relationship to popular sovereignty in Rousseau's The Social Contract, and its relevance for contemporary democratic theory.

She has presented her work at conferences hosted by the University of Glasgow and the University of Oxford, numerous graduate political theory conferences, as well as at APSA. Her research has been published in The Review of Politics and History of European Ideas and has been funded by the Nanovic Institute for European Studies. Rachel was awarded a Nanovic Institute Fellowship for the 2025-2026 and 2026-2027 years and is also currently a Deans' Fellow at Notre Dame. She has worked as an editorial assistant for an NEH-awarded scholarly edition of Mary Wollstonecraft’s Vindications and is 2026-2027 the editorial intern for the Review of Politics.

Areas of Interest

18th century political thought, democratic theory, intergenerational justice