Emma Stone Mackinnon is a political theorist and intellectual historian of human rights and humanitarianism, resistance and rebellion, race and empire, currently fellow at Emmanuel College and University Lecturer in the History of Modern Political Thought at Cambridge University. She has written on the political thought of the Algerian Revolution, politics and morality of war and the history of humanitarianism, Arthur Danto and the history of international law. Her current book project traces political contests over the meaning of human rights as a foundational promise of political community. 

Originally from Brooklyn, she pursued an AB in Social Studies at Harvard University, worked in political communications and social policy research in Washington, DC, and received her PhD in Political Theory at the University of Chicago. At Cambridge, she co-convenes the seminars in Political Thought and Intellectual History and in Global Intellectual History. At Emmanuel, she serves as the Director of Studies for students in the History and Politics joint Tripos as well as, for the history side, the History and Modern Languages joint Tripos.