Honig says the events surrounding her tenure denial "have changed [her] research agenda a bit."

"I was planning to write a book about professional identities and how they can mobilize people into international political action, as opposed to the more familiar national varieties," she says.

Honig says she is "still going to write that book," but will first write a book about accountability.

"Oddly enough, you will never find accounts of accountability" in the field of democratic theory, Honig says.

"In my mind you can't ensure democratic equality by tinkering with the decision making procedures," she says. "The only way to secure the possibility of democratic equality and justice is by ensuring that people can call decision making institutions to account."

Honig says she is "uneasy" with her newfound role as a symbol for the fight for more tenured female faculty at Harvard.

"I wish that symbols weren't necessary. I wish that processes and procedures were always fair and rewarding of merit," she says.

"But because my research is about symbolic politics, I know that symbols are very powerful," Honig adds. "I do hope that something positive comes out of this for other people, especially junior women coming up in the ranks at Harvard."

Harvard and Honig

Honig's colleagues in the Department of Government say her largest influence has been to facilitate communication among people from different subfields.

"One of the problems in any department is that there are a lot of specialists and not a lot of communication between them," says Thomson Professor of Government Morris P. Fiorina Jr., who has an office across the hall from Honig in Littauer Hall.

"She brings these people together since her work and interests are so broad-ranging," he says.

Honig says Harvard has helped increase the depth of her academic work.

"My work has broadened in its appeal, and is much more interdisciplinary in its sources than when I initially came out of graduate school," she says.

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