mcafee's research primarily focuses on questions of democracy and democratic practice, the same questions that had her enter academic philosophy in the first place. her most recent research draws on prior work in psychoanalytic theory, democratic media, performative ethics, transitional justice, and feminist political theory to examine the role of informal political institutions in the formation of a democratic public. mcafee has done significant work on the writings of julia kristeva and jürgen habermas, and also delved extensively into feminist theory and the works of hannah arendt.