States, Citizens, and Migrants (2017 – )
Migration is perhaps the most salient political and sociological phenomenon of the contemporary world. But it is not new. Indeed, the interaction between citizen and non-citizen is one of the oldest questions of politics. What is the nature of these citizen/non-citizen interactions and how have they evolved over time? How can thinking historically and theoretically about the question of migration help us understand the geopolitical phenomenon we experience today? This course focuses on political and social theory – foregrounding three contemporary theorists, Julia Kristeva, Bonnie Honig and Seyla Benhabib – with the aim of uncovering modes of citizen/non-citizen interactions in different time periods as well as the origins, complexities and ramifications of the migration we experience today.
Contemporary Political Philosophy (2018 – )
Political philosophers try to answer the question how political communities ought to be organized. To that end, they attempt to identify the different goals that political communities pursue or should pursue, such as security, justice, liberty, and happiness. They try to determine how these goals relate to each other, for example whether they can be pursued simultaneously or whether they conflict. Finally, they make suggestions for the institutional organization of states and other forms of political organization. Through the course of these lectures, taking a number of foundational values of liberal democracy as our guide, students will first be introduced to the key concepts, theories, and debates in contemporary political philosophy (with a substantive focus on the question of freedom/liberty). Subsequently, we will investigate the applicability of these theories and concepts to contemporary debates about global issues, concerning for example migration and climate change. This year, back by popular demand, we will also be dedicating a class to the subject of the Black Lives Matter movement, #BLM.
Critical Readings in Political Philosophy (2018 – )
This seminar engages close, critical reading of texts in the history of political thought. Each year we pick one text (or a small handful of texts) from the political philosophy cannon and subject it to careful examination. For those students taking the class as a bachelor’s thesis (BAP), we will also look at secondary literature that engages critically with the work and its legacy. During class we will reason through and debate a wide range of subjects, including the intertwining of politics and morality, the relationship between citizen and state, and the problem of freedom. Works considered thus far:
- Sophocles (Antigone)
- Aeschylus (Prometheus Bound)
- Plato (Republic) (2x)
- Aristotle (Politics)
- Aristotle (Nicomachean Ethics)
- Hobbes (Leviathan)
- Nietzsche (Untimely Meditations)
- Nietzsche (Genealogy of Morals)
- Arendt (Human Condition)
OXFORD (2014-2017)
As Clayman Junior Research Fellow in Politics and Political Ideas at St Anne’s College, Oxford (2014-2017), I tutored for the Honor School program in Philosophy, Politics & Economics (PPE). I offered tutorials on two papers “Theory of Politics,” and “Theorizing the Democratic State”, and offered revision tutorials on “Political Thought: Bentham to Weber.” In 2015, I offered an optional paper, “Normative Orders: Legitimacy in the 21st Century,” which focuses on critical approaches to political theory.
In addition to tutoring in college, I acted as an exam evaluator in the Oxford Department of Politics and International Relations (DPIR). I also evaluated several MPhil Theses and Research Design Proposals (both for Theory of Politics as well as International Relations). Because of my specialization in Critical Theory, and 19th and 20th Century European Political Thought, many of the MPhil Evaluations focused on sovereignty, identity, recognition and agency, especially as applied to questions of migration, the rise of new populism, and mobilization on the Left.
YALE (2009-2013)
Prior to coming to Oxford, I was a Teaching Fellow in Political Theory. In 2009, I taught for Professor Steven B. Smith’s Introduction to Political Philosophy, which focused on canonical authors such as Plato, Aristotle, Machiavelli, Rousseau and Tocqueville. In 2010, I taught for Ian Shapiro’s Moral Foundations of Politics, which mixed classical texts (Locke, Mill, Marx) with more contemporary political theory (Rawls, Nozick, MacIntyre). Additionally, I frequently gave guest lectures or led seminar discussions (2011-2013).