My teaching interests range from ancient political thought to contemporary political theory, and from critical theory to postcolonial theory. Besides my goal to connect political economy to the humanities, I am also interested in questions of empire and narratives of civilizational encounter, especially the imprint they left on political thought.

At Georgetown and Princeton, I have taught an introductory lecture course on modern political thought from Thomas Hobbes to W.E.B. Du Bois, as well as seminars on the political theory of money and the politics of race and credit. I furthermore used to teach in Princeton's Humanities Sequence (HUM), an interdisciplinary introduction to the Western intellectual tradition, and was the faculty mentor for an undergraduate reading group on "Contested Receptions."

Undergraduate Classes 

GOVT 080: Elements of Political Theory (Georgetown University, Spring 2021 & Spring 2022)

Who should rule? This is, in many ways, the fundamental question of politics that has been animating political thought to this day. Should it be the few or the many? The most virtuous or the most calculating? Or should we decide who rules by lot? In the course of considering this fundamental question of politics, we will come upon others: Do you have to obey an unjust law? Where does the legitimacy of the modern state come from? Are we tied to one another through a social contract? Who is included in such a social contract, who is excluded? What would true emancipation require? In pursuing these thematic questions, we will proceed both conceptually and in chronological order from antiquity to modernity, emphasizing both philosophical and historical approaches to political theory. Throughout the course we will explore key concepts such as the social contract, sovereignty, violence, freedom, and equality; we will address the relation between politics and language; and investigate the foundations and meaning of the quest for freedom and equality. Finally, throughout the course we will link these discussions to larger questions of liberalism and democracy.

GOVT 428: Capitalism & Political Thought (Georgetown University, Fall 2020 & Fall 2021)

Was the economy invented? Must we grow forever? What is the scope of democracy under contemporary capitalism? This department seminar offers an advanced survey of the political theory of capitalism. The course proceeds historically and theoretically by working through a series of seminal texts in the history of political thought, bringing together historical and contemporary readings from political economy, social theory, and political theory. This is a reading-intensive course that combines readings from a number of different disciplines (history, political science, economics, philosophy) in order to bring out more clearly some of the underlying questions concerning the political presuppositions of capitalism, the weight of capitalism on political thought, and different political ways to think about capitalism.

GOVT 314/GOVT 499 The Political Theory of Money (Georgetown University, Spring 2020 & Spring 2021)

This undergraduate seminar explores the politics of money through a series of foundational and topical texts in the history of political thought. At least since the introduction of coinage into the ancient world, money was not just regarded as an economic tool of convenience but also as an institution of societal value. Key figures in the history of political thought thus considered currency as a constitutive political institution analogous to law and speech. This course recovers these debates across a range of canonical and less canonical texts, asks how they were forgotten, and traces the politics of money into the present. The course begins with Aristotle and ends with a consideration of global monies and digital currencies.

GOVT 400 Modern Political Thought (Georgetown University)

This undergraduate course offers an advanced overview of classic texts in modern political thought from Thomas Hobbes to W.E.B. DuBois. Attention is given to thinkers’ historical contexts, their debates across time with one another, and the relevance of their political thought today. We will pay particular attention to the relation between political thought and economic questions. Throughout the course we will explore key concepts such as sovereignty, authority, and autonomy; we will address the relation between politics and language; and investigate the foundations and meaning of rights, property, liberty, and equality. Finally, we will link these discussions to larger questions of modernity, liberalism, and democracy.

Graduate Classes 

GOVT 780 Fundamentals of Political Theory (Georgetown University, Fall 201 & Fall 2020)

This seminar explores key texts and arguments in modern political thought at a level appropriate for graduate students. Our thematic focus in the seminar will be the historical study of political theory and the complex relation of such a history of political thought to both the modern state and to capitalism. Since the middle of the nineteenth century a particular mode of political thought emerged that engaged with contemporary politics through the medium of historically informed reflection about it. This seminar studies this historical development, engages itself with some key canonical texts, and points toward some of the difficulties and blind spots involved in doing so. Pursuing this history of histories of political thought opens up new ways of understanding the dynamic modern relationship between philosophy, state, and economy. The seminar is structured in three parts: 1) The first part offers a thematic introduction to the history of political thought by way of four seminal interpreters: Friedrich Meinecke, Albert Hirschman, John Pocock, and Michel Foucault. 2) The second part is organized around the close analysis of six canonical texts. We will read these works carefully and put them in conversation with later interpreters in order to understand their conceptual strategies and argumentative resources. 3) The third part takes a step back again by turning to several unresolved questions concerning the relation of the history of political thought to crisis, the global, and the future.

Fall 2020 syllabus available HERE.

GOVT 789 Marx and Political Thought: Reading Capital (Georgetown University, Fall 2021)

This graduate seminar will set out an examination of Marx’s mature political thought. We will briefly sketch some of Marx’s earlier writings but then move on to his critique of political economy and representative politics as he began to formulate it in notes and journalistic writings during the 1850s. In the main part of the seminar we will thus closely read Capital (especially volume one but not exclusively so) as well as some of its preparatory material. Alongside we will consider a number of commentaries, as well as shorter pieces that explore how recent readers have interpreted and responded to Marx’s work with specific questions in mind (e.g. value, exploitation, domination, labor, race, history).

Princeton

POL 303 Modern Political Theory (Princeton University)

This course offers an overview of classic texts in modern political thought from Thomas Hobbes to W.E.B. Du Bois. Attention is given to thinkers’ historical contexts, their debates across time with one another, their blindspots, and the relevance of their political thought today. Throughout the course we will explore key concepts such as the social contract, sovereignty, and autonomy, but also class, race, and gender; we will address the relation between politics and language; and investigate the possible foundations of rights, liberty, and equality. Finally, throughout the course we will link these discussions to larger questions of contemporary politics and democracy.

The syllabus is available HERE.

POL 492 Race and Credit in America (Princeton University)

The racial wealth gap is today one of the most salient features of the American polity. This course places widening racialized inequalities in a broad historical perspective by connecting them to the politics of money and credit. Ever since colonial times, Americans have passionately, even violently, debated the nature of money. Throughout, the character of money was moreover intimately linked to questions of race. We will follow these connections to study how in antebellum America slavery underwrote the American banking system, how during the New Deal government-backed mortgages explicitly excluded African-American neighborhoods, and how the Civil Rights movement staked out economic demands that touched on the very nature of American money. We will connect this historical material from Hamilton to Martin Luther King Jr. to political theoretical debates about race, credit, and money today.

Spring 2019 syllabus available HERE.

HUM 218-19 Approaches to Western Culture from Antiquity to Modernity (Princeton University)

An intensive year-long introduction to the landmark achievements of the Western intellectual tradition, the Humanities Sequence (HUM Sequence) is a team-taught, double-credit course that examines Western history, philosophy, political thought, and literature from antiquity to the 20th century. With a team of faculty drawn from across the humanities and social sciences, students examine pivotal texts, events, and artifacts of European civilization . More information about the Humanities Sequence can be found on the website of the Humanities Council: HERE. 

Spring 2018 syllabus available HERE.

POL 483 Money and Political Thought (Princeton University)

This seminar examines the relation between money and politics from the perspective of the history of political thought. Money is one of the most defining social institutions of human societies and at the same time often seen as a source of moral and political corruption. In the workshop we will explore this ambivalence between money as “filthy lucre” and currency as a political institution. We will examine a number of classic works in the history of political thought by authors such as Aristotle, Bodin, Hobbes, Locke, Marx, Keynes, and Hayek to enquire into their accounts of money and currency, but also wealth, commerce, and property. We will also consider a number of contemporary debates: Are there things that should never be for sale? Is money a form of speech? Under what conditions does it corrupt politics? Who should conduct monetary policy? What would it mean for the international monetary system to be just? What are the political implications of electronic private currencies?