My research is in political philosophy and ethics. I am interested in developing a new political theory that finds a productive middle ground between the non-utopian liberalism of Bernard Williams and Judith Shklar, on the one hand, and the values and ideals of some of liberalism’s staunchest critics, on the other. In my view, critics like Nietzsche and neo-Aristotelians are right in thinking that a political community truly worth having would set ambitious goals, such as enabling the flourishing of every citizen and promoting culture, in a way that contemporary liberalism rejects. At the same time, liberals correctly insist that the humane achievements of modern politics are fragile cultural achievements that should not be taken for granted.
The aim of what I am calling ‘neo-Greek republicanism’ is to balance the insights of these starkly opposing visions of politics in order to rethink the aspirations of modern political community.
Before coming to Chicago, I completed my PhD at the University of Cambridge and studied at the Universities of Amsterdam and Berlin.