I am an interdisciplinary scholar, teacher, and writer. My interests stretch from Greek and German philosophy to legal history and from the history of science to images of justice in film and literature. My writing and teaching interweave close readings of political theory and philosophy with a focus on concrete legal and political questions. By bringing philosophy to bear on political and legal questions, I explore the origins and contours of real-world problems, from the violation of human rights to the reemergence of vengeance in criminal law. By grounding my readings of philosophy and political theory in concrete cases and events, I raise questions about the idea of justice in a way that continually insists upon the relevance of rigorous inquiry to everyday life. Above all, my work asks what it means to be just in our world.

My essays have appeared in Roger S. Berkowitz Democracy: A Journal of Ideas, Theory and Event, The Fortnightly Review, The Journal of Politics, Philosophy and Literature, the Journal of Law, Culture and Humanities, New Nietzsche Studies, Theoretical Inquiries in Law, Rechtshistorisches Journal, The Yale Journal of Law and the Humanities, The Cardozo Law Review, Rechtsgeschichte, and many other publications. My book, The Gift of Science: Leibniz and the Modern Legal Tradition, was recently published by Harvard University Press.

I teach at Bard College. My three academic homes are the Political Studies Department, the Program in Human Rights, and the Philosophy Department. I also serve as Academic Director of the Hannah Arendt Center at Bard College.