About Me

I am a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Fellow with the James Madison Program in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. My classes cover the history of political thought and American political thought. My primary research interests are ancient Greek political theory and philosophic conceptions authoritarian rule, focusing especially on the political philosophy of Socrates and his students. From 2023-2025 I was a postdoctoral fellow with the Daniel Patrick Moynihan Center at the City College of New York. My doctoral studies were done at The University of Texas at Austin, completing my dissertation in 2023 on the critique of tyrannical power in the philosophy of Plato and Xenophon. That dissertation became my first book project, Universal Tyranny: The Socratic Attack on Tyrannical Psychology, which is forthcoming with SUNY Press in 2026.

Several of my article projects use the insights of ancient political philosophy to inform my reflections on modern political theory, including an article on Immanuel Kant’s philosophy of history entitled, “Is Progress Possible? Moral Improvement in Kant’s Renewed Attempt”, which appeared in the academic journal History of Political Thought.

My teaching combines survey courses on the history of political philosophy with targeted classes on ancient thought and the ideas of the American founding.

My current research expands upon the Socratic critique of authoritarian structures of power with a book project focusing on the defense of constitutional rule and human dignity in the thought of Plato and Xenophon.