The Civic Agora

This podcast features Keith Baker, J.E. Wallace Sterling Emeritus Professor in the Humanities at Stanford University, whose scholarship has significantly shaped the study of the French Enlightenment and the French Revolution. The conversation centers on his recent publication, Jean-Paul Marat: Prophet of Terror, while situating it within the broader trajectory of his academic career. The discussio...

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we sit down with Dan Edelstein, Professor of French and member of the Stanford Civics Initiative, to explore what revolution, citizenship, and education really mean today. From the history of political ideas to his course on Civic, Liberal, and Global Education, Dan explains how classrooms can become labs for democracy, where students learn to listen, debate, an...

What can the history of political thought teach us about today's crisis of mass incarceration? In this episode of The Civic Agora (Stanford Civics Initiative), we sit down with Jacob Abolafia-Yale and Harvard graduate, and author of The Prison Before the Panopticon. Together, we explore the history of punishment, the origins of imprisonment, debates on progress in political theory, and the leg...

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Avshalom Schwartz. Avshalom is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Stanford Civics Initiative at Stanford University studying political theory. His research focuses on the role of imagination in politics, the conceptual history of the imagination, and questions of legitimacy and political stability in classical and early modern political thought. His book...

In this episode, we chat with Brian Coyne. He is a Lecturer in Political Science. Originally from New Jersey, he received his B.A. in Government from Harvard College in 2007 and his Ph. D. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2014. His approach to political theory is to see it as a set of tools that we can use to analyze, critique, and improve our politics, and in his work he tries to...

In this episode of the Civic Agora, we chat with Brandice Canes-Wrone. She is a professor in the political science department and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. She is also the director of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions. Her current research focuses on representation and accountability, including projects on elections, campaign finance, and representation...

In this episode of the Civic Agora, we chat with Dongxian Jiang. He is a political theorist and intellectual historian. His research and teaching interests include comparative political theory, the history of Chinese and Asian political thought, intercultural dialogue, and contemporary normative political theory. His current work intervenes in the “China Model” debate since the 1980s and its impli...

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Emilee Chapman. She is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Stanford University. Her research explores the relationship between democratic ideals and democratic practices. She teaches courses in contemporary political theory and the ethics of democracy.

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Josiah Ober. He is the Constantine Mitsotakis Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences, specializes in the areas of ancient and modern political theory and historical institutionalism. His primary appointment is in Political Science; he holds a secondary appointment in the Classics and courtesy appointments in Philosophy and the Hoover Institu...

In this episode, we chat with Simon Luo. He is a political theorist and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Civics Initiative. He received his Ph. D. in political science from Indiana University, Bloomington. His primary research focuses on the relationship between historical narratives, future-oriented political visions, and democratic politics. His current book project investigates t...

In this episode of the Civic Agora, we chat with Brandice Canes-Wrone. She is a professor in the political science department and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. She is also the director of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions. Her current research focuses on representation and accountability, including projects on elections, campaign finance, and representation...

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Avshalom Schwartz. Avshalom is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Stanford Civics Initiative at Stanford University studying political theory. His research focuses on the role of imagination in politics, the conceptual history of the imagination, and questions of legitimacy and political stability in classical and early modern political thought. His book...

In this episode, we chat with Brian Coyne. He is a Lecturer in Political Science. Originally from New Jersey, he received his B.A. in Government from Harvard College in 2007 and his Ph. D. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2014. His approach to political theory is to see it as a set of tools that we can use to analyze, critique, and improve our politics, and in his work he tries to...

In this episode, we chat with Josiah Ober. He is the Constantine Mitsotakis Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences, specializes in the areas of ancient and modern political theory and historical institutionalism. His primary appointment is in Political Science; he holds a secondary appointment in the Classics and courtesy appointments in Philosophy and the Hoover Institution. His most rece...

In this episode, we chat with Dongxian Jiang. He is a political theorist and intellectual historian. His research and teaching interests include comparative political theory, the history of Chinese and Asian political thought, intercultural dialogue, and contemporary normative political theory. His current work intervenes in the “China Model” debate since the 1980s and its implications for liberal...

In this episode, we chat with Emilee Chapman. She is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Stanford University. Her research explores the relationship between democratic ideals and democratic practices. She teaches courses in contemporary political theory and the ethics of democracy.

Josiah Ober introduces The Civic Agora: A podcast series where we talk about economics, politics, and society