Joel Alden Schlosser

 Another year begins! Although I can't help wishing summer were longer, I love the thrill of fall semester, with its rites of convocation, first day butterflies, and rush at the bookshop. This semester, I also return to my own first semester of college, since I'll teach texts I first read then -- Hobbes' Leviathan and Locke's Second Treatise  -- in my Modern Political Philosophy course. Here's the title page of the Hackett edition of Hobbes' Leviathan that I first bought at the Carleton Bookshop in September 1999 for Laurence Cooper's Introduction to Political Philosophy course. Twenty-six years ago -- and it's still a challenge! (You'll note that I haven't taught with this edition every time I've taught Hobbes; I've also used the Cambridge from time to time.) I'm also teaching another iteration of Governing the Self and Others this fall. I begin with Rousseau's Social Contract, but then go in many new directions, including Mic...

 I'm delighted to announce that I have received the Fairbank Professorship in the Humanities at Bryn Mawr College . This honor is especially meaningful as I mark fifteen years since I finished my PhD at Duke University. I'm in the process of updating more of this site's contents -- to reflect, for instance, the publication of Earthborn Democracy (co-written with Ali Aslam and David McIvor) this year! For now, I have posted links to nearly all my syllabi under "Teaching" above. If something interests you, please reach out.

Tenure, a sabbatical, and -- most important -- the arrival of two new members to my family have pulled me away from regular updates to my site here. I'm now adding course syllabi, so under TEACHING above you can find the following, which I've taught since 2018. Living a Democratic Life (Summer 2020). A special seminar for Outer Coast , a nascent two-year institution of higher education in Sitka, Alaska. Energetic and thrilling discussions of John Locke’s Second Treatise on Government. Reflecting on Black Lives Matter protests organized by Anchorage-based students. Facilitating reflection on “the power of the people” embodied – in virtual form – by the Student Body. Through this course, I delighted in helping to construct a self-reflective community, not just teaching students about the meanings and possibilities of democracy but collaborating on a more democratic way of being together, be that through playing Scribl.io or talking about the politics of ancient Athens. Anti-Poli...

 Don DeLillo’s The Names begins with what feels like a long camera take, trailing a character from behind as he walks around the streets of the Plaka, the central market district of Athens. The longer the shot continues, however, the more you realize that the man who’s leading you is not the central character. There’s someone, something else. You keep glimpsing it between the blocks, above the antennas and awnings and electrical wires. It’s apparitional, a massive presence that seems to hover in the middle distance, glimmering and impassive beneath the bright Mediterranean sunshine. At long last the character stops in an open plaza, pauses, then looks up. The camera follows. The Acropolis rises like a brilliant white column shooting skyward, its pillars and pediments strident yet effortless. The high city. I gasped when I first glimpsed the Acropolis. I was stepping onto the balcony of an apartment I’d rented for six weeks in Kolonaki, a wealthy neighborhood in central Athens. My h...