Michael J. Thompson

Political Science Department
William Paterson University
Wayne, New Jersey 07470 USA

Office: Room 437 Raubinger Hall Phone: (973) 720-3874; Fax (973) 720-3477 E-mail: thompsonmi@wpunj.edu Office Hours Spring 2008: Tuesday and Thursday 9:30-11AM and Wednesday 5-6 p.m.

 

Michael Thompson received his B.A. in Languages and Literature from Rutgers and his Ph. D. in Political Science at The Graduate Center, CUNY. His research interests are in democratic theory, American politics, American political thought, religion and politics, and the research into democratic sensibilities. This latter research concerns the ways that outside forces such as working life, economic life, and so on, affect attitudes toward democratic politics and shape the beliefs and actions of individuals.

His areas of expertise include German Idealism (with an emphasis on Kant and Hegel), western Marxism, Critical Theory, and classical Greek political philosophy and ethical theory. He is also interested in Islamic political thought and urban theory, and his work converges on a sustained critical enagement with the philosophy and practice of liberalism in order to construct an "authentic" modernity.

His books include:

The Politics of Inequality: A Political History of the Idea of Economic Inequality in America (Columbia University Press, 2007)	Confronting the New Conservatism: The Rise of the Right in America, editor (New York University Press, 2007)

The Logos Reader co-edited with Stephen Bronner (University of Kentucky Press, 2006)	Islam and the West: Critical Perspectives on Modernity, editor (Rowman and Littlefield, 2003)

 

He is currently researching two new books: The Exhaustion of Liberalism which is a critique of liberal theory from the point of view of republicanism; and The Specter of Babel: Antiurbanism and the Demise of Public Reason which will analyze the relation between space and democratic theory.

His scholarly articles have appeared in New Political Science, Review for Radical Political Economics, Critical Sociology, New Politics, Owl of Minerva, European Journal of Social Theory, and Philosophy and Literature. is the Founder and Editor of Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture (www.logosjournal.com).