Photo credit: Artemis Rose Grewal Cammack
Welcome!
I'm a historian of political thought who specializes in ancient Greek politics and the history and theory of democracy. My book, Demos: How the People Ruled Athens (Princeton University Press: US pub. January 12, 2027; UK pub. March 9, 2027), offers a comprehensive reinterpretation of classical Athenian democracy as not the balanced self-government of all citizens over themselves (the currently prevailing view) but the rule of assembled crowds over leaders. A sequel, Democracy: How the People Lost Power, is under contract with the same press. It continues the argument begun in Demos by examining crucial episodes in the history and theorization of popular sovereignty from the Hellenistic era to the Russian Revolution. Across both books, I argue that without a sufficiently empowered demos, meaning the crowd formed at regularly scheduled open public meetings, popular mobilization sustains not democracy but oligarchy or dictatorship. This is because the representational entities, both concrete and abstract, that have historically been constructed as stand-ins for an actual demos—tribunes, parties, constitutions, and the idea of “the people”—do not merely invite elite capture (i.e., rule by leaders) but require it in order to be politically effective.
My previous work has appeared journals such as Political Theory, History of Political Thought, the Journal of Political Philosophy, and Classical Quarterly. I am also executive co-editor of History of Political Thought and an associate editor of Polis, the Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought.
After receiving my Ph.D. from Harvard in 2013, I held a series of fellowship or lecturer positions at Harvard, Stanford, and Yale. In 2017, I gave birth to a wonderful daughter and, in the same year, joined Yale as an assistant professor of Political Science. In 2019, I moved to UC Berkeley, taking up a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science. Since 2020, I've also been affiliated with the Department of Ancient Greek and Roman Studies (formerly Classics).
In terms of teaching, I enjoy offering courses and supervising graduate students on ancient Greek, Roman, early modern, and modern political ideas and practices. I'm especially enthusiastic about Aristotle, Hobbes, Rousseau, and Marx and Engels, and the topics of political representation, sovereignty, collective agency, and demotic law and justice.
Thank you for your interest in my work.