Dr. Steven Smith

Biography

Steven B. Smith received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago and has been teaching at Yale University since 1984. He holds the position of Alfred Cowles Professor of Political Science and has served in various capacities including Director of Graduate Studies in Political Science, Director of the Special Program in the Humanities, Acting Chair of Judaic Studies, and Master of Branford College from 1996 to 2011. His research focuses on the history of political philosophy with special attention to the problem of the ancients and moderns, the relationship between religion and politics, and theories of representative government. Smith is well-known for his publications, including Hegel’s Critique of Liberalism (1989), Spinoza, Liberalism, and Jewish Identity (1997), Spinoza’s Book of Life (2003), Reading Leo Strauss (2006), Cambridge Companion to Leo Strauss (2009), Political Philosophy (2012), and Modernity and Its Discontents (2016). He co-edited the Cambridge Companion to Isaiah Berlin (2018) and is currently working on a new book titled Defense of Patriotism. As Co-Director of Yale’s Center for the Study of Representative Institutions (YSCRI), he focuses on the theory and practice of representative government in the Anglo-American context. Smith has received several awards, including the Ralph Waldo Emerson Prize from Phi Beta Kappa and the Lex Hixon ‘63 Prize for Teaching Excellence in Social Sciences in 2009.

Research Interests