Welcome to my website. I am a PhD candidate in Political Theory in the Government Department at Cornell University.

I work at the intersection of radical democratic theory, the history of political thought, and marxism. In my dissertation, ‘The Politics of Natural Society,’ I investigate how the concept of ‘natural society’ forced Thomas Paine, Adam Smith, and Edmund Burke to reinterpret the relationship between theory and society. Building on work in the history of political thought, I argue that the discourse of natural society played a key role in effecting the transition from the vocabulary of republicanism to liberalism at the end of the 18th century. Following radical democratic theory, I argue that the vocabulary of natural society is anti-political and that Paine, Smith, and Burke came to think of political theory as the facilitation of a natural process.

Beyond academia, I enjoy reading novels (my favorite writers are Anthony Powell and Thomas Pynchon), rooting for Arsenal and the Celtics, and drinking beer with friends.

I hope you enjoy the Vermeer painting. A photo of me is to the right (or below on mobile).