I am a political scientist with a focus on political theory and public policy. I’ve written on distributive justice, welfare policy, feminist political theory, and the ethics of a basic income–an unconditional, guaranteed minimum income.

I am Professor of Practice in Political Science at NYU Shanghai. I teach political theory, comparative political economy, feminist studies, and senior research seminars.

I have held a variety of academic administrative appointments. Most recently, I directed NYU Shanghai’s interdisciplinary undergraduate Social Science major from 2016-21. Prior to joining NYU Shanghai I was Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at The New School’s adult and professional studies division, The New School for Public Engagement. Prior to that appointment I founded The New School’s interdisciplinary curriculum in Food Studies and directed its adult undergraduate degree program.

I was the program chair for the 18th Annual North American BIG Congress held at Hunter College’s Silberman School of Social Work June 15-16, 2019. Over one hundred and eighty scholars and activists attended. Featured panels included discussion of preliminary results from basic income demonstration projects in Stockton, CA, and Ontario and Vancouver, Canada; a review of the literature on labor market effects of automation by my NYU Shanghai colleague Christina Jenq; reflections on the left debate on basic income by the University of Maine’s Michael Howard and Peter Frase, editorial board member of Jacobin and author of Four Futures: Life After Capitalism; a debate on the macroeconomic effects of basic income by the Wharton School’s Kent Smetters and the Levy Institute’s Michalis Nikiforos; and a video address by Democratic presidential candidate and basic income advocate Andrew Yang. Researchers from the Jain Family Institute announced the launch of their basic income research consortium, and economist Max Ghenis previewed his UBI Center‘s open source research platform for comparative analysis of the distributional effects of different cash transfer proposals.

I was the conference organizer for the 12th Annual North American BIG Congress, which took place May 9-11, 2013, in New York City, in conjunction with the Eastern Economics Association Annual Meeting. Thirty-four scholars and activists from 7 countries attended. Featured speakers included Barnard College’s Sheri Berman, author of The Primacy of Politics: Social Democracy and the Making of Europe’s Twentieth Century; McGill University’s Jurgen De Wispelaere, co-editor of The Ethics of Stakeholding; University of Barcelona’s David Casassas, co-editor of Basic Income in the Age of Great Inequalities; James Riccio, MDRC, co-author of “Toward Reduced Poverty Across Generations: Early Findings from New York City’s Conditional Cash Transfer Program”; and The New School’s Darrick Hamilton, co-author of “Can ‘Baby Bonds’ Eliminate the Racial Wealth Gap in Putative Post-Racial America?”

I have a Ph.D. in Political Science from Harvard University and an A.B. in Politics from Princeton University.

View my CV.

Follow me on Twitter.