Bio

I was born on May 3, 1970 in Los Altos, California, where I spent my entire childhood (with the exception of one year abroad in France and the Netherlands).  I attended Montclaire Elementary School, Cupertino Junior High School, and Homestead High School, where I learned to spin a pen around my thumb and read for pleasure.  I graduated from UCLA in 1992 with a B.A. in political science and then spent a year and a half traveling and studying in Europe and the Middle East.  I studied French in France, German in Berlin, and Hebrew in Jerusalem.  I traveled extensively in the United States, Spain, France, Italy, Greece, Turkey, Israel and Egypt, while applying to undertake graduate study in political theory.

I returned to the United States in the summer of 1993 to begin graduate work in political theory at Harvard University.  At Harvard, I developed research interests in continental theory and French political thought, Jean-Jacques Rousseau in particular.  I  graduated with a PhD in 1999, having completed a dissertation entitled “The General Will is Citizenship,” written under the supervision of Dr. Stanley Hoffmann.  This manuscript was then revised and published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2001, under the same title.

In 2001, I began teaching at the University of La Verne, where I am now Professor of Political Science.  My primary area of research has been Rousseau’s philosophy of truth and truthseeking.  Rousseau’s Ethics of Truth, my book on that subject, was published by Routledge in 2017.  I am also conducting research on the relationship between public opinion and public policy or, more specifically, approaches to the management and manipulation of public opinion.   I teach a wide array of classes in the fields of political theory, public law, Middle Eastern Studies, and state and local politics.  I also serve as the chair of the Department of Political Science and as a board member of the Rousseau Association.

I live in Los Angeles with my wife, Nicole, my son, Joshua, and my daughter, Eva.