In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Avshalom Schwartz. Avshalom is a Postdoctoral Scholar at the Stanford Civics Initiative at Stanford University studying political theory. His research focuses on the role of imagination in politics, the conceptual history of the imagination, and questions of legitimacy and political stability in classical and early modern political thought.

His book manuscript, "Democratic Phantasies: Political Imagination and the Athenian Democracy," offers a new theoretical account of the “democratic imagination,” or the potential role of imagination in democratic politics. Focusing on one of the most creative and imaginative moments in human history—the ancient Athenian democracy—it shows, first, that we find in classical historiography, prose, drama, and philosophy important resources that can enrich our modern understanding of the political functions of the imagination. Second, it argues that democratic Athens provides us with a model of a democratic political imagination, one that can generate the civic sensibilities required for preserving a democratic society, promote fruitful association among citizens, and encourage the acceptance of diverse viewpoints and ways of living a good life.

He is also interested in the role of imagination in the history of philosophy, especially in classical, medieval, Renaissance, and early modern scientific and political thought. His work in this area has focused on Hobbes’s theory of the imagination, its historical and intellectual context, and its relationship to his political thought.

His work has appeared in the American Journal of Political Science, History of Political Thought, and History of European Ideas, among others.

He is a former Gerald J. Lieberman fellow, one of Stanford University’s highest distinctions for doctoral students. He was also a Ric Weiland Graduate Fellow and held graduate fellowships with Stanford’s Center for Ethics in Society and the Stanford Basic Income Lab. In 2020, He received an M.A. in classics from Stanford University. Before coming to Stanford, He received a B.A. in political science and economics and an M.A. in political science from Tel Aviv University, both Summa cum Laude.

In this episode, we chat with Brian Coyne. He is a Lecturer in Political Science. Originally from New Jersey, he received his B.A. in Government from Harvard College in 2007 and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2014. His approach to political theory is to see it as a set of tools that we can use to analyze, critique, and improve our politics, and in his work he tries to sharpen and expand our tools. His dissertation, "Non-State Power and Non-State Legitimacy," analyzes the power of non-state actors like corporations and international institutions that influence our lives and shape our politics alongside the state institutions that are the traditional focus of political theory.

One of Coyne’s current research interests is what education for democratic citizenship needs to look like to face our many current challenges, and he has been part of the team developing the Citizenship in the 21st Century class that is part of Stanford’s new first-year curriculum in Civic, Liberal, and Global Education. Coyne's other research interests include political representation, responses to climate change, and the politics of urban space and planning. An avid bicyclist, he has written freelance stories about two-wheeled travel for the San Francisco Chronicle and other publications. From 2014 to 2017, he taught in Stanford's Thinking Matters program and has also taught senior citizens at San Francisco State University's Osher Lifelong Learning Center and high school students at San Francisco College Track. His classes in Political Science at Stanford include Justice, Democratic Theory, Citizenship, Ethics and Politics of Public Service, and Liberalism & Its Critics. He has also taught with the Urban Studies Program and the Public Policy Program.

In this episode of the Civic Agora, we chat with Brandice Canes-Wrone. She is a professor in the political science department and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. She is also the director of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions. Her current research focuses on representation and accountability, including projects on elections, campaign finance, and representation. During the course of her career, Canes-Wrone has published numerous articles and books in the areas of political institutions, mass political behavior, and political economy. On political institutions, she has a longstanding interest in executive politics. Her book Who Leads Whom? Presidents, Policy, and Public (University of Chicago, 2006) was awarded the Richard E. Neustadt prize by the American Political Science Association for the best book on the US presidency that year. More recent scholarship involves comparative analysis of how institutional constraints on the executive are associated with economic performance. Other current research focuses on accountability and representation in the US context. She coedited Accountability Reconsidered: Voters, Interests, and Information in US Policymaking (Cambridge University Press, 2023) with Chuck Cameron, Sandy Gordon, and Greg Huber, and in this volume she and Michael Kistner examine how changes in the US local media are associated with developments in congressional electoral accountability. Additionally, she has a series of recent publications on campaign finance, including on the motivations of campaign donors (with Michael Barber and Sharece Thrower) congressional members’ responsiveness to donors (with Kenneth Miller, and in separate work, Nathan Gibson), and comparing the attitudes of donors to other constituencies (with Michael Barber, Josh Clinton, and Greg Huber). Canes-Wrone is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served on the editorial boards of numerous political science and political economy journals. She has also served on the boards of the American National Elections Studies, the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, and the Presidents and Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, including as President of this section. Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Canes-Wrone was on the faculties of MIT, Northwestern, and Princeton. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a PhD from Stanford.

In this episode of the Civic Agora, we chat with Dongxian Jiang. He is a political theorist and intellectual historian. His research and teaching interests include comparative political theory, the history of Chinese and Asian political thought, intercultural dialogue, and contemporary normative political theory. His current work intervenes in the “China Model” debate since the 1980s and its implications for liberal democratic theories. He has also written on the history and contemporary relevance of Confucianism, the reception of Western political thought in East Asian contexts, as well as the representation of non-Western societies in Western political thought. His articles have been published in Journal of Confucian Philosophy and Culture and Comparative Political Theory. At Fordham, Dongxian teaches English and Mandarin Chinese courses on Chinese politics, Chinese political thought, and comparative political theory.

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Emilee Chapman. She is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at Stanford University. Her research explores the relationship between democratic ideals and democratic practices. She teaches courses in contemporary political theory and the ethics of democracy.

In this episode of The Civic Agora, we chat with Josiah Ober. He is the Constantine Mitsotakis Chair in the School of Humanities and Sciences, specializes in the areas of ancient and modern political theory and historical institutionalism. His primary appointment is in Political Science; he holds a secondary appointment in the Classics and courtesy appointments in Philosophy and the Hoover Institution. His most recent books are The Greeks and the Rational: The discovery of practical reason (University of California Press 2022) and Demopolis: Democracy before liberalism in theory and practice (Cambridge University Press 2017). His ongoing work focuses on rationality (ancient and modern), the theory and practice of democracy, and the politics of knowledge and innovation, Recent articles and working papers address AI ethics, socio-political systems, economic growth and inequality, the relationship between democracy and dignity, and the aggregation of expertise.

In this episode, we chat with Simon Luo. He is a political theorist and currently a Postdoctoral Fellow at the Stanford Civics Initiative. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University, Bloomington. His primary research focuses on the relationship between historical narratives, future-oriented political visions, and democratic politics. His current book project investigates the uses and abuses of memories of the Cultural Revolution in intellectual and political debates in post-Mao China (1976–present). By tracing the genealogy of Cultural Revolution memories in post-Mao China, the book demonstrates how political actors holding different ideological positions make the Cultural Revolution a usable past as they articulate various visions of China’s political future. In doing so, the project analyzes how the past serves both democratic and antidemocratic politics in a rapidly changing society and how narratives of a revolutionary historical event constitute a repertoire of political knowledge for the public sphere.

In this episode of the Civic Agora, we chat with Brandice Canes-Wrone. She is a professor in the political science department and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution at Stanford. She is also the director of the Center for Revitalizing American Institutions. Her current research focuses on representation and accountability, including projects on elections, campaign finance, and representation.

During the course of her career, Canes-Wrone has published numerous articles and books in the areas of political institutions, mass political behavior, and political economy. On political institutions, she has a longstanding interest in executive politics. Her book Who Leads Whom? Presidents, Policy, and Public (University of Chicago, 2006) was awarded the Richard E. Neustadt prize by the American Political Science Association for the best book on the US presidency that year. More recent scholarship involves comparative analysis of how institutional constraints on the executive are associated with economic performance.

Other current research focuses on accountability and representation in the US context. She coedited Accountability Reconsidered: Voters, Interests, and Information in US Policymaking (Cambridge University Press, 2023) with Chuck Cameron, Sandy Gordon, and Greg Huber, and in this volume she and Michael Kistner examine how changes in the US local media are associated with developments in congressional electoral accountability. Additionally, she has a series of recent publications on campaign finance, including on the motivations of campaign donors (with Michael Barber and Sharece Thrower) congressional members’ responsiveness to donors (with Kenneth Miller, and in separate work, Nathan Gibson), and comparing the attitudes of donors to other constituencies (with Michael Barber, Josh Clinton, and Greg Huber).

Canes-Wrone is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and has served on the editorial boards of numerous political science and political economy journals. She has also served on the boards of the American National Elections Studies, the Institute for Advanced Study in Toulouse, and the Presidents and Executive Politics Section of the American Political Science Association, including as President of this section.

Prior to joining the Stanford faculty, Canes-Wrone was on the faculties of MIT, Northwestern, and Princeton. She holds a Bachelor’s degree from Princeton and a PhD from Stanford.