Oxford Fellow To Become Government Professor

For a scholar of European political thought, Harvard turned to Europe for Michael E. Rosen, who will be joining the Faculty of Arts and Sciences as professor of government on July 1.

Currently a fellow and tutor in Lincoln College at Oxford University, Rosen’s work bridges continental philosophy and political theory. He is also interested in analytical political theory and the history of political thought—boosting what is presently a small field in the department, according to Government Chair Nancy L. Rosenblum ’69.

“We are in need of senior scholars in political philosophy, and in particular in continental philosophy,” Rosenblum said.

Rosen will help strengthen Harvard’s course offerings in 19th century continental thought, an underrepresented area since the departure of continental specialist Seyla Benhabib in 2001.

“Those hundred years were crucial for the development of modern thinking,” said Peter A. Hall, director of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies (CES), where Rosen will be a faculty associate. “Now we have someone who knows the debates and writing of that period exceptionally well.”

Hall praised the breadth of Rosen’s intellectual interests, which has produced work on Georg Hegel and Immanuel Kant as well as more recent thinkers such as Theodor Adorno.

At Harvard, Rosen will teach courses on Marxism and contemporary continental thought.

He said he sees himself as helping to maintain a cross-Atlantic cultural exchange.

“Being able to contribute to an American understanding of European tradition of thought at a time when clearly misunderstandings between Europe and America are quite threatening seems to be an important task to undertake,” Rosen said.

A 16-year veteran of Oxford, Rosen will not be a complete stranger to Cambridge, Mass., either, where he was assistant professor of philosophy at Harvard from 1981 to 1982.

After returning to campus for brief visits in 2004 and 2005, Rosen said yesterday that what has stayed the same—the atmosphere of the Yard—is more striking than what has changed.

“In general, I find the United States a place of energy and optimism,” Rosen said. “I’m looking for the energy, optimism, and curiosity of Harvard’s environment to fire and energize my own.”

Both Rosenblum and Hall see Rosen’s arrival as a complement to Peter E. Gordon, a professor of modern European intellectual history.

Gordon, currently on book leave at University of California, Berkeley, had nothing but praise for Rosen, whom he called a “brilliant scholar.”

“He’s definitely one of the leading scholars writing in English on continental political thought, and that’s an area of interest that I think Harvard is just now beginning to refortify even beyond its current strengths,” he said.

As for arriving on campus fresh on the heels of administrative turnover, Rosen said his British employers have taught him well.

“You can’t be working in a British university for the last 20 years without being confronted with a lot of political turmoil,” he said. “I’ve learned not to make judgments on those things from the outside.”

—Staff writer Lulu Zhou can be reached at luluzhou@fas.harvard.edu.