New York University

Gallatin Professor George Shulman has research and teaching interests in political thought and American studies. He teaches and writes on the history of European and American thought, emphasizing the role of narrative in culture and politics. His course offerings at Gallatin include: "Race and American Nationhood"; "Theorizing Politics: Machiavelli, Marx, and Foucault"; and "Modern American Narratives," which examines how notable novelists and theorists depict crucial changes in 20th-century America.

"Teaching political and social thought appeals to me because politics are very important," he states. "The stakes are very high in discussions of political issues; how we think and how we act really matter. It's also exciting to see the range of opinions about political things—people really don't agree, and it is very important for students to learn how to credit and negotiate those differences."

He continues, "I love the exchange of ideas in a classroom. I love to be part of change—both to watch my students and to develop my own ideas by working them out with students. The whole interaction in a classroom is so political."

Like his students, Shulman received his B.A. in individualized study; at Amherst College he focused his undergraduate work on political economy and American literature. He then received both his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley, where he studied political science and theory. Prior to joining the Gallatin faculty in 1994, Shulman taught at Washington University in St. Louis; Sarah Lawrence College; Yale University, where he taught political science and American studies at both the undergraduate and graduate levels; and The New School, where he spent four years on the graduate faculty in The New School for Social Research.

He published his first book, Radicalism and Reverence: Gerrard Winstanley and the English Revolution (University of California Press), in 1992. The book is an examination of the life and work of Winstanley, a 17th-century political theorist and radical Protestant. Shulman's second book, American Prophecy: Race and Redemption in American Political Culture, was released in September by the University of Minnesota Press. Focusing on the language that great American critics have used to engage the racial domination at the center of American history, American Prophecy explores the relationship of prophecy and race to American nationalism and democratic politics.

Shulman explains, "From Henry Thoreau, Frederick Douglass, and John Brown, to Eugene Debs, Martin Luther King, Jr., and James Baldwin—or to Jeremiah Wright on the left and Jerry Falwell on the right—I am trying to explore what is dangerous and yet also valuable in prophetic language. I focus on the issue of white supremacy and resistance to it as my way of exploring why and how this language is needed."

Shulman notes that the present political climate in the United States provides extraordinary learning opportunities for students taking his current courses. "One course I teach is about empire, about the relationship between imperial practices 'outside' and what happens 'domestically' to our republic," he states. "The assumption of the U.S. as 'a world power'—a euphemism for empire—is unchallenged, and the consequences are enormous. Another course I teach is about how we understand what 'politics' is, how the very sense of this activity has changed over time, and likewise how our understanding of 'democratic' and 'democracy' has changed, which is also pertinent to how we view and choose to engage in politics today."

Shulman, who won a National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship in 1997 and NYU's Distinguished Teaching Award in 2003, was recently promoted to full professor at the Gallatin School. He strongly supports Gallatin's dedication to developing independence in scholars, and he is continually impressed by his students' maturity and commitment to their distinctive educational goals.

"Gallatin students want to take charge of their learning," he states. "They don't want to be pre-sorted, they resist compartments, and they want to figure things out for themselves. But it is also great to see them help each other figure out their paths, intellectually, politically, and practically. A community committed to the individuality of its members: that is very appealing to me!"