Alan M. Levine is Associate Professor of political theory in the Department of Government and the founding director of the Political Theory Institute at American University. He is also an Affiliate Associate Professor in AU’s Department of Philosophy. A specialist in the history of Western political thought, Professor Levine’s teaching and research interests include the theoretical principles of the United States, the concept of “America,” and ancient, renaissance, modern, and postmodern political theory.
His publications include Sensual Philosophy: Toleration, Skepticism, and Montaigne’s Politics of the Self (2001), Early Modern Skepticism and the Origins of Toleration (editor, 1999), and A Political Companion to Ralph Waldo Emerson (co-editor, 2011) as well as articles on Montaigne, Machiavelli, Nietzsche, Chinua Achebe, Judith Shklar, European views of America, the Enlightenment idea of commerce, and the origins of toleration.
He has held fellowships at Princeton’s James Madison Program; the Hoover Institution at Stanford; and the Institute of US Studies, School of Advanced Study, University of London. He has received SPA’s Outstanding Teaching Award (2000 & 2001); SPA’s Outstanding Teaching in General Education Award (2000); and AU’s Award for Outstanding Teaching in the General Education Program (2008). He earned his B.A. at the University of Chicago and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Harvard University.