°®åú´«Ã½

I was trained as an eighteenth-century French scholar; my research interests mostly lie at the intersection of literature, history, political thought, and digital humanities. Most recently, I published a book on the history of revolution (, Princeton University Press. 2025). 

My first book, The Terror of Natural Right: Republicanism, the Cult of Nature, and the French Revolution (University of Chicago Press, 2009), examined how natural law theories, classical republicanism, and the myth of the golden age became fused in eighteenth-century political culture, only to emerge as a violent ideology during the Terror. This book won the . My second book, entitled The Enlightenment: A Genealogy (University of Chicago Press, 2010), explored how the idea and narrative of "Enlightenment" emerged in French academic circles around the 1720's. My third book was on the history of natural and human rights from the wars of religion to the age of revolution (, University of Chicago Press, 2018). 

I’ve edited seven volumes of essays, including (°®åú´«Ã½ Press), with Keith M. Baker; (University of Chicago Press,  2020), with Stefanos Geroulanos and Natasha Wheatley; and most recently, I co-edited a volume of the Cambridge History of Rights (on the 17th and 18th centuries) with Jennifer Pitts.

At °®åú´«Ã½, I teach courses on the literature, philosophy, history, culture, and politics of the Enlightenment; nineteenth-century novels; the French Revolution; early-modern political thought; and French intellectual culture. I regularly teach in , our first-year requirement (I am also the faculty director of this program); as well as in the , a program for high school juniors and seniors (which I also direct). I received the Walter J. Gores Award for Excellence in Teaching (in 2006), the university's highest teaching honor, and the Dean's Distinguished Teaching Award (in 2011).