Recent professional activities by Catherine H. Zuckert, Professor Emerita, Political Science

Catherine H. Zuckert, Professor Emerita of Political Science

Community Service:
I have written letters for Vote Forward to encourage individuals in various states to vote.

Teaching:

In 2022, I served as a member of Abigail Staysa's dissertation committee on “Pleasure and Prudence in Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics.”

In 2023, I agreed to read and discuss multiple drafts of an article a visiting scholar at UND, a young PhD from Spain by the name of David Garcia Garcia, was preparing on Leo Strauss as a Neo-Aristotelian.

In the last three years, I have also taught three graduate seminars on "What Is Human?" (spring 2022), "Modern Political Philosophy" (spring 2023), and "The Search for Self-Knowledge" (spring (2024) for the MA in Classical Liberal Education & Leadership at Arizona State University. I have supervised four master's theses for this program as well.

In the fall of 2022, I led a six-session "directed reading" on Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man for a student at Tufts University.

Publications:

In 2022 I published a chapter entitled “Machiavelli’s ‘Moments,’” in People Power: Popular Sovereignty from Machiavelli to Modernity, ed. Robert Ingram and Christopher Barker (Manchester, UK: University of Manchester Press), 30-40, and wrote a review of Laurence Lampert's book, How Socrates Became Socrates, for the Classical Review 72.1 (March).

In 2023 I published an article on “Montaigne and the Virtue of Moderation,” in The Review of Politics 85: 378-81, and corrected and supervised a Spanish translation of my book, Plato's Philosophers (los filósofos de platón), forthcoming from Javeriana University Press, Bogota, Colombia and Ediciones Uniandes, Universidad de los Andes in 2024.

This fall I also corrected the final copy of a chapter on “Socrates’ Search for Self-Knowledge,” in Principles and Praxis in Ancient Greek Philosophy: Studies of Socrates, Plato and Aristotle in Honor of Fred D. Miller, Jr., ed. David Keyt and Christopher Shields (Springer, forthcoming 2024).

Academic Lectures & Conference Presentations:

“On the Naturalness or Rationality of Morality,” Panel presentation for a conference on “Nietzsche” sponsored by the Le Frak Foundation at Michigan State University in conjunction with the Hudson Institute at AEI, Washington, DC, May 1-3, 2024.

“Descartes’ Discourse on Method,” lecture at Roosevelt University, Chicago IL, April 29, 2024.

“Montaigne’s Response to Machiavelli,” paper presentation at the Midwest PSA, Chicago, IL, April 5, 2024.

“What Is a Great Book,” Panel, National Symposium for Classical Education, Phoenix AZ, March 23, 2024.

“Liberal Arts & Civic Education: Compatible or Conflicting?” conference on “Civics, Patriotism, and America’s Prospects,” Arizona State University, Tempe, February 23, 2024.

“Leo Strauss: Political Philosophy as First Philosophy,” Political Philosophy Workshop, Sun Yat-Sen University, June 15, 2023.

Augustine's Confessions, for the New Thinkery podcast, April 7, 2022.

“Why Study Plato?” National Classical Education Symposium, Phoenix AZ, February 24, 2023.

“Lessons from Tocqueville in America, Zoom Conversation, National Constitution Center, March 6, 2023 (on YouTube)

“Montaigne’s Self-Study” for the Center on Early Modern Political Thought, October 13, 2022, and “Personal Integrity v. Political Efficacy: Montaigne’s Response to Machiavelli,” for the Political Theory Workshop, October 14, 2022.

“Machiavelli’s Popular Prince,” “Machiavelli’s Democratic Republic,” and “The Proper, Private Role of the Church in Machiavelli’s Mandragola,” University of Minho, Portugal via Zoom, May 2022.

"Socrates' Search for Self-Knowledge," paper presentation at a conference in honor of Fred Miller, Center for the Philosophy of Freedom, University of Arizona, Tucson, December 2021.

"Leo Strauss on Liberal Education," with Michael Zuckert, for the "Books of Enduring Interest" podcast, November 1, 2021.