Associate Professor Emerita of Political Science
Areas of Specialization: Political Philosophy
Appointments: Judith A. Swanson is an Associate Professor in the Department of Political Science at Boston University. She is also an Affiliated Member of the Department of Philosophy and the Department of Classical Studies. Before coming to Boston University, she taught at the University of Georgia and at Yale University.
Publications: She is the author of The Public and the Private in Aristotle’s Political Philosophy (Cornell University Press, 1992), which challenges Hannah Arendt’s influential claim that a fully human life can be lived only in public according to Aristotle. Professor Swanson’s book reveals that Aristotle instead thought that private-oriented dimensions of life, such as the household, economy, and philosophy, are essential to the thriving of both individuals and the polity. She is also the author, with C. David Corbin, of Aristotle’s Politics: A Reader’s Guide (Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd., 2009) which includes brief comparisons of Aristotle’s views with those of other political philosophers plus study and discussion questions for teachers of Aristotle. Professor Swanson is grateful to Professor Young-Kyun Kim of Cheongju University for publishing a Korean translation of Aristotle’s Politics: A Reader’s Guide: 아리스토텔레스의 정치학 입문 (Paju: Seokwangsa Publishing Company, 2014).
In addition to her books, Judith Swanson has published articles and essays in Polity, Interpretation, Boston University Law Review, Praxis und Politik, Ancient Philosophy, Aristotelian Political Philosophy, Justice v. Law in Greek Political Thought, Action and Contemplation, and Philosophy, Politics, and the Conversation of Mankind.
Areas of Research: In addition to texts by Aristotle, her published work analyzes texts by Aeschylus and by twentieth-century political philosophers Friedrich Hayek, Michael Oakeshott, Leo Strauss, Thomas Nagel, Roger Scruton, and Michael Sandel.
A sample of citations to her publications is linked below.
Teaching: Professor Swanson’s repertoire of courses includes undergraduate courses in political theory such as Introduction to Political Theory, Classical to Early Modern Political Theory, and Modern Political Theory, plus a variety of graduate/undergraduate seminars in political theory. She has also taught in B.U.’s interdisciplinary undergraduate Core Curriculum, which she helped develop.
During the Fall 2022 semester, she is teaching PO592 / PH412 / HI514 Enlightenment and Its Critics, and during the Spring 2023 semester she is teaching PO392 Modern Political Theory.
The 2023 syllabus of Modern Political Theory will be similar to the 2020 syllabus, linked here: Modern Political Theory
Additional Information:
Curriculum Vitae