I am Silver Professor of Politics at New York University, specializing in political theory; I am also affiliated faculty in the Department of Classics and at the NYU School of Law. My primary research interests are in the historical origins and normative logic of democratic institutions. I am currently serving as chair of the Department of Politics.

Details about my projects are available via the links.

My current book project is called Sheep May Safely Graze: Juries and Local Knowledge. It has received support from the Guggenheim Foundation, the American Council for Learned Societies, and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.

A second book project, No-Bullshit Democracy, co-authored with Henry Farrell and Hugo Mercier, is a cheekily titled project analyzing the conditions under which democratic decision-making may yield good solutions to certain problems, and when it is more likely to fail.

My best-known work, by far, is a fun educational video on Athens created with a team at Ted-Ed:

http://ed.ted.com/lessons/what-did-democracy-really-mean-in-athens-melissa-schwartzberg