May 20Which Types of Students Feel Uncomfortable in Class Discussions? We asked New Zealand students for their suggestionsIn 2021 I was involved, with colleagues in Heterodox New Zealand, in a administering a version of Heterodox Academy’s Campus Expression Survey to New Zealand undergraduate students. The seven of us published the results the following year. What follows is my write-up of the responses we received to one question…Free Speech7 min readFree Speech7 min read
Jan 19Was Athenian Democracy Dependent on Slavery?Back in November 2021 I published a piece in Areo magazine called ‘Was Athenian Democracy Dependent on Imperialism?’ When I sent the editor this second installment on slavery, she asked me to re-work the piece to incorporate some introductory material on Athenian democracy for the sake of the general reader…Athens8 min readAthens8 min read
Feb 10, 2022Democrazia, Ideologia, e il Mondo Antico: Un’intervista a Luciano CanforaUna dozzina di anni fa, durante un viaggio in Italia, ho preso in mano una storia generale della democrazia scritta da uno studioso italiano, Luciano Canfora. In seguito ho appreso che Canfora non era solo un prolifico autore di opere sia accademiche che divulgative, ma anche che era attivamente coinvolto…Democracy7 min readDemocracy7 min read
Jul 25, 2021Classics Before the Enlightenment (Long Version)This is the full, unedited version of a piece that appeared earlier this year on the Heterodox Academy blog. The editor rightly suggested it was too long, and included too much detail for a general audience. …Classics8 min readClassics8 min read
Apr 25, 2021Is Democracy Western? The Case of SortitionRecently I was asked to review Liliane Lopez-Rabatel and Yves Sintomer’s edited volume Sortition and Democracy: History, Tools, Theories (Exeter: Imprint Academic, 2020) for Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek and Roman Political Thought. I’ve sumitted the review, which should come out later this year in issue 38.3, …Democracy16 min readDemocracy16 min read
Jan 12, 2020Popper and Plato: A Response to David J. RiesbeckSoon after my article on Karl Popper and Plato appeared in the Journal of New Zealand Studies last year, David J. Riesbeck posted a gracious and thoughtful response to it here. I replied in two long comments, which I’m re-posting as one below. …Popper7 min readPopper7 min read
Jun 16, 2019Member-onlyThe Future of our Ancient Past (Long version)This is the full, unedited version of a piece that appeared in January this year as part of a series on Western Civ and the classics in Quillette. The editor rightly suggested that this version was too dry for a general audience. …Classics8 min readClassics8 min read
Apr 5, 2019A Reply to Maximus Planudes’ CritiqueSome time after I published a piece on white supremacism and Classics, someone going by the name Maximus Planudes posted a response on these pages. I posted a longish comment in reply. This has now been removed, apparently by M.P., who also blocked me from seeing or commenting on any…Racism5 min readRacism5 min read
