Geoffrey Kurtz
Associate Professor
Social Sciences, Human Services and Criminal Justice
EMAIL: gkurtz@bmcc.cuny.edu
Office: N-669
Office Hours: Mondays 9:30-10:30am & Tuesdays 1:00-3:00pm
Phone: +1 (212) 220-1245
I have taught at BMCC since 2007. Whether teaching political science or urban studies, I emphasize history and invite students to encounter classic texts. I try to make each of my courses an occasion for students (and for me) to become more thoughtful observers of our common life, so that we can better understand ourselves and the larger wholes to which we belong.
Expertise
Political theory, especially American political thought
Degrees
- B.A. (Political Science), New College of Florida, 1996
- Ph.D. (Political Science), Rutgers University, 2007
Courses Taught
- The history, development, and intellectual origin of American government are studied and analyzed. Special consideration is given to the structure and operation of the executive, legislative and judiciary branches, and the role of government and politics in a modern industrial society.
- This class involves students in observation and critical analysis of political affairs. Topics and themes will include both American and global perspectives and both contemporary and historical cases. The class introduces a range of approaches to the study of politics, such as empirical research, quantitative analysis, theoretical questioning, and the examination of literary or artistic works. Central concepts will include politics, power, government, conflict, and justice.
- This course examines political ideas and explores ways of thinking about politics. The course will address classic works of political thought from ancient to modem, contemporary political debates, or perennial questions about human nature, freedom, community, and justice.
Prerequisite: Any Social Science course - This course provides an in-depth exploration of a topic in political science, which will vary from semester to semester. Topics may include subjects of enduring political importance or special current interest. The course description for a particular term will be available from the instructor during registration.
Prerequisite: Any POL course - Urban Studies is an interdisciplinary field that introduces students to a variety of topics and issues in urban community development. Through a variety of lenses which draw on sociology, economics, political science, and anthropology students will learn how to analyze our global economy and culture. In this class students learn where cities come from, how they grow, thrive, and decline, how they are organized, how urban problems arise, how they have been previously addressed, and how to plan cities of the future. Students will study and learn about topics that are frequently the subject of debates on urban life such as diversity, poverty, sustainability, segregation, environmental change, underemployment, gentrification, homelessness, community planning, health services, and urban politics.
Research and Projects
I am currently studying the American socialist tradition, looking at its place within the history of American thinking about democracy and community. My writings on Irving Howe, Michael Walzer, and realignment socialism (see below) are pieces of that project. In addition, I am working on two essays about the political thought of Wilson Carey McWilliams, who was one of my teachers. My other recent preoccupations have included medieval thought and culture, the emergence of modern paradigms of secularism and individualism, and the political consequences of those paradigms.
Publications
Book
Essays, scholarly articles, and book chapters
- “How to Be a Liberal-Socialist-Conservative.” Front Porch Republic, November 7, 2022.
- “American Socialism and American Political Culture: Irving Howe’s Conciliation with (and Dissent from) Individualism.” American Political Thought 10.1 (Winter 2021)
- “Between Socialism and Socialists,” in An Inheritance for Our Times: Principles and Politics of Democratic Socialism, ed. Gregory Smulewicz-Zucker and Michael J. Thompson (OR Books, 2020)
- “Keeping the Left Alive: Michael Walzer’s Political Action Reissued,” Public Seminar, October 22, 2019
- “What Religious Socialists Have Brought to Socialism,” Syndicate, September 12, 2019 (adapted from a panel presentation at “Democratic Socialism: Then and There, Here and Now”)
- “Can There Be Dignity in a Vast Majority?” Public Seminar, December 12, 2018
- “From Protest to Organizing,” Public Seminar, May 18, 2017
- “After Bernie,” Contrivers’ Review, May 18, 2017
- “On Organizing, Solidarity, and the Enlightenment,” in Rational Radicalism and Political Theory: Essays in Honor of Stephen Eric Bronner (Lexington Books, 2010), ed. Michael J. Thompson
- “An Apprenticeship for Life in Common: Jean Jaurès on Social Democracy and the Modern Republic,” New Political Science (35:1), 2013
- “Obama and the Organizing Tradition,” Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture (7.2), 2008
- “Anthony Giddens’s Third Way: A Critique,” in The Logos Reader: Rational Radicalism and the Future of Politics, ed. Stephen Eric Bronner and Michael J. Thompson (University Press of Kentucky, 2006)
Book reviews and review essays (since 2007)
- “Toward a Postliberal Future? Patrick Deneen’s Regime Change and the Meletus Option,” Public Seminar, May 16, 2023
- “After the Second Cheer,” a review of Two Cheers for Politics by Jedediah Purdy, Front Porch Republic, February 10, 2023
- Review essay on J. Toby Reiner, Michael Walzer, and Michael Walzer and Astrid von Busekist, Justice is Steady Work: A Conversation on Political Theory, Logos: A Journal of Modern Society and Culture (20.1)
- Review of Tim Rogan, The Moral Economists: R.H. Tawney, Karl Polanyi, E.P. Thompson, and the Critique of Capitalism, New Political Science (41.1)
- Review of Andy Blunden, The Origins of Collective Decision Making, Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture (16:1-2)
- Review of Gareth Dale, Karl Polanyi: A Life on the Left, New Political Science (39.2)
- “Socialism as an Ethos,” a review of A Socialist History of the French Revolution by Jean Jaurès, trans. Mitchell Abidor, Contrivers’ Review
- Review of Gilles Candar and Vincent Duclert, Jean Jaurès, H-France Review
- “Social Democracy, Here and Now,” Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture (13.3-4)
- Review of George Scialabba, What are Intellectuals Good For?, Logos: A Journal of Modern Society & Culture (10.2)
- “From Liberalism to Social Democracy,” a review of Andreas Kalyvas and Ira Katznelson, Liberal Beginnings, Dissent, August 26, 2009
- “Democracy and Accountability,” a review of The Colonial American Origins of Modern Democratic Thought by J.S. Maloy, The Review of Politics 72.2, Spring 2010.
- “Needed: A Politics of Solidarity,” a review of The Future of Democratic Equality: Rebuilding Social Solidarity in a Fragmented America by Joseph M. Schwartz, Democratic Left 37.1, Summer 2009.
- Review of The Specter of Democracy by Dick Howard, Rethinking Marxism 21.1, January 2009.
- “The Production of Solidarity: Pierre Rosanvallon on Civil Society and Democracy,” New Political Science (30.4), 2008
Academic conference presentations (since 2007)
- “Maybe Even Souls: The Moral Basis of Socialism in Spheres of Justice.” Seminar on Spheres of Justice at 40, Institute for Advanced Study, October 2023.
- “The Intellectual History of Realignment Socialism, and Why It Matters.” New York Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 2022.
- “Maybe Even Souls: Michael Walzer on the Moral Basis of Socialism.” New York Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 2021; revised version at Association for Political Theory Annual Conference, November 2021.
- “Michael Walzer’s Political Pluralism, Or, When is a Social Democrat Not a Communitarian?” Association for Political Theory Annual Conference, October 2018.
- “Social Democracy in Lockean America: Michael Walzer’s Dilemma.” New York State Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 2018.
- “An Apprenticeship for Life in Common: Jean Jaurès on the Modern Republic.” New York State Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 2012.
- “Organizing in the Age of Experiments: Benjamin Franklin’s Public Spirit.” Northeastern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, November 2009.
- “Assembling the Public: Benjamin Franklin on the Practice of Organizing and the Modern Republic.” New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting, May 2009.
- “Organizer in Chief? Barack Obama, Saul Alinsky, and the Organizing Tradition in American Democratic Thought.” Northeastern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, November 2007.
Interviews
- On Jean Jaurès, social democracy, and the problem of hope: New Books Network (with Zalman Newfield), June 2022
- On Barack Obama and the American community organizing tradition: KBOO, “Old Mole Radio Hour” (with Bill Resnick), July 2009
Honors, Awards and Affiliations
- Phi Theta Kappa Award for Excellence in Education (2008)
Additional Information
Here’s the topic for my Fall 2024 Special Topics in Political Science (POL 270) class.
THE MEANING OF THE ELECTIONS: This class will examine the 2024 U.S. elections. We’ll ask: What’s happening, and what does it mean? What do these elections reveal about the state of American politics and political culture? Is American democracy in crisis?
