About

I’m currently a Full Professor in the Political Science department at Yale University and a Faculty Fellow with Yale’s Institute for Social and Policy Studies (ISPS), where I founded a research program on Citizens' Assemblies and the “Governing x” conference series.

I’m also Distinguished Research Fellow at the Institute for Ethics in AI at the University of Oxford, England. In 2023 I served as an advisor to the Democratic Inputs to AI program at OpenAI. I am currently undertaking work supported by Schmidt Futures through the AI2050 program.

My research and teaching interests include democratic theory, constitutional theory, political epistemology, and the ethics and politics of AI.

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Awards and fellowships

  • 2024 Tanner lecture award ($20 000) to give the Tanner lecture on Human Values at the University of Michigan on April 16

  • 2022 Joint recipient (together with philosopher John Tasioulas, Oxford University) of a $1,000, 000 grant from the Eric Schmidt Foundation for a project on “AI in a culture of human rights and democracy”

  • Visiting Professor at the Center for Ethics in AI, Faculty of Philosophy and the Blavatnik School of Government, University of Oxford, Spring 2022

  • APSA “Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics” Best Book Award for Democratic Reason: Politics, Collective Intelligence, and the Rule of the Many (Princeton University Press 2013)

 

 

Organization of conferences and workshops 

  • 2025 Conference, “Democracy with all the feels,” February 27

  • 2021    “Toward Citizen-Legislators? The Case of the French Citizens’ Convention for Climate.” On-line three-day international conference organized at Yale University with Res Publica, May 19-21 (forthcoming) https://campuspress.yale.edu/citizenlegislators/  [version anglaise] ; https://campuspress.yale.edu/citoyenslegislateurs/ [site en français] 

  • 2018  Third of three workshops on “Digital Technology and Democratic Theory,” co-organized with Rob Reich and Lucy Bernholz (Stanford University), Stanford University, December 14-15

  • 2018    Second of three workshops on “Digital Technology and Democratic Theory.” Co-organized with Rob Reich and Lucy Bernholz (Stanford University), Stanford University, June 27-29

  • 2018    International conference on “The Crisis of Democracy: Conceptual and Institutional Perspectives.” Co-organized with Seyla Benhabib, Yale University January 25-26: https://campuspress.yale.edu/crisisofdemocracy/

  • 2017    Workshop on my book manuscript Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the 21st Century, PACS Center, Stanford University, May 7

  • 2017    First of Three Workshops on “Digital Technology and Democratic Theory.” Co-organized with Rob Reich and Lucy Bernholz (Stanford University), Stanford University, May 4-6, 2017

  • 2017    Workshop on my book manuscript Open Democracy: Reinventing Popular Rule for the 21st Century, March 31, 2017, Yale University

  • 2016    Second Workshop on “Experiments in Democracy” co-organized with Jón Olafsson (University of Iceland) and Maia Sätala (Turku University), Turku, Finland, October 28

  • 2016    First Workshop on “Experiments in Democracy” co-organized with Jón Olafsson (University of Iceland) and Maia Sätala (Turku University), Reykjavik, May 20

  • 2011    Oslo-Yale International Conference “Epistemic Democracy in Practice,” co-organized with Susan Stokes and Björn Erik Rasch, Yale University, October 20-22

  • 2008    International conference “Collective Wisdom: Principles and Mechanisms,” with Jon Elster, Collège de France, Paris, May 22-23: https://www.college-de-france.fr/site/en-jon-elster/p1353422287027_content.htm

  • 2008    International conference “Masks and Veils in Civil Wars,” co-organized with Jon Elster, Collège de France, Paris, December 7-8

 

 

Other professional activities

Notable service to professional organizations

  • Member of the Executive Editorial Committee (EEC) of Political Theory

  • Member of the editorial board of Democratic Theory

  • Member of the International Board of the School of Transnational Governance (cluster “Democracy”) created at the European Institute in Florence in June 2017 

  • Member of the steering committee of the Political Epistemology Network https://www.politicalepistemologynetwork.com/

  • Member of the steering committee of the Social Epistemology Network http://www.socialepistemologynetwork.com/members.html

  • Member of the Scientific Board of the GIS (Groupement d’intérêt scientifique) Démocratie et Participation (a French community of academics researching democracy and participation) http://www.participation-et-democratie.fr/fr/content/groupement-dinteret-scientifique-sur-la-participation-du-public-aux-processus-decisionnels-e)

  • Co-founder and president of the APSA section “Ideas, Knowledge, and Politics” (formerly known as “Political Epistemology”) 2014-present

  • Member of the Editorial Board of Economics and Philosophy

  • Reviewer for the American Political Science Review; Journal of Politics; Journal of Political Philosophy; Social Epistemology; Politics, Philosophy, and Economics; Political Studies, The Journal of the American Philosophical Association, the Journal of Philosophy and Medicine; Constellations; Journal of Legislative Studies; Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, Policy & Internet

  • Reviewer for Oxford University Press; Cambridge University Press; Princeton University Press; ECPR; M.I.T. Press

 

Policy work

  • Expert consultant for the French CESE (Economic, Social, and Environmental Council) on the use of mini-publics—January 2019-Spring 2021

o   Initiative “Fractures et Transitions: Réconcilier la France” Spring 2019

o   Initiative “Générations Nouvelles” Spring 2020

o   Vaccination campaign involving 35 randomly selected citizens Spring 2021

  • Expert consultant for the campaign of Audrey Pulvar, candidate for the regional elections (Ile-de-France), January 2020

  • Expert consultant for the Council of Europe, Committee on Political Affairs and Democracy, Presentation on February 4, 2021 (translated in French, German, Russian, and Italian)

  • Expert consultant for Marc Fesneau, the Minister of Relations with Parliament and Citizen Participation, November 19, 2020

  • Expert Consultant for the French Prime Minister’s administrative services (SIG, aka Service d’Information du Gouvernement), Fall 2020-present

  • Expert consultant for the French government on institutional reforms and participatory constitutional processes (via Eric Buge, Directeur Adjoint de Cabinet, Présidence de l’Assemblée Nationale, and Roman Baudin, responsable des formations à l’assemblée nationale), March 2018-present

  • Expert consultant on the use of crowdsourcing techniques for the Finnish government (Ministry of Environment and Committee for the Future), Fall 2013

 

Work with Think Tanks

  • Chatham House (aka, Royal Institute of International Affairs, a British Think tank): co-direction of the project “Democracy Audit” with Hans Kudnani regarding democratic processes and their shortcomings in the UK, France, and Germany

  • Institut Montaigne (a French think tank): participation in 8 meetings on the topic of “Democracy under duress”

 

Consulting

  • Consulting for the outdoors clothing company Patagonia, August 2020-present

  • Member of the FIDE (Federation for Innovation in Democracy Europe) Advisory Board 

  • Member of the international advisory council of the School of Collective Intelligence, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University, Morocco, January 2019-present

  • Member of the advisory board of the startup company empowr.com, January 2015-February 2018

  • Consultant for the founders of Decisionsfutures (a branch of Newsfutures specializing in consulting activities), June 2008-June 2009

 

 

&

While at Harvard University, I also studied documentary-making under Ross McElwee. For two years, I filmed and edited several short student films. I still hope some day to bring together my day job as a political theorist and this one time hobby of mine, which I now unfortunately have little time to indulge.