Melvin Rogers

JOB

Assistant Professor of Political Theory
University of Cambridge
@thecambridgeschool.bsky.social

www.cam.ac.uk/jobs/univers...

Looking forward to this

The Declaration of Independence and the Push for Racial Equality YouTube video by National Constitution Center

It was an honor to chat with Lucas Morel about the Declaration of Independence and the Push for Racial Equality. Grateful for the invitation from the National Constitution Center. Have a listen.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ocwb...

In honor of Black History Month!!

So satisfying to read these three together. There is a rich conversation taking place. 😀

And I haven't signed anything since. I wish I could explain what the original presentation of that letter looked like. Sigh.

Melvin Rogers Highlights Knox College Annual Martin Luther King, Jr. Convocation | Knox College Knox College features many events for MLK Convocation

Looking forward to this:

www.knox.edu/news/melvin-...

And yet, they are indispensable for organizing relations, attributing responsibility, and coordinating and consolidating collective life.

We speak of legal persons (say, corporations and states) or we speak of political ideas (say, "the people"). Taken strictly in empirical terms these things do not exist as discrete objects in the world and thus are not "true" in some narrow factual sense.

Yes it can. The question for the pragmatist is not, properly speaking, is the fiction factually true? Rather, what work does it do, and under what conditions does that work remain justified?

So satisfying to read these three together. There is a rich conversation taking place. 😀

So proud to work on this book series with Christia Mercer: Oxford New Histories of Philosophy. @esglaude.bsky.social @nneka.bsky.social

So excited to have this book on my hands. Thanks to @prorogers.bsky.social and Christia Mercer and their wonderful work editing the Oxford Nee Histories of Philosophy series. We also have another volume of his writings on the way!

@prorogers.bsky.social on James Baldwin making a similar point:

Get it!!!

Wow. Harvard nuking its PhD programs

- Science PhD admissions reduced by more than 75%
- Arts & Humanities reduced by about 60%
- Social Sciences by 50–70%
- History by 60%
- Biology by 75%
- The German department will lose all PhD seats
- Sociology from six PhD students to zero

Well, I tried to explain that universities already traffic in disagreement. That is how disciplines work. I pointed out that once you turn inquiry into a balance sheet of political leanings, you will quickly betray the standards of academic work. I tried to say something about those standards.

Was asked about “viewpoint diversity.” It may sound like pluralism, but it means auditing faculty for ideological balance—confusing scholarship with partisan accounting. Pluralism rests on rigorous debate and critique, not political mandates, and rarely welcomes every opinion under the sun.

My contribution to this is to say as often as possible “nothing worth studying at a university level has (only) two sides”

What I'm working on these days.

😀

Also have a look at Keidrick Roy's American Dark Age: Racial Feudalism and the Rise of Black Liberalism.

This is now out. I love working on this series.

What Must Universities Become Today in Face of Trump? | Common Dreams In sliding too close to the regime that now attacks them, too many universities have lost much of the leverage needed to marshal wider public support for their most noble agendas.

"If you campaign to move university faculty to the right in the name of institutional pluralism, why not—with the same vociferousness—call for greater economic and ideological diversity among university trustees, university presidents, corporate boardrooms...?"
www.commondreams.org/opinion/univ...

Book Review: The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and African American Political Thought, by Melvin L. Rogers - Nick Bromell, 2025

Two new book reviews are out in Political Theory:
Nick Brommell reviews The Darkened Light of Faith: Race, Democracy, and African American Political Thought, by @prorogers.bsky.social

@prorogers.bsky.social's The Darkened Light of Faith is a powerful new account of what a group of 19th- and 20th-century African American activists, intellectuals, and artists can teach us about democracy.

🎧📘 Save 50% on this #audiobook with code BLOOM50: press.princeton.edu/books/audio/...

My god!

"the prospect of successful opposition to authoritarianism lies primarily in civil society. Many more businesses, law firms, and media organizations will need to step up in opposition, together with many more colleges." www.chronicle.com/article/we-h...

I am late in seeing this!!

When things seem dark, I say paint. It will put a smile on your face. Here are some of my pieces. Enjoy 😀