Introducing Our New Faculty

Michael Blake joins the Evans School as an assistant professor of public affairs and will have a joint appointment with the Department of Philosophy. Most recently, he was an assistant professor of public policy and philosophy at Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government where he also held appointments in the Center for Ethics and the Professions and the Carr Center for Human Rights. Dr. Blake's research and teaching interests span social and political philosophy, philosophy of law and of economics, as well as public policy, international ethics, and biomedical ethics. Most recently he wrote the book chapter "Liberal Foundationalism and Agonistic Democracy" published in NOMOS XLVI: Political Exclusion and Domination (New York University Press) and is currently writing a book called The Politics of Survival: Liberalism, Tolerance, and Multiculturalism. Professor Blake received his doctorate in Philosophy from Stanford University, his legal training from Yale Law School, and his baccalaureate in economics and philosophy from the University of Toronto.

Sara Curran joins us as an assistant professor of public affairs, and will have a joint appointment in the Jackson School of International Studies. She comes to the Evans School from Princeton University, where she was an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology and a fellow in the Center for International Studies. Professor Curran's research and teaching interests encompass social demography, development and globalization, the environment, and gender. She recently wrote Shifting Boundaries, Transforming Lives: Globalization, Gender, and Family Dynamics in Thailand (forthcoming from Princeton University Press) and edited, with E. Perecman, Finding a Method in the Madness: A Bibliography and Contemplative Essays for Social Science Field Work, to be published by Sage. She earned a doctorate in sociology from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, a master's degree in sociology (with a minor in economics) from North Carolina State University, and a baccalaureate in natural resource management from the University of Michigan.

Sanjeev Khagram joins us as an associate professor of public affairs and will direct the Marc Lindenberg Center for Humanitarian Action, International Development, and Global Citizenship. Khagram also holds a joint appointment in the Henry M. Jackson School of International Studies. He was on the faculty of Harvard University's John F. Kennedy School of Government and is a pioneer in the emerging field of transnational studies, with years of applied research experience on the role of NGOs and other innovations in global governance and international development. He has conducted long-term, hands-on fieldwork in Brazil, India, Nigeria, Thailand, and South Africa, and shorter projects in several other countries. In the classroom, Professor Khagram places great importance on students' acquisition of international comparative and applied knowledge, and interdisciplinary perspectives. Most recently, he co-edited Restructuring World Politics: The Power of Transnational Social Movements, Networks and Norms and wrote Dams and Development: Transnational Struggles for Power and Water. He earned a doctorate in political science, a master's degree in economics (food research) and a baccalaureate in development studies/engineering, all from Stanford University.

Andrew Light, after a year at the Evans School as a visiting assistant professor of public affairs, joins our faculty permanently and will have a joint appointment in the Department of Philosophy. Dr. Light comes to us from New York University, where he was an assistant professor of environmental philosophy, and directed of the Environmental Conservation Education Program. He is also a research fellow at the Institute for Environment, Philosophy & Public Policy at Lancaster University (U.K.), and a faculty fellow of the Center for Sustainable Development at the University of Texas at Austin's School of Architecture. His teaching and research interests include environmental ethics and policy, moral and political philosophy, philosophy of technology, of public policy, and of architecture and urban planning. He most recently authored Environment and Values, with J. O'Neill and A. Holland (Routledge Press), and edited, with J. M. Smith, The Aesthetics of Everyday Life (Columbia University Press). Light received his doctorate and master's degrees in philosophy from the University of California, Riverside.

Anne Steinemann holds a joint appointment at the Evans School and the Department of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Dr. Steinemann spent the previous nine years as a faculty member at the Georgia Institute of Technology and recently was a visiting scientist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography. She has also had affiliations with the U.S. Geological Survey, Florida Institute of Technology, and Linköping University in Sweden. While at Georgia Tech, she received the highest teaching awards for both her College and the Institute. She also received the National Science Foundation CAREER Award, the highest honor for junior faculty in science and engineering. Professor Steinemann advises numerous government agencies and industries on water and environmental issues, and has directed more than $4 million of funded research. She has recently published a textbook, Microeconomics for Public Decisions (South-Western, 2005). Her work takes an interdisciplinary approach to problem solving, integrating engineering analysis with expertise in economics, health, environmental planning, and public policy.

Return to September 2005 MPA Alumni News