Neil Roberts

Neil Roberts is Professor of Africana studies, political theory, and the philosophy of religion at Williams College. Roberts received a B.A. in Afro-American Studies and Law & Public Policy from Brown University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago with a specialization in political theory. His present writings deal with the intersections of Caribbean, Continental, and North American political theory with respect to theorizing the concepts of freedom and agency.

He is the author of published and forthcoming articles, reviews, and book chapters in AAIHS Black Perspectives, Antigua and Barbuda Review of Books, The Cambridge Dictionary of Political Thought, Caribbean Studies, Clamor magazine, The C.L.R. James Journal, Contemporary Political Theory, Daily Nous, Encyclopedia of Political Theory, Journal of Haitian Studies, Karib, New Political Science, New West Indian Guide, Patterns of Prejudice, Perspectives on Politics, Philo​sophia Africana, Philosophy in Review/Comptes Rendus Philosophiques, Political Theory, Public Seminar, Sartre Studies International, Shibboleths, Small Axe, Society for U.S. Intellectual History, Souls, Theory & Event, and an anthology devoted to the work of Sylvia Wynter. Roberts is co-editor of both the CAS Working Papers Series in Africana Studies (with Ben Vinson III) and a collection of essays (with Jane Anna Gordon) entitled Creolizing Rousseau, and he is guest editor of a Theory & Event symposium on the Trayvon Martin case.

In addition to being former Chair of the Williams Religion Department and Chair of CPA Publishing Partnerships, he is author of the award-winning book Freedom as Marronage and the collaborative work Journeys in Caribbean Thought. His most recent book is A Political Companion to Frederick Douglass. Roberts was President of the Caribbean Philosophical Association from 2016-19 and, since July 2018, has served as the W. Ford Schumann Faculty Fellow in Democratic Studies. He tweets @neildsroberts.

Bio Jul 2020