Seyla Benhabib, who is joining the Yale faculty as the Eugene Meyer Professor of Political Science and Philosophy, is noted for her research and teaching on 19th- and 20th-century European social and political thought, particularly German idealism and the work of Hegel, Marx, Weber and Arendt.

Also a renowned feminist theorist, Benhabib comes to Yale from Harvard University, where since 1993 she has been a professor in the Department of Government and a senior research fellow at the Center for European Studies. She has chaired Harvard's Committee on Degrees in Social Studies since 1997.

Benhabib is the author or coauthor of seven books, including "Critique, Norm and Utopia: A Study of the Foundations of Critical Theory," "Situating the Self: Gender, Community and Post-modernism in Contemporary Ethics," "Feminist Contentions: A Philosophical Exchange" and "The Reluctant Modernism of Hannah Arendt." Another book, "The Use and Abuse of Political Culture," is forthcoming. Benhabib has also coedited several books; among these is "Feminism as Critique" and "The Communicative Ethics Controversy." She helped start Constellations: An International Journal of Critical and Democratic Theory, which brings together scholars from East and West around issues of democratic culture and critique, and served from 1994 to 1997 as its editor-in-chief.

Born in Istanbul, Turkey, Benhabib graduated from the American College for Girls there and received a B.A. in philosophy from Brandeis University. She earned a Ph.D. in philosophy from Yale in 1977. That same year, she joined the Yale faculty as an assistant professor of philosophy. She was an Alexander von Humboldt Research Fellow at the Max Planck Institut in Germany 1979-81, then taught for four years at Boston University. Before joining the Harvard faculty, she taught philosophy and women's studies at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, and political science and philosophy at the New School for Social Research.

The philosopher has held visiting professorships at a number of European institutions. From 1993 to 1997 she codirected a course in philosophy and social sciences in Prague, Czech Republic.

Benhabib has served on the editorial boards of several journals and is currently a member of the executive committee of Political Theory. She has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 1995.

T H I SW E E K ' SS T O R I E S

Yale Celebrates 300th Commencement

Festival to feature everything from opera to aerial dancers

Alumni returning to campus for reunion weekends

ENDOWED PROFESSORSHIPS

• Mahzarin Banaji appointed to Halleck chair
  
  
• Seyla Benhabib appointed to Meyer chair
  
  
• Peter Salovey appointed to Argyris chair
  
  
• Steven B. Smith appointed to Cowles chair
  

  
  

Exhibit recalls Snowdon's 'irreverent' photographic visions

British Art Center hosting talks, trips, music during International Festival

International Festival of Arts and Ideas: Events on Campus

International Festival of Arts and Ideas: Tours

MEDICAL SCHOOL NEWS

• Grant to boost medical students' knowledge of elder care
  
  
• Monitors usefulness in preventing SIDS questioned
  
  
• Study suggests revising guidelines for seniors' weight
  
  
• Depression's power to lower work productivity revealed
  
  

Outreach program bringing seniors to the Peabody

Campus Notes

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