​The Burden of Freedom: James Baldwin and the Malaise of Modern Life is a new project that will explore Baldwin's profound engagement with the dilemmas of freedom and identity within the context of American liberal democracy. While many readers and scholars emphasize Baldwin's focus on race and national identity, this project argues that behind those themes lies a deeper, existential dilemma: the conflict between our inherent freedom and the identities we create to shield ourselves from the anxieties that arise from the uncertainty and openness of that freedom. 
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Baldwin’s writings not only expose the illusions of racial superiority and innocence that shape American identity, but also challenge the fundamental human tendency to evade the burden of freedom. This project argues that Baldwin's reflections on race, democracy, and moral responsibility reveal the limits of all constructed identities—racial, political, or otherwise—by showing that they can never fully resolve the deeper anxieties of human existence. But more significantly, Baldwin belongs at the center of post-World War II intellectual debates  on the fate and uncertainty of liberalism and freedom. In this, he joins figures such as Reinhold Niebuhr, Ralph Ellison, Richard Wright, and Albert Camus, grappling as they did with the existential crisises of the day. 

​African American Political Thought:  A Collected History (with Jack Turner, Political Science, University of Washington) is an edited volume forthcoming from University of Chicago Press. The volume includes 30 essays by prominent scholars in the fields of philosophy, history, political theory, and religious studies offering original interpretations of 30 key figures in the tradition of African American political thought. This project is now complete and can be found here.

Oxford New Histories of Philosophy book series speaks to a growing concern to broaden and reexamine philosophy’s past. As professional philosophers grapple with the scarcity of women and people of color in their discipline, and as teachers of philosophy struggle to design courses that speak to their students’ diverse interests, there is a palpable need for change. We intend Oxford New Histories of Philosophy to have a major impact on how philosophy is taught and practiced in the English-speaking world.
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By assuming that our philosophical past can help to invigorate our courses, the series explores the fascinating twists and turns in philosophy’s rich history. And, by making long-lost readings available, its books are helping instructors to rethink their standard courses and speak to a new generation of students eager to discover the full breadth and variety of philosophy. Oxford New Histories of Philosophy books are useful to anyone wishing to diversify or rethink a philosophy course or area of research, whether problem-related or historical.

There are two kinds of books in this series:

Primary texts: The first includes primary texts, organized around a prominent author or topic, along with a philosophically astute and historically rich introduction. The goal is to help instructors and scholars navigate unexplored materials in the history of philosophy.
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Philosophical commentaries: The second kind of books are philosophical commentaries on important non-canonical primary materials. Whether a single-authored monograph or collection of essays, these will explicate and evaluate works and topics left out of standard narratives. The goal is to offer sophisticated analyses of understudied primary materials.