Paul A. Kottman

PAUL A. KOTTMAN is Associate Professor of Comparative Literature at the New School for Social Research. His current book project, tentatively entitled Defying the Stars: Romantic Love as the Struggle for Freedom (under contract, Stanford University Press) asks what it means that the mediation of family, society, culture can lead to ‘loving-romantic’ bonds which appear to challenge, and even to undo, such mediation. He has also published essays in a wide variety of journals, most recently in Diacritics, Shakespeare Quarterly, and the Revue Internationale de Philosophie. He has held Visiting Professorships at the University of Tokyo; the Universita’ degli studi di Verona; the Universita’ del Piemonte Orientale; and the Instituto per studi filosofici in Naples.

Professor Kottman is also the editor of a new book series at Stanford University Press, entitled Reboot: First Order Questions in the Humanities. Reboot creates a new and distinctive venue for critical studies in the humanities. The series pushes beyond the twin trends that now characterize most academic series in the humanities – increasing specialization, on the one hand, and interdisciplinary ‘crossings’ on the other — in order to tackle broad questions of common concern. For example: ‘What do we value and why?’ ‘What is it to live a free life?’ ‘To what kind of life can we aspire, given the contours of modern society?’ ‘How are these questions reflected in our philosophy, art and literature?’