Teresa Bejan

Teresa M. Bejan is an American political theorist and author. She is a professor of political theory in the department of politics and international relations at the University of Oxford and a fellow of Oriel College.[1]

She received her PhD with distinction from Yale University in 2013 and won the American Political Science Association's 2015 Leo Strauss Award for the best doctoral dissertation in political philosophy.[2] She holds degrees from the University of Chicago and University of Cambridge.

Her 2017 book Mere Civility: Disagreement and the Limits of Toleration, published by Harvard University Press,[3][4] examines contemporary handling of civility, disagreement and freedom of speech in the light of arguments by the 17th-century thinkers Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and Roger Williams. She argues in Mere Civility that Roger Williams' approach of open disagreement with, and even expression of contempt for, opponents is a stronger basis for a liberal and inclusive society than the approaches of Hobbes or Locke, on the grounds that both Hobbes and Locke see a role for suppression and exclusion in building a tolerant society.[3]

Bejan gave the Balzan-Skinner lecture at the University of Cambridge on 22 April 2016, entitled Acknowledging Equality, in which she questioned modern conceptions of equality through examining 'ideas of equality as a political principle, a religious commitment, and a social practice in seventeenth-century England.'[5]

In the aftermath of Donald Trump's election as president, Bejan argued against the use of calls for civility by both Trump's supporters and opponents as a way to silence those who disagree with them.[6]