Gopal Balakrishnan was a professor in the History of Consciousness Department at the

University of California, Santa Cruz The University of California, Santa Cruz (UC Santa Cruz or UCSC) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Santa Cruz, California, United States. It is one of the ten campuses in the University of C ...

, until he was fired due to allegations of sexual assault. Balakrishnan studied European intellectual history and

historical sociology Historical sociology is an Interdisciplinarity, interdisciplinary field of research that combines Sociology, sociological and History, historical methods to understand the past, how societies have developed over time, and the impact this has on ...

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...

during the 1990s with

Perry Anderson Francis Rory Peregrine "Perry" Anderson (born 11 September 1938) is a British intellectual, political philosopher, historian and essayist. His work ranges across historical sociology, intellectual history, and cultural analysis. What unites An ...

Robert Brenner Robert Paul Brenner (; born November 28, 1943) is an American economic historian. He is a professor emeritus of history and director of the Center for Social Theory and Comparative History at UCLA, editor of the socialist journal ''Against the Cu ...

, Rogers Brubaker, and

Michael Mann Michael Kenneth Mann (born February 5, 1943) is an American film director, screenwriter, author and producer, best known for his stylized crime dramas. He has received a BAFTA Award and two Primetime Emmy Awards as well as nominations for four ...

. He worked on

political thought Political philosophy studies the theoretical and conceptual foundations of politics. It examines the nature, scope, and legitimacy of political institutions, such as states. This field investigates different forms of government, ranging from ...

intellectual history Intellectual history (also the history of ideas) is the study of the history of human thought and of intellectuals, people who conceptualization, conceptualize, discuss, write about, and concern themselves with ideas. The investigative premise of ...

, and

critical theory Critical theory is a social, historical, and political school of thought and philosophical perspective which centers on analyzing and challenging systemic power relations in society, arguing that knowledge, truth, and social structures are ...

. Prior to his appointment at UC-Santa Cruz, he was a postdoctoral fellow at the

University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...

. In 2017, a number of people published allegations that Balakrishnan had committed sexual assault on multiple occasions. UC Santa Cruz launched an investigation in 2017 that was extended in May 2018. In October 2018, Balakrishnan remained on paid administrative leave. He subsequently resigned as a member of the editorial board of the ''

New Left Review The ''New Left Review'' is a British bimonthly journal, established in 1960, which analyses international politics, the global economy, social theory, and cultural topics from a leftist perspective. History Background As part of the emergin ...

''. In September 2019, he was fired from his position at UCSC, becoming the first tenured faculty member to be fired at UCSC.

Selected publications

Books

* * * *

Articles

* ::Review of the book ''

Empire An empire is a political unit made up of several territories, military outpost (military), outposts, and peoples, "usually created by conquest, and divided between a hegemony, dominant center and subordinate peripheries". The center of the ...

'' by

Michael Hardt Michael Hardt (born 1960) is an American political philosopher and literary theorist. Hardt is best known for his 2000 book ''Empire'', which was co-written with Antonio Negri. Hardt and Negri suggest that several forces which they see as do ...

and

Antonio Negri Antonio Negri (; ; 1 August 1933 – 16 December 2023) was an Italian political philosopher known as one of the most prominent theorists of autonomism, as well as for his co-authorship of ''Empire (Hardt and Negri book), Empire'' with Michae ...

. * ::Review of the book ''

The Shield of Achilles ''The Shield of Achilles'' is a poem by W. H. Auden first published in 1952, and the title work of a collection of poems by Auden, published in 1955. It is Auden's response to the detailed description, or '' ekphrasis'', of the shield bor ...

'' by

Philip Bobbitt Sir Philip Chase Bobbitt (born July 22, 1948) is an American legal scholar and political theorist. He is best known for work on U.S. constitutional law and theory, and on the relationship between law, strategy and history in creating and sustaini ...

. * * ::Review of the book ''Valences of the Dialectic'' by

Frederic Jameson Fredric Ruff Jameson (April 14, 1934 – September 22, 2024) was an American literary critic, philosopher and Marxist political theorist. He was best known for his analysis of contemporary cultural trends, particularly his analysis of postmodern ...

References

External links

Review of ''The Enemy: An Intellectual Portrait of Carl Schmitt''
Living people University of California, Santa Cruz faculty University of Chicago faculty University of California, Los Angeles alumni American Marxists American political philosophers Marxist theorists 1966 births Carl Schmitt scholars Indian emigrants to the United States American academics of Indian descent American male writers of Indian descent {{US-philosopher-stub