Samuel Moyn

2012-2013 Academic Year

Visiting Professor of Law

Research Interests

• Human Rights
• International History
• International Law
• Legal Thought

Education

• Washington University, St. Louis B.A. 1994
• University of California, Berkeley M.A. 1995
• University of California, Berkeley Ph.D. 2000
• Harvard Law School JD 2001

Appointments

• Professor of History, Columbia University, 2007-

Additional Information

Visiting Professor Moyn will teach the course Human Rights: History and Theory, and the course Legal Thought Now: Law and the Structure of Society in the Spring 2013 term.

Biographical Statement

Samuel Moyn, professor of history at Columbia University, studies intellectual history and international history. Some of his interests include the origins of contemporary human rights politics and the history of legal thought. He is author of "The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History" (Harvard University Press, 2010), among other books, as well as editor of the journal "Humanity."

Representative Publications

• Moyn, Samuel. "Of Deserts and Promised Lands," The Nation, February 29, 2012.
  
• Moyn, Samuel. "Human Rights, Not So Pure Anymore," New York Times, May 12, 2012.
  
• Moyn, Samuel. "Do Human Rights Treaties Make Enough of a Difference?" in Cambridge Companion to Human Rights Law (Costas Douzinas & Conor Gearty eds., forthcoming).
  
• Moyn, Samuel. The Last Utopia: Human Rights in History (Harvard University Press 2010).