HORST MEWES (University of Chicago, 1970) received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1970, did undergraduate and graduate studies at the University of Hamburg and University of Heidelberg in West Germany. Prof. Mewes has taught regularly as a visiting professor at various German universities.

Professor Mewes' specialization is contemporary European political philosophy, with emphasis on action theories (like Hannah Arendt) and theories of practical reasoning, both classic and modern (ranging from Leo Strauss and McIntyre to Habermas), including theories of hermeneutics (Gadamer). Prof. Mewes's most recent research focus has been on problems of citizenship and its relation to private liberties in modern liberal democracy. Together with Paulo Zagalo e Melo, he is founder and director of futurecitizenship.com, an international project consisting of the top scholars in the field of citizenship studies worldwide. The project includes the e-journal Futurecitizens, which he co-edits with a German colleague.

Professor Mewes has published both in German and English, including a book on American political thought and politics (in German), articles and book chapters on the German environmental movements, and articles on constitutionalism and political culture in American democracy.

COURSES:
PSCI 2004: Survey in Western Political Thought
PSCI 4024: Senior Seminar in Political Theory
PSCI 4714: Liberalism and Its Critics
PSCI 7004: Seminar in Political Theory

Kielmansegg, Peter G., Horst Mewes, and Elisabeth Glaser-Schmidt, editors. 1995. Hannah Arendt and Leo Strauss: German Emigrés and American Political Thought after World War II. Cambridge University Press.