M. Richard Zinman
468 Tarleton
East Lansing, MI 48823
phone: (517) 351-3014
James Madison College
Department of Political Science
321 S. Case Hall
334 S. Kedzie Hall
Michigan State University
Michigan State University
East Lansing, MI 48825-1205
East Lansing, MI 48824-1032
phone: (517) 353-9396
phone: (517) 353-8605
fax: (517) 432-1804
fax: (517) 432-1091
e-mail: zinmanm@msu.edu
Current Positions:
Professor of Political Theory, James Madison College, Michigan State University
Executive Director, Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy, Department of Political Science, Michigan State University
Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Michigan State University
Education:
Claremont Graduate School: Ph.D., Department of Government; in residence, 1965-69; qualifying exams passed (with distinction), June 1969; degree awarded (with distinction), June 1976
Cornell University: B.A., Department of Government (cum laude in government, with distinction in all subjects),
1961-65
Postgraduate Honors/Awards (selections):
Michigan State University Distinguished Faculty Award (1995)
State of Michigan Teaching Excellence Award (1991)
National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship (1985-86)
Teaching Experience:
James Madison College, Michigan State University, 1969-present (Instructor, 1969-75; Assistant Professor,
1975-80; Associate Professor, 1980-87; Professor, 1987-present)
Administrative Experience (selections):
Department of Political Science: Executive Director, Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy
(1989-present)
James Madison College: Chairman, Political Theory Program (regularly since 1971, most recently,
1990-2000)
Books: editor and contributor (all with Arthur Melter and Jerry
Weinberger):
Technology in the Western Political Tradition (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1993)
History and the Idea of Progress (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1995)
Multiculturalism and American Democracy (Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1998) [selected by Choice Magazine as one of the outstanding academic books published in 1998]
Democracy and the Arts (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1999)
Politics At the Turn of the Century (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming)
The Public Intellectual: Theory arid Practice (New York: Rowman & Littlefield, forthcoming)
Recent Papers:
"Acquisition and the Good Life: Aristotle," delivered as the inaugural lecture in a
five-lecture series at Ogelthorpe University, Fall 1994
"Theory and Practice in Thucydides," delivered at Emory University, Fall 1995
"Nietzsche's Thucydides, " delivered at the annual meeting of the American Political
Science Association, Fall 1996
"Nietzsche and Thucydides" delivered to the faculty and graduate students of the Department of Political Science, Boston College, Fall 1999
Work in Progress:
Books: editor and contributor (with Arthur Melzer and Jerry Weinberger)
The Idea of Europe
Morality and Public Life? Is America in Moral Decline?
Papers:
"Thucydides, Nietzsche, and Dionysus"
"Strauss's Thucydides"
Principal Grants and Gifts:
Draftsman (with Louis Hersh and Kenneth Waltzer) of a proposal for a $250,000 grant awarded to James Madison College, Michigan State University, by the National Endowment for the Humanities, to support the integration of the humanities into the College's public affairs curriculum (1983)
Draftsman (with Arthur Melzer and Jerry Weinberger) of proposals for more than $3,800,000 in grants awarded to the Department of Political Science, Michigan State University, by the Adenauer, Bradley, Carthage,
Hanns-Seidel, Luso American, and Olin Foundations, to establish and support the Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy (1988-2001)
Draftsman (with Arthur Melzer and Jerry Weinberger) of a proposal that led to a gift of $1,000,000 to endow the LeFrak Forum (which works in tandem with the Symposium) in the Department of Political Science. The gift was made in 1997.