People

Bettina Scholz (BA Wellesley College, MA Harvard University) is a PhD candidate in the Government Department at Harvard University. Her dissertation expands liberal cosmopolitan political theory by developing criteria that will help determine whether transnational voluntary associations advance cosmopolitan norms (such as respecting the moral equality of citizens of other nations) even if it is an unintended consequence of an association's actions. Three cases are explored in detail in the dissertation: Doctors without Borders, the Anglican Church, and the Olympic Movement. Her broader research interests include the question of how contemporary liberal and cosmopolitan political theories balance the demands of individual liberty with challenges of national and international social and cultural diversity especially when the latter includes illiberal practices.She has served as a teaching fellow for courses on ethics as well as on the history of political thought. In the spring of 2008, she designed and taught a course entitled "Citizens of the World," which explored what it would mean to be a citizen of the world, analyzing in the process moral theories as well as social science research on the implications of our increasing global interconnections. During the 2009-2010 academic year she will serve as Department Teaching Fellow for the Government Department.