Gordon J. Schochet

This page reflects a scholar's association with the Folger Institute.

With John Pocock, Lois Schwoerer, and Lena Orlin, in 1984 Gordon J. Schochet was a founding member of the Center for the History of British Political Thought, for which he has offered several seminars and was the principal editor of the six volume collection of the papers from its initial round of seminars. Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rutgers University, where he taught political and legal philosophy, the history of political thought, Jewish and Hebraic political thought, and philosophy of the social sciences for over four decades, he is the recipient of many awards and fellowships for his research and teaching. Gordon was the founding editor of Hebraic Political Studies. He has written and edited numerous books and is the author of over 100 articles. His current work and recent publications focus on the history and theory of rights, conscience, political authority and obligation, religion and theology in politics, and ethical and political “justification”--all united by an overarching concern with the historical roots of the “modern state” and the “invention,” transmission, and transformation of political concepts.

Scholarly Programs

Panel chair, "Sovereignty, Authority, and Scripture" at Political Thought in Times of Crisis, 1640-1660 (symposium), 2016-2017)

Panel chair, "Aristocratic Households and University Halls" at Where Was Political Thought in England, c. 1600–1642? (symposium) 2013–2014)

Co-director (with J.G.A. Pocock), Changing Conceptions of Property (Seminar, 2008–2009)

Co-director (with J.G.A. Pocock and Linda Levy Peck), 1603: Kingship Renewed (Seminar, 2002–2003)

Speaker, The Putney Debates, 1647 (Conference, 1997–1998)

Visiting faculty, Shakespeare, the Body, and the Material Text (Seminar, 1991–1992)

Co-director (with J.G.A. Pocock and Lois G. Schwoerer), Political Thought in the English Speaking World, 1485–1793 (Seminar, 1989–1990)

Visiting faculty, The Problem of an Intellectual History for Shakespeare's Age (NEH Summer Institute, 1989)

Guest lecturer, Political Thought in the Later Stuart Age, 1649–1702 (Seminar, 1985–1986)

Director, From Bosworth to Yorktown: The Development of British Political Thought from Henry VII through the American Revolution (Seminar, 1983–1984)

Service

Steering Committee member (1984-2017), Center for the History of British Political Thought