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Rob Goodman

Associate Professor
EducationPhD (Political Science): Columbia University
Phone(416) 979-5000 x 556168

Biography

Rob Goodman is Associate Professor in the Department of Politics and Public Administration and a member of the Yeates School of Graduate Studies at Toronto Metropolitan University. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University, as well as an MA in Public Policy from George Washington University and a BA in English from Duke University. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher at McGill University and a Core Curriculum instructor at Columbia University. His work has been shortlisted for the CB Macpherson Prize for best political theory book from the Canadian Political Science Association and the Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing from the Writers' Trust of Canada. Before beginning his doctoral studies, he worked as speechwriter for US House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Senator Chris Dodd.

Books

  • Populism, Demagoguery, and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective (edited with Giuseppe Ballacci), Oxford University Press, 2024.
  • Not Here: Why American Democracy is Eroding and How Canada Can Protect Itself, Simon & Schuster, 2023.
  • Words on Fire: Eloquence and its Conditions, Cambridge University Press, 2022.
  • A Mind at Play: How Claude Shannon Invented the Information Age (with Jimmy Soni), Simon & Schuster, 2017.
  • Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of Cato, Mortal Enemy of Caesar (with Jimmy Soni), Thomas Dunne, 2012.

Peer-reviewed articles

  • “Slavery and Oratory: Frederick Douglass in the History of Rhetoric,” American Political Science Review 117(4) (2023): 1202-14.
  • “The Rhetorical Roots of Du Bois’s Double Consciousness,” History of Political Thought 44(3) (2023): 577-604.
  • “Plato the Novelist: The Family Saga in Republic 8-9,” Polity 55(3) (2023): 519-43.
  • “Populism as Form and Content: Toward a Holistic Approach” (with Giuseppe Ballacci), Populism 6(1) (2023): 1-27.
  • “Preaching to the Choir: Rhetoric and Identity in a Polarized Age” (with Samuel Bagg), Journal of Politics 84(1) (2022): 511-24.
  • “‘I Tremble with My Whole Heart’: Cicero on the Anxieties of Eloquence,” European Journal of Political Theory 20(4) (2021): 698-718.
  • "'The Low Principles of Jurisprudence': Legal Indeterminacy in Edmund Burke’s Impeachment of Warren Hastings." The Review of Politics 82:3 (Summer 2020): 1-25.
  • “The Deliberative Sublime: Edmund Burke on Disruptive Speech and Imaginative Judgment.” American Political Science Review 112:2 (May 2018): 267-79.
  • “The Advisor: Counsel, Concealment, and Machiavelli’s Voice.” Redescriptions: Political Thought, Conceptual History and Feminist Theory 20:2 (Autumn 2017): 200-23.
  • “Doux Commerce, Jew Commerce: Intolerance and Tolerance in Voltaire and Montesquieu.” History of Political Thought 37:3 (2016): 530-55.
  • “Humility Pills: Building an Ethics of Cognitive Enhancement.” The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy 39:3 (June 2014): 258-78.
  • “Cognitive Enhancement, Cheating, and Accomplishment.” Kennedy Institute of Ethics Journal 20:2 (June 2010): 145-60.

Book Chapters

  • “‘Naked’ Speech in Late Republican Rome,” in Populism, Demagoguery, and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective, Giuseppe Ballacci and Rob Goodman (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2024.
  • “Introduction” and “Conclusion” (with Giuseppe Ballacci), in Populism, Demagoguery, and Rhetoric in Historical Perspective, Giuseppe Ballacci and Rob Goodman (eds.), Oxford University Press, 2024.
  • “Advising Trump,” in Political Advice: Past, Present and Future, ed. Jacqueline Rose and Colin Kidd, I.B. Tauris, 2021.

Other Selected Articles

  • “The Great Canadian Identity Crisis,” The Walrus, 6 November 2023.
  • “We Aren’t as Powerless Over Extremism as We May Think,” The Globe & Mail, 11 August 2023
  • “Why the Founders Added ‘High Crimes and Misdemeanors.”  The Atlantic, 25 September 2019.
  • “Decorum Is an Unfashionable Idea, But It Has a Radical Core.” Aeon.  28 September 2018.
  • “The Bit Bomb” (with Jimmy Soni). Aeon.  30 August 2017.
  • “How Information Got Re-Invented” (with Jimmy Soni). Nautilus. 10 August 2017.
  • “The Appeal of Trump to Traditionalists.” The Atlantic. 12 March 2017.
  • “What Trump Taught Us About Democracy. Politico Magazine. 04 January 2017.
  • “Are China’s Leaders Better Than Ours?” Politico Magazine. 27 August 2015.
  • “America’s Hero Problem.” Politico Magazine. 16 January 2015.
  • “How to Be Intoxicated.” Chronicle of Higher Education Review. 05 December 2014.
  • “The Case for a College Admissions Lottery.” The Atlantic. 14 May 2014.
  • “Roman Fever.” Politico Magazine.  03 January 2014.
  • “Fortune’s Fools: On Meritocracy.” Brooklyn Quarterly. 07 November 2013.
  • “The Comforts of the Apocalypse.” Chronicle of Higher Education Review. 19 August 2013.
  • “How Campaign Spending Brought Down the Roman Republic” (with Jimmy Soni). Slate. 26 November 2012.
  • “How the Filibuster Wrecked the Roman Senate—and Could Wreck Ours” (with Jimmy Soni). The Atlantic.  24 March 2011.

Dr. Goodman’s research interests include rhetoric, classics, and the history of political thought. His recent book, Words on Fire: Eloquence and Its Conditions, investigates the development of models of skilled speech in classical antiquity, as well as their translation into modern institutional settings. His current research project, Black Cicero: Race and American Oratory, is funded by a SSHRC Insight Development Grant.