My work is rooted in the understanding that democracy is a way of managing disagreement, not a mechanism for settling it.

American institutions have increasingly forgotten the distinction. Courts, schools, corporations, and universities treat contested moral and causal claims — about discrimination, fairness, and harm — as already decided, and treat democratic life as the apparatus for enforcing the decision. My work examines how that shift happened, what it has cost, and what it would take to recover.

The Certainty Trap (2024) explained why questioning and clarifying our thinking is a democratic and civic skill, not just a personal virtue. Presumption of Guilt (coming in spring 2027), examines how the loss of that skill became institutional rather than individual.My work is rooted in the understanding that democracy is a way of managing disagreement, not a mechanism for settling it.

American institutions have increasingly forgotten the distinction. Courts, schools, corporations, and universities treat contested moral and causal claims — about discrimination, fairness, and harm — as already decided, and treat democratic life as the apparatus for enforcing the decision. My work examines how that shift happened, what it has cost, and what it would take to recover.

The Certainty Trap (2024) explained why questioning and clarifying our thinking is a democratic and civic skill, not just a personal virtue. Presumption of Guilt (coming in spring 2027), examines how the loss of that skill became institutional rather than individual.