The work below was created and submitted by
current and former PPE students

Faculty

Philosophy
Politics
Economics

Philosophy

Paul Hurley

Edward J. Sexton Professor of Philosophy

Track

Sexton

Department:  

Philosophy

Areas of Expertise: 

Absolutism V. Relativism, Ethics and Moral Issues, Human Rights, Political Philosophy, Property Rights 

paul.hurley@cmc.edu
(909) 607-7140
Kravis Center 284

bio

Paul Hurley is the Edward J. Sexton Professor of Philosophy at Claremont McKenna College, where he has taught for the past 13 years.  He received his Ph.D. from the University of Pittsburgh in 1988, and taught for 17 years at Pomona College before moving across the street to CMC.  His focus has been exclusively upon undergraduate teaching; he has received teaching awards at Pittsburgh, Pomona, and CMC.  Hurley’s research focuses primarily on issues in ethics and metaethics; his teaching interests extend to Read More…

the history of ethics, political philosophy, and the philosophy of law.  His work has appeared in numerous journals, including EthicsMindPhilosopher’s ImprintOxford Studies in Normative Ethics, The Journal of Moral Philosophy, and Philosophical Studies, and he is the author of Beyond Consequentialism, published by Oxford University Press in 2009.  His current research challenges the outcome-centered theories of actions, attitudes, reasons, and values that have framed recent debates in ethics and public policy.

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Adrienne Martin

Akshata Murty ’02 and Rishi Sunak Associate Professor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics and George R. Roberts Fellow

Track:

Murty

Department:  

Philosophy

Adrienne.Martin@cmc.edu
(909) 607-8596
Kravis Center 275

Bio

I am a member of the Philosophy Department and teach philosophy every spring to the sophomore Murty cohort of PPE. (The Murty cohort gets its name from the chair I hold: the Akshata Murty ’02 and Rishi Sunak Associate Professor of Philosophy, Politics, and Economics.) In this class, we cover everything from social contract theory to critical race theory, Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations to Karl Marx’s critique of capitalism. Most fall semesters, I teach two classes in moral philosophy.
My research centers in the ethics of interpersonal relationships, with Read More…

particular focus on emotional attitudes such as hope, trust, love, gratitude, and pride. My book, How We Hope: A Moral Psychology, was published by Princeton University Press in 2013. I edited The Routledge Handbook of Love in Philosophy, which came out in 2019. I’ve also published on topics in animal ethics, medical ethics, and the history of Western philosophy. Before coming to CMC in 2014, I was in the Philosophy Department at the University of Pennsylvania for eight years. I was a Laurence S. Rockefeller Visiting Fellow at the Princeton Center for Human Values, 2010-2011, and a Postdoctoral Fellow at the National Institutes of Health’s Department of Clinical Bioethics, 2004-2006. I received her PhD in Philosophy from the University of North Carolina, and an MA in Philosophy from the University of California, San Diego. I did my undergraduate major in philosophy at New York University. 

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Politics

Aseema Sinha

Wagener Family Professor of Comparative Politics and George R. Roberts Fellow

Track:

Murty

Department:  

Politics

Areas of Expertise: 

India, International Relations, Political Economy, South Asia 

asinha@cmc.edu
(909) 607-3856
(909) 621-8419
Kravis Center 233

bio

Professor Aseema Sinha is the Wagener Chair of Comparative Politics and George R. Roberts Fellow at Claremont McKenna College. She teaches in the Government department, the IR major, and the PPE program. She received her B.A. from Lady Shri Ram College, where she participated in a tutorial program based on the Oxford/Cambridge model. Prof. Sinha received her M.A. and M.Phil. from Jawaharlal Nehru University (New Delhi, India) and a M.A. and Ph.D. from Cornell University. She teaches courses on South Asia, Social Movements, Development, and on Comparative Politics. Her PPE-Politics class (usually taught in Spring) focuses on power as an unifying theme and engages with international examples and the concepts of political science. She previously taught at University of Wisconsin-Madison and was a Fellow at the Woodrow Wilson Center in DCHer research interests Read More…

relate to political economy of India, India-China comparisons, International Organizations, and the rise of India as an emerging power.  She has authored a book, The Regional Roots of Developmental Politics in India: A Divided Leviathan(Indiana: Indiana University Press, 2005), which received the Joseph Elder Book Prize in the Indian Social Sciences.  She is also an author of journal articles on trade policy, federalism, subnational comparisons in India, India and China, business collective action in India, and public expenditure across Indian states. Her book Globalizing India: How Global  Rules and Markets are Shaping India’s Rise to Power was published by Cambridge University Press (2016).

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George Thomas

Burnet C. Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions

Track:

Sexton

Department:  

Politics

Areas of Expertise: 

American Constitutionalism, American Political Thought, Constitutional Law, Supreme Court 

gthomas@cmc.edu
(909) 607-2911
(909) 621-8419
Kravis Center 332

BIO

George Thomas is Wohlford Professor of American Political Institutions at Claremont McKenna College and Director of the Salvatori Center. He is the author of several books, most recently The (Un)Written Constitution forthcoming from Oxford University Press, and his essays have appeared in theWashington Postand The Atlantic. He teaches in the Politics segment of PPE, with particular attention to constitutional democracy and its alternatives. 

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Economics

David Bjerk

Russell S. Bock Professor of Public Economics and Taxation

Track:

Sexton

Department:  

Robert Day School of Economics and Finance

Areas of Expertise: 

Crime and Criminal Justice, Discrimination, Inequality and Public Policy, Labor Economics, Law and Economics 

david.bjerk@cmc.edu
(909) 607-4471
Bauer Center 313

BIO

David Bjerk is the Russell S. Bock Professor of Public Economics and Taxation. Professor Bjerk’s research looks at issues of poverty, labor markets, and the criminal justice system. His projects have included analyzing the effects of segregation on crime, the longer-term impacts of dropping out of school on earnings and criminal participation, how mandatory minimum policies impact sentencing, and developing a better quantitative understanding of wrongful convictions. In the PPE program, Professor Bjerk aims to not only help students grapple with how markets interact with societal organization, but also understand “the economics way of thinking,” which emphasizes the trade-offs that arise in public policy debates and how behavior and institutions may respond to policy initiatives. In addition to PPE,Read More…

Professor Bjerk teaches classes on the economics of poverty and discrimination, intermediate microeconomic theory, and research methods. In his free time, Professor Bjerk likes to climb, bike, ski, and otherwise explore the beautiful mountains of the west. 

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Laura Grant

Assistant Professor of Economics

Department:  

Robert Day School of Economics and Finance

lgrant@cmc.edu
(909) 607-9841
Bauer 109

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Cameron Shelton

McMahon Family Associate Professor of Political Economy and George R. Roberts Fellow

Track:

Murty

Department:  

Robert Day School of Economics and Finance

Areas of Expertise: 

Political Economy, Public Choice, Public Finance 

cameron.shelton@cmc.edu
(909) 607-1692
Bauer North 320

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Staff

Anastasia Garcia

ADMINISTRATIVE ASSISTANT – WEST

(909) 607-8098
anastasia.garcia@cmc.edu
Kravis Center 226