E. Victor Wolfenstein

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Professor Victor Wolfenstein is a master teacher at all levels and in all forms: in lower division lectures, in undergraduate as well as graduate seminars and in directed research in undergraduate independent studies and honors theses, as well as Ph.D. dissertations. Although he specializes in political theory, he also teaches courses focusing on questions of class, race and gender in contemporary society. Indeed, his courses are notable for the ways in which he is able to make the political theorists of the past speak to the social issues of the present.

Wolfenstein maintains rigorous academic stands and rewards intense intellectual effort. All of his courses involve extensive written projects and the analysis of difficult theoretical texts, yet his students are not discouraged by these requirements. They often take two, three, four or even five courses with him. They comment appreciatively that he encourages them to expand their intellectual and critical range. They emphasize that he transmits to them his own love of political theory, while always holding before them the importance of thinking through political and ethical issues for themselves.

A number of Wolfenstein's former students, who have themselves become teachers, note his profound influence on their own pedagogical orientations. For some students, he is more than a professor of political theory; they speak of their contact with him in terms of personal transformation. They describe how their own commitment to social justice and community activism was stimulated by him or of catching a fire and wanting to pass on the torch.