Richard Avramenko is Director of the Arizona State University School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership. He was formerly Professor of Political Science and Integrated Liberal Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. His main areas of interest are ancient and continental political thought. He has written articles on topics such as Plato, Aristotle, Xenophon, St. Augustine, Dostoevsky, Tocqueville, Nietzsche, Voegelin, Heidegger, Canadian identity politics, mortgage and housing policy. He is the author of Courage: The Politics of Life and Limb, and has co-edited books on friendship (Friendship and Politics: Essays in Political Thought), Dostoevsky (Dostoevsky’s Political Thought), and aristocratic political thought (Aristocratic Souls in Democratic Times) and is currently working on a new book manuscript: The Crush of Democracy: Tocqueville and the Egalitarian Mind. He served as CSLD Director from 2014-2024.