Associate Fellows

Aliza Becker

Aliza Becker is an Associate Fellow at the Hannah Arendt Center and the director of two oral history projects under its auspices: The American Jewish Peace Archive and Meanings of October 27th oral history project, archived with the Rauh Jewish Archives in Pittsburgh and on the October 27 Archive website. She is the co-producer of October 27th,, a podcast adapted from the oral history interviews that tells the story of the 2018 Pittsburgh synagogue shooting through the voices of the local community.

Jess Feldman

Jess Feldman is a political theorist whose research focuses on ideas of collective action in the history of political thought. Their scholarly work has been published in Political Theory, and other writing has appeared in The Stopgap and Amor Mundi. Jess received their Ph.D. in political theory from Brown University in February 2024, and from Fall 2024 to Spring 2026 they held the Klemens von Klemperer Postdoctoral Fellowship at the Hannah Arendt Center. Jess is working on a book manuscript, The General Strike and The Politics of Democratic Transformation, which develops an account of how the general strike has shaped democratic theory and practice and assesses the possibilities of remaking the strike today. Alongside their academic work, Jess is also a labor organizer in New York City. 

Susan Oberman

Susan Oberman has been a member of the Hannah Arendt Center and the Virtual Reading Group since 2016. In 2021 she initiated the Hannah Arendt Center Dialogue Project which offers HAC members the opportunity to engage in dialogue with other Arendt readers. In 2023 she became an Associate Fellow of HAC. She is a proponent of dialogue as a way to provide space for everyone to be seen and heard, and as a model for addressing conflict. Susan has been practicing mediation since 1987 and established Common Ground Negotiation Services in Charlottesville, Virginia in 1999. She developed the Sustainable Knowledge Model of Norm-Educating Mediation which she uses in mediation, group facilitation, and negotiation coaching. She sees conflict as an opportunity—to clarify differences in issues and values, rather than something to be avoided. Susan lives in Hurley, NY, with her oldest son and his family and is the proud grandmother of 6. She is an avid international folk dancer. For more information see www.commongroundnegotiation.com

Michael Weinman

Michael Weinman is Professor of Philosophy at Bard College Berlin (on leave 2022-23). He is the author or editor of six books, most recently, Hannah Arendt and Politics (Edinburgh UP 2022), with Maria Robaszkiewicz. He is also co-editor, with BCB's Boris Vormann, of The Emergence of Illiberalism (Routledge 2020) and co-author, with BCB's Geoff Lehman, of The Parthenon and Liberal Education (SUNY Press, 2018). His research focuses on political philosophy and the history of political thought, especially the contemporary legacies of classical thought and culture.

Daniel Wortel-London

Daniel Wortel-London is a historian of American politics and economic thought, and a Visiting Assistant Professor of History at Bard College. He is the author of The Menace of Prosperity: New York City and the Struggle for Economic Development, 1865–1981 (University of Chicago Press, 2025), which traces how an impoverished vision of economic growth came to dominate New York City's public life — with devastating consequences for its ethical and communal life. His scholarship has appeared in the Journal of Urban History and Capitalism: A Journal of History and Economics, where his forthcoming article "Economization and its Discontents" examines how scholars have narrowed their understanding of economic life and argues for a more plural framework rooted in diverse economies theory. Beyond academic publishing, Wortel-London has brought historical analysis to bear on contemporary political debates through writing in The Nation, Jacobin, and Inequality.org. His public-facing work explores the ethical prerequisites of just economies, the economic prerequisites of flourishing communities, and the strategies needed to identify and secure both in the modern world.