Ian Shapiro is Sterling Professor of Political Science and Global Affairs at Yale University. He has written widely and influentially on democracy, justice, and the methods of social inquiry. A native of South Africa, he received his J.D. from the Yale Law School and his Ph.D. from the Yale Political Science Department where he has taught since 1984 and served as chair from 1999 to 2004. He was Director of Yale’s MacMillan Center for International and Area Studies from 2004-2019. He is a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations. Shapiro is a past fellow of the Carnegie Corporation, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences.

He has held visiting appointments at the University of Cape Town, Keio University in Tokyo, Sciences Po in Paris, and Nuffield College, Oxford. His most recent books are Responsible Parties: Saving Democracy from Itself (Yale University Press, 2018) with Frances Rosenbluth, The Wolf at the Door: The Menace of Economic Insecurity and how to Fight It  (Harvard University Press, 2020) with Michael Graetz, and Uncommon Sense (Yale University Press, 2024). His new book What Happened to Politics? Paths Not Taken since the Cold War is under contract to Basic Books.

Ian Shapiro is a Visiting Professor at the Phelan US Centre from 4 January to 30 May 2026.