ProfessorAlexandre Lefebvre

I love teaching: lecturing, tutorial discussion, supervision, all of it.

First, I love the content. Honestly, what can compete with political theory? All we talk about are fundamental and controversial ideas, such as what freedom means, whether democracy is a good form of government, what are human rights and do they really exist, and how to live a good life in a world with others.

Second, I love to introduce students to the practice of close and careful reading. I tend to teach through "great books" - classics of political philosophy and the history of moral and political thought (such as Plato's Republic, Montaigne's Essays, Tocqueville's Democracy in America, Arendt's The Origins of Totalitarianism, and Rawls's A Theory of Justice). My goal is to slow reading and thinking down, often dwelling on a single book or two over the course of a semester. This way, students learn a valuable skill for university life and beyond: charitable interpretation and the willingness to open themselves up to an often very different point of view.

I am proud to have received several teaching awards at The University of Sydney, as well as national and international teaching prizes and fellowships.

At The University of Sydney, I teach the regularly following courses: GOVT2112, Introduction to Political Theory and PHIL3613, The Philosophy of Human Rights.

I am available for supervision of honours and post-graduate students in Government and International Relations, and Philosophy at The University of Sydney.