Professor Josiah Ober is the Constantine Mitsotakis Professor of Political Science and Classics and the Chairman of the Department of Political Science at Stanford University. He has published a number of books and articles on classical Greek political thought and practice and their relevance for contemporary democratic theory. His most recent book is Democracy and Knowledge: Innovation and Learning in Classical Athens (2008). His current research includes projects on self-governing organizations (ancient and modern), on the circulation of social and technical knowledge in democratic societies, and on the interplay between political philosophy and culture. Professor Ober is a past faculty member of the Princeton University Center for Human Values and Department of Classics.