Biography

Shane Gassaway received a B.A. in the Liberal Arts from St. John’s College (Santa Fe) in 2006 and an M.A. in Philosophy from Tulane University in 2010. He is currently a PhD candidate in the Department of Philosophy. Shane’s main research interests lie in Ancient Political Philosophy and the History of Philosophy, Ancient and Modern. He is writing his dissertation, “Socratic Citizenship and the Political Art” under the supervision of Professor Ronna Burger. His dissertation is an interpretation of Socratic political philosophy as presented by Plato in the Cleitophon and by Xenophon in the Memorabilia. It focuses on the unfulfilled promise that Socrates’ political philosophy furnishes general guidance for political life, and shows the ways in which the fulfillment of that promise would not be good for the philosopher and might be bad for the political community.