rob reich headshot

Rob Reich, PhD

  • Professor of Political Science and Ethics in Society
  • Professor, by courtesy, of Philosophy
  • Professor, by courtesy, at School of Education
  • Co-Director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society

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340 Panama Street
Stanford, CA 94305

(650) 723-2608 (voice)
(650) 723-1808 (fax)

Biography

Rob Reich is professor of political science and, by courtesy, professor of philosophy at Stanford University. He is the director of the Center for Ethics in Society and co-director of the Center on Philanthropy and Civil Society (publisher of the Stanford Social Innovation Review), and associate director of the Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence. His scholarship in political theory engages with the work of social scientists and engineers. His newest work is on ethics and technology, and he has two books out in 2021: Digital Technology and Democratic Theory (edited with Lucy Bernholz and Hélène Landemore, University of Chicago Press) and System Error: Where Big Tech Went Wrong and How We Can Reboot (with Mehran Sahami and Jeremy M. Weinstein, HarperCollins). He is the author of Just Giving: Why Philanthropy is Failing Democracy and How It Can Do Better (Princeton University Press, 2018) and Philanthropy in Democratic Societies: History, Institutions, Values (edited with Chiara Cordelli and Lucy Bernholz, University of Chicago Press, 2016). He is also the author of several books on education: Bridging Liberalism and Multiculturalism in American Education (University of Chicago Press, 2002) and Education, Justice, and Democracy (edited with Danielle Allen, University of Chicago Press, 2013). He has written for the New York Times, Washington Post, Wired, and the Stanford Social Innovation Review.

Rob is the recipient of multiple teaching awards, including the Walter J. Gores award, Stanford’s highest honor for teaching. He was a sixth grade teacher at Rusk Elementary School in Houston, Texas before attending graduate school. He is a board member of the magazine Boston Review, of Giving Tuesday, and at the Spencer Foundation.