Alan Patten has research and teaching interests in both the history of political thought and contemporary political philosophy. He is currently writing a book about political theory and language politics that engages in both analytic, normative argument and historical excavation of the roots of contemporary thinking about conflicts over language and nationalism--with many examples taken from modern Europe. He is the author of Hegel's Idea of Freedom (1999), co-editor of Language Rights and Political Theory (2003), and author of a number of journal articles in journals such as History of Political Thought, Political Theory, Ethics, and Philosophy & Public Affairs. D. Phil. Oxford.