Seyla Benhabib

Political philosopher — Columbia Law School

Columbia Law School · United States · d. 9 September 1950

Works on the public sphere, democratic iterations and the rights of migrants, extending the tradition of Arendt and Habermas. Eugene Meyer Professor Emerita at Yale and now senior research scholar and adjunct professor of law at Columbia. Awarded the 2026 Johan Skytte Prize in Political Science.

2 storiesOfficial page →

Record

Life: b. 9 September 1950 — living
Country: United States
Period: Contemporary
School: Critical theory
Affiliation: Columbia Law School
Areas: Political philosophy, Critical theory, Feminist theory, Democratic theory, Migration and citizenship
Major works: Critique, Norm, and Utopia (1986)
Situating the Self (1992)
The Claims of Culture (2002)
The Rights of Others (2004)
Another Cosmopolitanism (2006)
Exile, Statelessness, and Migration (2018)
Key concepts: Democratic iterations, The rights of others, Cosmopolitan norms, Jurisgenerative politics, The public sphere
Influenced by: Hannah Arendt, Jürgen Habermas, Immanuel Kant, G. W. F. Hegel
Sources: Columbia Law School faculty page
Yale Department of Political Science
Uppsala University, 2026 Skytte Prize announcement

Stories

Prizes

Seyla Benhabib awarded the Karl Jaspers Prize for her philosophy and her public voice

Heidelberg University, its Academy of Sciences and Humanities and the city have named Seyla Benhabib the 2026 laureate of the 25,000-euro Karl Jaspers Prize, citing a life's work on justice, rights and migration and a voice raised, in the jury's words, 'against the evil spirit of an age'. The ceremony is on 29 April 2027.

Jürgen Habermas, Seyla Benhabib, Hannah Arendt

Culture Desk18 September 2026

This Day in Philosophy

This Day in Philosophy — 9 September: Benhabib, Lacan, and what makes a person

Seyla Benhabib was born on 9 September 1950 and this year takes both the Johan Skytte Prize and the Karl Jaspers Prize. Jacques Lacan died on the date in 1981, John Passmore was born on it in 1914 and Paul Goodman in 1911 — four thinkers on what a person is made into.