Timothy Kaufman-Osborn, Whitman College
Council Member

Timothy Kaufman-Osborn is the Baker Ferguson Professor of Politics and Leadership, as well as the Chair of the Social Sciences, at Whitman College, where he has taught since 1982. He has also held positions at Doshisha University in Kyoto as well as at Princeton University. His general fields include political philosophy as well as constitutional law, and his more specific interests include capital punishment and the politics of gender.

Kaufman-Osborn received his B.A. degree from Oberlin College in 1976, his M.A. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1978, and his Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1982. He has published three books: Politics/Sense Experience: A Pragmatic Inquiry into the Promise of Democracy (Cornell University Press, 1991); Creatures of Prometheus: Gender and the Politics of Technology (Rowman & Littefield, 1997); and From Noose to Needle: Capital Punishment and the Late Liberal State (University of Michigan Press, 2002). In addition, he has published numerous articles on topics including the discipline of political science, feminist theory, American pragmatism, the death penalty, etc.

Kaufman-Osborn's administrative experience includes service as president of the Western Political Science Association for two years (2001-2003); as chair of the Leo Strauss Award Committee (best dissertation in political theory, 2002); as division coordinator of the Foundations of Political Theory section for the 2005 annual APSA conference; and as a member of the editorial boards of Gender & Politics as well as the Political Research Quarterly. He is currently president of the American Civil Liberties Union of Washington (2002-present), and he has served on its board of directors since 1991.

Kaufman-Osborn is the recipient of the Burlington Northern Foundation Faculty Achievement Award, a Paul Garrett Fellowship, and the Robert Fluno Award for Distinguished Teaching in the Social Sciences. In addition, for conference papers delivered in 1992 and 1995, he was awarded the Betty Nesvold Women and Politics Award as well as the Pi Sigma Alpha Award.