I’m a writer and intellectual historian. The topics of my books, essays, and criticism range from the history of philosophy to contemporary food culture. I received my B.A. from Swarthmore College, and my M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of California, Berkeley. I’ve been a Mellon postdoctoral fellow at the New School for Social Research, a National Science Foundation postdoctoral fellow at MIT, and I’ve taught in various visiting capacities at Berkeley, the New School, MIT, Wesleyan, and Amherst College. I believe in public scholarship (carefully researched work accessible to the general reader) and I place my trust in the essay form. You can browse a list of my published writings via the link above; it includes my books Thinking in Public: Strauss, Levinas, Arendt, Meat Planet: Artificial Flesh and the Future of Food, and Ways of Eating, written with Merry White.

I write and edit freelance, and sometimes consult for individuals and organizations that need to think critically about the past (i.e., institutional history) or the future (i.e., emerging food technologies). Please send correspondence, paper airplanes, and delicious coffee to ben dot wurgaft at gmail dot com.

I’m proud to be represented by my literary agent Anna Sproul-Latimer at Neon Literary.