I am currently researching and writing in the areas of human rights, antisemitism and social theory. I am co-convenor of the European Sociological Association Network 31 on Ethnic Relations, Racism and Antisemitism. I am co-editing a Special Issue of European Societies on ‘Racism and Antisemitism in Contemporary Europe’ (due out 2011). I am also co-editing with Daniel Chernilo a special issue of the Journal of Classical Sociology on ‘Natural law and the rise of social theory’ (due out 2013).

I am now 'Emeritus Professor'. Previously I was Head of the Department of Sociology at Warwick, a founding director of the Social Theory Centre, and convenor of the MA Social and Political Thought.

I conduct research on the history of social and political thought, cosmopolitan social theory, the relation of Marx to Enlightenment, the place of Hannah Arendt within the sociological canon, the Holocaust and contemporary antisemitism, crimes against humanity and human rights, and (rather in the past) the labour movement in South Africa. The overall theme of my work has to do with humanism within social theory.

I have many former PhD students teaching and researching in different universities in different countries.

My books include

• Cosmopolitanism (Routledge 2007);
• Democracy and the Rule of Law: Marx’s Critique of the Legal Form (Blackburn Press 2002; Pluto 1984 and 1985);
• Political Investigations: Hegel, Marx, Arendt (Routledge 2001);
• Being Stalked: A Memoir (Chatto and Windus, 1997);
• Beyond Apartheid: Labour and Liberation in South Africa (with Dennis Davis, Pluto 1990).

My edited collections include:

• ‘Cosmopolitanism: Past and Future’, with Vivienne Boon, Special issue of the European Journal of Social Theory April 2007;
• Social Theory after the Holocaust (with Charles Turner, Liverpool University Press 2000);
• People, Nation and State (with Edward Mortimer, IB Tauris 1999);
• Civil Society: Democratic Perspectives (with Shirin Rai Frank Cass 1997);
• Policing the Miners' Strike (with Robert Millar, Lawrence and Wishart, Cobden Press 1985);
• Capitalism and the Rule of Law (with Richard Kinsey, John Lea and Jock Young, Hutchinson 1979).

Recent articles and chapters include:

• ‘Dehumanising the dehumanisers: reversal in human rights discourse’, Journal of Global Ethics, 6,2, August 2010, pp. 179-190.
• ‘Political argument and the legitimacy of international law’ in Samantha Ashenden and Christopher Thornhill (eds) Legality and Legitimacy: Normative and Sociological Approaches, Nomos, New York.
  
• ‘Fighting with Phantoms: Contribution to the Debate on Antisemitism in Europe’, Patterns of Prejudice, 43, 5, pp. 459-479
• ‘An Unfinished Project: Marx’s Critique of Hegel’s Philosophy of Right’, in Andrew Chitty and Martin McIvor (eds) Karl Marx and Contemporary Philosophy London: Palgrave, 2009 pp. 105-120
• ‘Cosmopolitanism and Human Rights: Radicalism in a Global Age’, Metaphilosophy, 40, 1, 2009, (guest editors Ronald Tinnevelt and Helder de Schutter) pp. 8-23
• ‘Judgment and the reification of the faculties: a reconstructive reading of Arendt’s Life of the Mind’, Philosophy and Social Criticism, 2008, 34, 1-2, pp. 157-176.

Forthcoming articles and chapters include

• ‘Rousseau, Kant, Hegel, Marx: the journey from natural law to social theory revisited', in Robert Fine and Daniel Chernilo (co-eds) ‘Natural law and Social Theory’, Special Issue Journal of Classical Sociology, forthcoming 2013.
• 'Rights, Law and subjectivity: configuring Arendt and Adorno' in Samir Gandesha and Lars Rensmann (eds) Arendt and Adorno: Political and Philosophical Questions, Stanford University Press, forthcoming 2011.
• 'Conceptual issues in the study of racism and antisemitism’ (with Claudine Attias-Donfut and Glyn Cousin) in Christine Achinger and Robert Fine (co-eds) ‘Racism and antisemitism in contemporary Europe’, Special Issue of European Societies, forthcoming 2011/12
• ‘Cosmopolitan solidarity’ in Gerard Delanty (ed) Handbook of Cosmopolitan Studies, forthcoming Routledge 2011.
• ‘Beyond Leviathan: Hegel’s contribution to the critique of human rights’ in Andrew Buchwalter (ed) Hegel and Global Justice, Springer 2011 (in press).
• ‘Kant’s cosmopolitanism and the critique of natural law’, Maria Rovisco and Magdalena Nowicka (eds) Ashgate Companion to Cosmopolitanism, Ashgate, 2011 (in press).

Current PhD students are