Professor Nadia Urbinati has been selected as one of seven recipients of this year's Distinguished Columbia Faculty Awards. The Faculty of Arts and Sciences gives this honor annually to faculty members who have shown exceptional merit in scholarship and dedication to teaching. The awards, established in 2005 by University Trustee Gerry Lenfest (Law '58), each come with a stipend of $25,000 per year for three consecutive years.

Professor Urbinati is internationally recognized for her contributions to the study of democracy. In her recent book, Representative Democracy: Principles and Genealogy, she demonstrates that rather than simply existing as a compromise between the realities of the modern state and the unlikely prospect of direct democratic rule, political representation has intrinsic democratic features and functions. She is currently the Nell and Herbert M. Singer Professor of Contemporary Civilization in the Core Curriculum and teaches central courses in political philosophy in her department.

Click here to read the announcement from Columbia's Office of Communications and Public Affairs.