Mordechai Levy-Eichel

Mordechai Levy-Eichel's picture
Postdoctoral Associate and Lecturer

Mordechai primarily works on the history and philosophy of learning and education (having had a fairly idiosyncratic education himself). He has written and worked on early modern British and European history, the history of science, technology, and mathematics, early modern Jewish history, the history of economic thought, naval history, intellectual history, and the history of political thought. Ever since he, as a young homeschooler, was first presented with a old, tattered copy (and first edition!) of The Ideological Origins of the American Revolution by a friendly librarian at the Mid-Manhattan branch of the NYPL, he’s been particularly interested in the political, moral, literary, and intellectual culture and institutions of the Atlantic world.

His dissertation, “Into the Mathematical Ocean”: Navigation, Education, and the Expansion of Numeracy in Early Modern England and the Atlantic World, won the Elizabethan Prize for “Outstanding work on literature, arts, or culture of the Renaissance,” and examined the primary spurs to early modern mathematical learning, the growth of numeracy, and some of the consequent social, religious, and intellectual effects of this revolution in learning. He is also concurrently pursuing his second major project, on the origins of the modern research university and the research ideal, focusing on the history, structures, and values of scholarship and research, across both the humanities the sciences, from classics to mathematics (both today and way back when)….

He has been held fellowships from Tel Aviv University, the John Carter Brown Library at Brown University, the Smith Richardson Foundation, and the Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies, among other places. Before coming back to Yale, he was a Post-doctoral Fellow at Princeton University.  Copies of his articles and reviews can be found here: https://yale.academia.edu/MordechaiLevyEichel

He will be teaching courses on political thought and the importance of informal political practices, and the history, philosophy, and politics of education. He brings his dog Simcha (who is hypoallergenic and would love to meet you, and everybody else, especially if you are offering food!) to the office whenever he can, so feel free to knock and say hello.

Center for the Study of Representative Institutions
Academic Year: 
2018-19