Thomas De Luca
Professor, Political Science Department, Arts and Sciences
Areas of Research:
Founding, former director of Fordham's International Studies Program, from 2005-2022. Research and teaching in democratic theory and global democratization. Fulbrights in China (one year), Peru (two weeks), the Netherlands (one semester), Egypt (two weeks) and Italy (one semester), including field work in China and Italy. Former Director of the Sino-American Seminar on Politics and Law.
Dr. Thomas De Luca is a life-long New Yorker, raised in Brooklyn, now living in Manhattan and Long Island. He is Professor of Political Science at Fordham University, where he created its International Studies Program, and directed from 2005-2022. He specializes in the study of democratic theory, democratization, and politics in the U.S., with additional interest in China and Italy. He teaches courses in democratic theory, global democratization, civil rights, and film and politics. Before coming to Fordham, he was an activist and directed public interest advocacy organizations working on issues of peace and social justice.
De Luca is the author or co-author of four books: Liars! Cheaters! Evildoers!: Demonization and the End of Civil Debate in American Politics; The Democratic Debate: American Politics in an Age of Change, 6th ed.; The Two Faces of Political Apathy; and Sustainable Democracy: Individuality and the Politics of the Environment. He comments on politics for the media, and has written op-eds for The New York Times, Chicago Tribune, Boston Globe, Christian Science Monitor and other outlets.
Through the U.S. Fulbright Program, he has had the opportunity to teach and lecture in Beijing, Lima, Cairo, and Amsterdam where he was the Thomas Jefferson Distinguished Chair in American Social Studies. He has also been Honorary Professor of Political Science at Sun Yat-sen University, in Guangzhou; and China University of Political Science and Law, in Beijing. Most recently, De Luca was in Rome in Spring, 2023 as the Fulbright-LUISS Research Lecturer.