Michael Rosen is a professor of political theory in the Government Department and has worked on a wide variety of topics in philosophy, social theory and the history of ideas. He is particularly interested in 19th and 20th century European philosophy and in contemporary Anglo-American political philosophy.

He studied PPE as an undergraduate in Oxford (1970-74) before studying in Frankfurt and returning to complete his doctorate under Charles Taylor at Oxford (1980). Professor Rosen has taught at Harvard, Oxford, and University College London before becoming Fellow and Tutor in Philosophy at Lincoln College, Oxford (1990). He moved to Harvard in 2006.