About

Name: Arun. It’s Indian. That’s where my father was from (family origins in Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra). My mother is American (of Norwegian and Anglo-Saxon/maybe Scots-Irish stock).

Nationality: I am American, born and raised (for the most part). In the Midwest, to be precise. I became a French citizen later in life.

Domicile: A Paris banlieue on the Marne. The scene in the header portrait by Paul Cézanne, “Le Pont sur la Marne à Créteil” (1888), is a few minutes by foot from chez moi. The portrait, pour l’info, hangs at the Pushkin Museum in Moscow (which is why the only people who know about it are those who have been to the Pushkin Museum in Moscow).

Profession: Academic. I hold a doctorate in political science from a highly regarded American university and teach at several establishments of higher education in Paris.

Interests: Varied, including the politics, history, and society of France (and Europe more generally), the Middle East & North Africa, and America, geopolitics in general, cinema, sports, and a few others. I also have on-going interests in the areas of immigration and ethnicity, and electoral politics (as a political scientist, citizen, and activist).

UPDATE: A friend has asked (September 2013) why my blog is semi-anonymous. Legitimate question. I decided to do it this way for my own reasons when launching the blog 2½ years ago but there’s now no reason for it. So my full name is Arun Kapil and the “highly regarded” university mentioned above is the University of Chicago. And the principal establishment where I teach is the Catholic University of Paris.