Noam Chomsky

Noam Chomsky currently holds joint appointments at MIT as Institute Professor Emeritus, and the University of Arizona as Laureate Professor. Chomsky completed his university studies between the University of Pennsylvania and Harvard.

The influence of Chomksy in both linguistics and political discourse cannot be overstated; regardless of what aspect of his work you are discussing, his name always perks a few ears. Depending on who is describing him, Chomsky is either one of the most important linguists in modern times, one of the most important political thinkers, or (most often) both. Chomsky began his career squarely in academia as a professor of linguistics at MIT. Most of Chomsky’s earliest books focus on biolinguistics (language as a biologically rooted phenomenon in humans), with titles such as Syntactic Structures (1957), Current Issues in Linguistic Theory (1964), and Language and Mind (1968). In these texts, Chomksy advanced his notion of “universal grammar.”

Chomsky’s role in modern linguistic philosophy is enough to make him well known and influential in academia. However, Chomsky is perhaps better known to the general public as a major political thinker and dissident. Chomsky’s involvement in the political discourse of the US began with participation in protests of the Vietnam War in the early 1960s. Since then, he has published numerous books and given countless talks on subjects such as American Imperialism and US foreign policy, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and media and propaganda.

For his work, Chomsky has received many awards and honors, including honorary doctorates from the University of London and the University of Chicago, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the Sydney Peace Prize.

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