Ali Aslam is a political theorist whose research and teaching examine how citizens negotiate key concepts like freedom, recognition, and democracy through political struggle.  He is author of Ordinary Democracy: Sovereignty and Citizenship Beyond the Neoliberal Impasse (2017) and has published articles on social movements, including Black Lives Matter and Occupy.  He teaches courses on grassroots democracy, political economy, democratic theory and practice, and the history of political thought.