David Peritz, professor of political science at Sarah Lawrence and the founding Director of Minerva Academy of Lifelong Learning, is a thought leader in the field of lifelong learning. He started working in this field 20 years ago supported by a grant from New York State to offer courses inspired by college offerings at retirement communities. Since then, he has taught consistently in various communities including
· Sarah Lawrence Center for Continuing Education
· Fromm Institute at the University of San Francisco
· Osher Life Long Learning Institutes (SFSU, UC Berkeley, Santa Clara, etc.).
David earned his BA from Occidental College and PhD in Politics from Oxford. He is the recipient of a Marshall Scholarship and taught at Harvard, Deep Springs, Dartmouth, UC Berkeley, and Cornell.

His research specialization is modern and contemporary political philosophy, especially theories of democracy and justice and their relation to issues of diversity and inequality.