Cornel Ronald West (born June 2, 1953) is an American philosopher, academic, social activist, author, public intellectual,[1] and prominent member of the Democratic Socialists of America. The son of a Baptist minister, West received his undergraduate education from Harvard University, graduating with a bachelor's degree in 1973, and received a Ph.D. from Princeton University in 1980, becoming the first African American to graduate from Princeton with a Ph.D. in philosophy.[2] He taught at Harvard in 2001 before leaving the school after a highly publicized dispute with then-president Lawrence Summers. He was Professor of African American Studies at Princeton[3][4] before leaving the school in 2011 to become Professor of Philosophy and Christian Practice at the Union Theological Seminary[5] in New York City. He has also spent time teaching at the University of Paris.