Sophia Rosenfeld

Sophia Rosenfeld is Director of the SAS Commons for the 2026-28 theme Democracy and Knowledge.

She is also Walter H. Annenberg Professor of History and former chair of the Department of History at the University of Pennsylvania, where she teaches European and American intellectual and cultural history with a special emphasis on the Enlightenment, the trans-Atlantic Age of Revolutions, and the legacy of the eighteenth century for modern democracy.

Her latest book, The Age of Choice: A History of Freedom in the Modern World (Princeton, 2025), was named a New York Times Notable Book of the Year, a Cundill History Prize Finalist, and winner of the István Hont Prize in intellectual history, all in 2025. It explores how, between the 17th century and the present, the idea and practice of making choices from menus of options came to shape so many aspects of our existences, from consumer culture to human rights, and with what consequences.