Uni alum Jimmy Soni (Trinity ’07) co-authors book, “Rome’s Last Citizen”
Among other things, University Scholar alumnus Jimmy Soni (Trinity ’07) has been busy promoting his book, Rome’s Last Citizen: The Life and Legacy of (St. Martin’s Press, October 2012) with co-author and fellow Duke alum Rob Goodman. The pair most recently appeared on a NY Times TimesCast Live Video on December 11, 2012 (See “Good News in Obesity Epidemic, the first story in the TimesCast video. The story on “Rome’s Last Citizen” starts at 9:10 min).
As an undergraduate, Jimmy completed a Program II major in Ethics, which led to the creation of the interdisciplinary Ethics Certificate Program. He also co-founded the Duke Political Union, served as co-chair of the Honor Council, wrote an op-ed column in The Chronicle, and served as Vice-President for Academic Affairs for Duke Student Government. He received summer fellowships at the Center for the Study of the Presidency in Washington, D.C. and was a Galbraith Scholar at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government.
After graduating Duke, Jimmy won a Mitchell Scholarship for study in Ireland, where he earned a Master’s degree in Politics. He returned to the U.S. and worked in a variety of capacities, including as a speechwriter to the mayor of Washington, D.C.
At age 26, Jimmy assumed the role of Managing Editor for the Huffington Post. He also currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke, as well as the Advisory Board for DukeEngage. Given this background, it is little surprise that Jimmy embarked on a book project touching on one of the Roman Republic’s most redoubtable Stoics, Cato the Younger.
For more on Jimmy, see the article in Duke Magazine, “Jimmy Soni ’07: Riding High in the Blogosphere.”
The Chronicle covered Jimmy’s visit back to Duke in early November 2012 as the keynote speaker for the Thompson Writing Program’s Duke Writes Symposium: “Duke Graduate Tells Students to Create Change Through Writing.”
For Jimmy’s perspective on analogies between political spending in contemporary American politics and in Ancient Rome, see his article on Slate.com from November 26, 2012, “How Political Spending Brought Down the Roman Republic.“
