Cornel West (b. 1953) is an African American philosopher and author who is professor of African American Studies at Princeton University and a professor of Religious Philosophy and Christian Studies at the Union Theological Seminary in New York. West grew up in Sacramento, California before attending Harvard University and, later, Princeton University for his Ph.D. Much of his teaching and writing focuses on race, religion, and class in American politics, and his most famous works include Race Matters (1994), The Future of the Race (with Henry Louis Gates Jr., 1996), and Democracy Matters: Winning the Fight Against Imperialism (2004).