Editing Michael Hardt (section)

==Early life and education==
Hardt attended [[Winston Churchill High School (Maryland)|Winston Churchill High School]] in [[Potomac, Maryland|Potomac]], [[Maryland]]. He studied engineering at [[Swarthmore College]] in [[Pennsylvania]] from 1978 to 1983. In college during the [[1970s energy crisis]], he began to take an interest in alternative energy sources<ref name = "guardian">{{cite news| url=http://observer.guardian.co.uk/global/story/0,,524215,00.html | work=The Guardian | location=London | title=Empire hits back | first=Ed | last=Vulliamy | date=2001-07-15 | access-date=2010-05-12}}</ref> Talking about his college politics, he said,  "I thought that doing alternative energy engineering for third world countries would be a way of doing politics that would get out of all this campus political posing that I hated. It seemed that way, but I was quickly disabused."<ref>Hardt, Smith, Minardi, "The Collaborator," 65</ref>

During college, he worked for various [[solar energy]] companies. Hardt also participated, after college, in the Sanctuary Movement and later helped establish a project to bring donated computers from the United States and put them together for the [[University of El Salvador]]. Yet, he says that this political activity did more for him than it did for the Salvadorans.<ref name = "guardian"/>

In 1983, he moved to [[Seattle]] to study [[comparative literature]] at the [[University of Washington]].<ref name = "guardian"/> While working on his PhD, Hardt began to translate Antonio Negri's book on [[Baruch Spinoza]], ''The Savage Anomaly'', in order to come into contact with him.<ref>Hardt, Smith, Minardi, "The Collaborator," 66</ref> He first met Negri in Paris in the summer of 1986 to discuss translation difficulties. After their meeting, Hardt decided to complete his graduate exams and move to Paris the following summer.<ref>Hardt, "Hands," 175</ref> He received an M.A. in 1986 and completed his dissertation on [[Gilles Deleuze]] in 1990, with which he earned his PhD.<ref>Hardt, "Hands," 176</ref>

After briefly teaching at the University of Southern California, Hardt began teaching in the Literature Program at [[Duke University]] in 1994.<ref name = "guardian"/> He is currently professor of Literature and Italian at Duke.