A newly published roster spotlights the "global marketplace of ideas," and the thinkers behind them, including more than a few New York University scholars.

Six scholars at New York University have been placed on Foreign Policy’s list of the “Top 100 Global Thinkers 2012,” the magazine announced in its December issue. They include: danah boyd, research assistant professor of Media, Culture and Communication at the NYU’s Steinhardt School of Culture, Education, and Human Development; Chen Guangcheng of the NYU’s School of Law; Jonathan Haidt, Thomas Cooley Professor of Ethical Leadership, NYU’s Stern School of Business; Beth Noveck, visiting professor, NYU’s Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service; Paul Romer, professor of economics, NYU Stern, and director of its Urbanization Project; and Nouriel Roubini, professor of economics and international business, NYU Stern.

The following are excerpts from the magazine’s portraits of “2012’s global marketplace of ideas and the thinkers who make them”:

*  “dana boyd (not a typo: she stripped her name of capital letters in 2000) … warns Big Data isn't necessarily better data. ‘Will large-scale search data help us create better tools, services, and public goods?’ boyd and a co-author inquired in a paper this year. ‘Or will it usher in a new wave of privacy incursions and invasive marketing?’ ”

*  “…Chen [Guangcheng] has embraced his new role as an evangelist for human rights, making the case that incremental change -- one village or even one person at a time -- can eventually transform a superpower.”

*  “A leading member of a new generation of psychologists applying the insights of evolutionary theory to morality, [Jonathan] Haidt argues that we form political opinions not through simple reasoning but based on moral preferences humans have developed to reinforce ties to larger groups or tribes.”

*  “…[Beth Noveck] has … arguably done more than anyone to lay the foundations for a Washington that feels less like a cloistered village and more like an online public square.”

*  “[Paul] Romer deserves credit for showing the power of even an outlandish idea to make us reimagine the world’s poorest places.”

*  “[Nouriel] Roubini is more than just a bearer of bad news: He has become the gloomy bard of this age of financial upheaval.”

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