Research and Writing

My dissertation was on the Supreme Court in the Progressive Era and the search for a constitutional basis for active state liberalism. My current research is focused on constitutional law, higher education, and religion and politics. My methodology is primarily historical and developmental, though I also include the insights of empirical research as well as political theory. I owe special thanks to my teachers in graduate school, panel respondents, and colleagues for their feedback and encouragement. Updated October, 2023.

Dissertation

“The Supreme Court in the Early Progressive Era: A Constitutional basis for Active State Liberalism.” Defended January 30, 2010.

Forthcoming Political Philosophy

"Love and Politics: What is the Place of Charity in the Common Good?" submitted to Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly (pending).
“Herodotus and the Philosophy of Travel,” Proceedings from the Annual Conference of the Association for Core Texts and Courses, 2019-2020.
"The Place of Education in Cicero's Political Philosophy."
"The Republicanism of the Yale Report of 1828."

Forthcoming American Politics

"Justice Joseph McKenna: Seeking the Rule of Reason in the Gilded Age," in The Catholic Supreme Court Justices. Edited by Thomas Varacalli. Submitted to Oxford University Press.
“Philosophy Meets the Bureaucrats: Liberal Arts versus Specialization in Progressive Era Universities."
"The Constitutional Word Incarnate: The Problem of the Fourteenth Amendment."
"A Republican Theory of Grain Elevators: the Case of Munn v. Illinois."
"Hope, Despair and Bureaucracy: American Progressivism as a Response to the Critical Realists"

Book Reviews

Review of T. Jeremy Gunn and John Witte, Jr., No Establishment of Religion: America’s Original Contribution to Religious Liberty (Oxford University Press, 2012), in Church History, Vol. 83, No. 3 (September, 2014): pp. 783-786.
Review of John Taliaferro, All the Great Prizes: The Life of John Hay from Lincoln to Roosevelt (Simon & Schuster, 2013), in Presidential Studies Quarterly, Vol. 44, No. 3 (September, 2014): pp. 568–570.
“Checks, Balances and Liberty,” a review of Patrick M. Garry, Limited Government and the Bill of Rights (University of Missouri Press, 2012), in Review of Politics, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Fall, 2013): pp. 699-702.
Review of Judy A. Gaughan, Murder was Not a Crime: Homicide and Power in the Roman Republic (University of Texas Press, 2010), for the American Journal of Legal History, Vol. 52, No. 3 (July, 2012): pp. 377-379.
Review of Daniel J. Mahoney, The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order: Defending Democracy against Its Modern Enemies and Immoderate Friends (Wilmington: ISI Books, 2010), in Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly (Spring, 2012): pp. 40-42.
“Democracy Disenchanted,” a review of Steven D. Smith, The Disenchantment of Secular Discourse (Harvard University Press, 2010), in Review of Politics, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Spring, 2011): pp. 325-327.
“Theodore Roosevelt, Maker of American Politics,” a review of Sidney Milkis, Theodore Roosevelt, the Progressive Party, and the Transformation of American Democracy (Kansas University Press, 2009), in the Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era, Vol. 10, No. 3 (2011): pp. 385-388.
Review of Leszek Kołakowski, My Correct Views on Everything, edited by Zbigniew Janowski (South Bend, Indiana: St. Augustine’s Press, 2010), in Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Quarterly (Spring, 2011): pp. 58-60.
Review of Bradley C.S. Watson, Living Constitution, Dying Faith (ISI Books, 2009), in The City (Spring, 2010): pp. 103-107.

Conference Presentations on Politics and Political Philosophy

"Love and Politics: The Place of Charity in the Common Good," presented at the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars Annual Convention, September 23, 2022, Washington D.C.
“The Leviathan as Teacher: Thomas Hobbes’ Educational Philosophy,” presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, November 7-9, 2019, Philadelphia, PA.
“Philosophy meets the Bureaucrats: Liberal Arts vs. Specialization in the Progressive Era,” presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, August, 2019, Washington D.C.
“’The Man Whose Americanism is Most Sincere and Intense’: Uncovering Theodore Roosevelt's Transformation of American Identity,” presented at the Henry Institute Symposium on Religion and Public Life, April 25-27, at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, MI.
“Herodotus Goes on Study Abroad: Toward an Educational Philosophy of Travel,” presented at the Association of Core Texts and Courses Annual Meeting, April 11-14, Santa Fe, NM.
“’We Suffer More in Imagination than in Reality’: Reading the Stoics with Generation Z,” presented at the Gaede Institute for the Liberal Arts Conversation on High Anxiety and the Race to Success, at Westmont College, March 21-23, 2019, Santa Barbara, CA.
“Happiness and Historicism in the Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson,” at the Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, April 11, 2013.
“Education in the Strenuous Life,” at the Gaede Institute’s conference, War and Peace as Liberal Arts, Westmont College, February 21-23, 2013, Santa Barbara, CA.
“State Police Power, Old and New: The Slaughterhouse Cases and the Meaning of Republicanism in the Gilded Age,” at the New England Political Science Association, April 29-30, 2011, New Haven, CT.
“Providence and Prudence Together: John Witherspoon’s View of Natural Law in the Republic,” for the Association for Core Texts and Courses Annual Meeting, April 14-17, 2011, New Haven, CT.
“The Constitutional Word Incarnate: The Problem of the Fourteenth Amendment,” at the Midwestern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 22-25, Chicago, IL.