Tocqueville Forum

Patrick J. Deneen - Curriculum Vitae

Department of Government
ICC 675
Georgetown University
37th and O Streets
Washington, D.C. 20057   

Voice: 202-687-5708            Fax:202-687-5858
E-mail: pjd35@georgetown.edu



DEGREES
Rutgers University, Ph.D., 1995: Political Science
Rutgers University, B.A., 1986:  English,  Highest Honors

OTHER UNIVERSITIES ATTENDED
Universität Düsseldorf, Germany: 1992-1994
The University of Chicago, Committee on Social Thought: 1986-1987
Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland: 1984-1985

CURRENT POSITION
Georgetown University. Markos and Eleni Tsakopoulos-Kounalakis Associate Professor of Government, 2005-

PREVIOUS ACADEMIC POSTS
Georgetown University.  Visiting Assistant Professor, Georgetown University, 2004-5.
Princeton University. Assistant Professor of Politics, 1997-2005

PREVIOUS POSITIONS
U. S. Information Agency, Washington, D.C.  1995-1997.
     Special Advisor and Speechwriter to the Director   
         
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
Georgetown University, 2004-.  Democracy, Ancient and Modern; The Division of Labor in Western Political Thought; Critics of Modernity; Political and Social Thought; The Political Philosophy of Leo Strauss.
Princeton University: 1997-2005
    Political Theory:  Ancient and Medieval Political Theory; Modern Political Thought;
American Political Thought; The Idea of America; Literature and Politics; Rhetoric and Politics; Critics of Modernity; Graduate Research Seminar
The George Washington University, Washington, D.C.: 1996
    American Political Theory   
Universität Duisburg, Germany: 1992-1993
    Political Theory, American Government   
Rutgers University, 1988-1992:  Teaching Assistant
    Political Theory, American Government, Literature and Politics

 
TEACHING INTERESTS
Ancient Political Theory (Emphasis on Greek thought)
Modern and Contemporary Political Thought
Democratic Theory
American Political Thought
Liberalism and Communitarianism
Religion and Politics
Literature and Politics

FELLOWSHIPS AND AWARDS
2001 APSA Foundations of Political Theory Section Best First Book Honorable Mention.
Higher Education Initiatives Summer Grant, Summer, 2002.
Laurence S. Rockefeller University Preceptorship, Princeton University, 2000-2003.
James Madison Program Research Fellowship, Princeton University, 2001.
Earhart Foundation Fellowship, 1999; 2001-2002; 2005
Princeton University Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences Award, 2001.
Center for the Study of Religion Faculty Fellow, Princeton University, 2000-2001.
Princeton University Committee on Research in the Humanities and Social Sciences Award, 1999.
Pew Scholar Fellowship, 1999-2000.
1995 APSA Leo Strauss Award - Best Dissertation in Political Philosophy

SCHOLARSHIP

Books - Published

1. The Odyssey of Political Theory: The Politics of Departure and Return. (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000; Paperback, 2003). 

Study of the influence of Homer’s Odyssey in the history of political thought, with particular emphasis on themes of belonging and cosmopolitanism.

•    Awarded 2001 APSA Foundations of Political Theory Best First Book Honorable Mention.
Citation:  “Patrick J. Deneen’s The Odyssey of Political Theory is an engagingly written and elegantly crafted study of the long half-life of the figure of Odysseus in political theory.  Deneen explores the fascination evinced by philosophers such as Plato, Rousseau, Adorno and Horkheimer with the political themes and dilemmas on display in Homer’s epic.  And he adds to these hermeneutic contributions a thoughtful meditation of the lessons of the Odyssey for the contemporary confrontation of the claims of cosmopolitanism and particularism upon our loyalties.”
Reviews:
American Political Science Review, 96 (June, 2002): 401-2.
Choice (June, 2001).
Modern Age, 44 (Summer, 2002): 261-265.
Perspectives in Political Science 30 (Spring, 2001): 124.
Polis, 20 (2004).
Polity, “Platonic Entanglements,” 35 (April, 2003): 459-477.
Political Studies, 49 (June, 2001): 349.
Political Theory, 30 (June, 2002): 441-448.
Review of Politics, “There and Back Again,” 64 (Winter, 2002): 184-7



2. Democratic Faith.  Princeton University Press, 2005.

Synopsis:  The American political reformer Herbert Croly wrote, "For better or worse, democracy cannot be disentangled from an aspiration toward human perfectibility." Democratic Faith is at once an analysis and a critique of this underlying assumption that informs democratic theory. I argue that among democracy's most ardent supporters there is an oft-expressed belief in the need to "transform" human beings in order to reconcile the sometimes disappointing reality of human self-interest with the democratic ideal of selfless commitment. This "transformative impulse" is frequently couched in religious language, a resonance that is particularly striking given the frequent accompanying condemnation of traditional religious belief that informs the "democratic faith." At the same time, because so often this democratic ideal fails to materialize, democratic faith is often subject to a particularly intense form of disappointment. A mutually reinforcing cycle of faith and disillusionment is frequently exhibited by those who profess a democratic faith--in effect imperiling democratic commitments due to the cynicism of its most fervent erstwhile supporters. Authors examined include proponents of “democratic faith” such as the sophist Protagoras, Rousseau, Emerson, Whitman, and Dewey, and “friendly critics” of democratic faith including Plato, Tocqueville, Lincoln, Reinhold Niebuhr and Christopher Lasch.

•    Edited Book

Democracy’s Literature: Politics and Fiction in America.  Co-edited with Joseph Romance.  Rowman and Littlefield, 2005.

Essays devoted to articulating the grounds for political/theoretical readings of (American) fiction and several essays on selected political fiction, including Melville, Hawthorne, Twain, Flannery O’Connor, William Faulkner, James Baldwin, Ralph Ellison, Octavia Butler, and Don DeLillo.  Contributors include Wilson Carey McWilliams, Paul A. Cantor, Catherine Zuckert, Daniel Sabia, Peter Augustine Lawler, Pamela Jensen, Lawrie Balfour, and the editors.

Current Book Projects: 

Vocation: The Division of Labor in Western Thought

An examination of conceptions of the division of labor from antiquity and Christianity to the early modern and modern periods.  Projected figures under examination include Plato, Aristotle, Augustine, Luther, Smith, Hegel, Marx, Weber, and feminist authors.  Of special interest is the place of citizenship in conceptions of the division of labor from antiquity to the modern period. 

The Alternative Tradition in America

An exploration of a distinctive non-liberal tradition in American thought and practice, with special emphasis upon civic egalitarianism, populism, localism and theology.  Projected to include chapters on:  Nathaniel Niles and the Anti-Federalists, Henry Adams, Orestes Brownson, G. K. Chesterton, Christopher Lasch, Wendell Berry and Wilson Carey McWilliams. 


Articles or Chapters in Books

Forthcoming:

“Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.:  An Appreciation.”  Claremont Review of Books, forthcoming, 2007.

“Conservatism in America?” in Conservative Thought and Politics in America.  Nomos 51.  Edited by Sanford Levinson and Melissa Williams.  Forthcoming, 2008.

“The Ascent of Henry Adams: Mont-Saint Michel and Chartres.”  In A Political Companion to Henry Adams, ed. Natalie Taylor.  University Press of Kentucky.

“Transcendentalism, Ancient and Modern:  Brownson vs. Emerson.”  Perspectives on Political Science..  Forthcoming, 2007.

“Democratic Prospects in Undemocratic Times.”  Invited concluding essay, Democratization: Comparisons, Confrontations, and Contrasts, ed. Jose Ciprut.  Forthcoming, Cambridge U. Press, 2007.


Published:
“The Alternative American Tradition in the Thought of Wendell Berry.”  In Wendell Berry:  Life and Work.  Ed. Jason Peters.  University Press of Kentucky, 2007.

 “Rising Religious Pluralism?  A Contrarian View.”  In Religion and Politics in Germany and America.  Edited by Kerstin Jager.  Published by the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies, 2007.

“Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in the Thought of Wilson Carey McWilliams.”  Perspectives on Political Science, forthcoming, 2006.

“The Only Permanent State: Tocqueville on Religion in  Democracy,” forthcoming, Talking About Religion in Academic Disciplines, ed. James Boyd White. University of Notre Dame Press, 2006.

“From the Active Society to the Good Society: The Second Sailing of Amitai Etzioni.”  Invited and Commissioned essay in The Active Society Revisited.  Edited by Wilson Carey McWilliams.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

“Ordinary Virtue.” Invited Essay, Democracy and Excellence, ed. Neil Reimer and Joseph Romance.  Praeger, 2004.

“Hearing Tocqueville in DeLillo’s White Noise.”  Democracy’s Literature: Politics and Fiction in America, ed. Patrick J. Deneen and Joseph Romance.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

“Introduction: ‘There’s Nothing Political About American Literature’” to Democracy’s Literature: Politics and Fiction in America, ed. Patrick J. Deneen and Joseph Romance.  Rowman & Littlefield, 2005.

“Ordinary Virtue.”  Democracy and Excellence, ed. Neil Reimer and Joseph Romance.  New York: Praeger, 2005.

“Christopher Lasch and the Limits of Hope.  First Things.  December, 2004:   26-30.

“Citizenship as a Vocation.”  Invited chapter in Tocqueville and American Political Life Today.  Edited by Peter A. Lawler.  Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2004.

“Was Huck Greek?: The Odyssey of Mark Twain.”    Modern Language Studies 32 (Spring, 2003): 35-44.
•    Included in the Huck Finn: The Complete Buffalo and Erie County Public Library Manuscript – Teaching and Research Digital Edition, edited by Victor Doyno, 2003.

“Invisible Foundations:  Science, Democracy, and Faith among the Pragmatists,” Political and Legal Anthropology Review 26 (November, 2003).

“Desecration.”  Society 39 (September, 2002): 48-52.

“‘Lonesome No More’:  Individualism and the Rise of Democratic Despotism.”  Invited essay in The Hedgehog Review 4 (Spring 2002): 57-73.

“Awakening from the American Dream:  The End of Escape in American Cinema? ” Invited essay in Perspectives on Political Science 31 (Spring, 2002): 96-103.

“Patriotic Vision:  At Home in a World Made Strange.”  Intercollegiate Review, Spring, 2002.

“Friendship and Politics: Ancient and American.”  Citizens and Friends:  Essays in Honor of
Wilson Carey McWilliams (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000).

“Introduction:  What Wilson Carey McWilliams Saw in America.” Citizens and Friends:  Essays in Honor of Wilson Carey McWilliams (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2000).

“The Politics of Hope and Optimism: Rorty, Havel and the Democratic Faith of John Dewey.”  Social Research 66 (Summer, 1999): 577-609.

“Antigone and the Limits of Tragedy.” Polis 16 (Fall, 1999), 1-16.

“The Odyssey of Political Theory.”   In Justice and Law in Greek Political Thought, ed. Leslie Rubin
    (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 1997).

Book Reviews

Review of Lucas Swain’s The Liberal Conscience.  In Perspectives on Politics, forthcoming, 2006/7.

Review of Bryan Garsten’s  Saving Persuasion.  In The Weekly Standard, forthcoming, 2006.

Review of Alan Wolfe’s Return to Greatness.  In Intercollegiate Review, forthcoming, 2006.

Review of Bertrand de Jouvenel by Daniel J. Mahoney.  In Society, 43 (July/August, 2006): 91-3.

Review of Platonic Noise by J. Peter Euben.  In Polis, 2005.

“Augustinian America,” review essay of James A. Morone’s Hellfire Nation and James A. Block, A Nation of Agents.  In the APSA Religion and Politics Newsletter 20 (Dec., 2003) pp. 14-20.

Review of The Platonic Political Art by John R. Wallach.  In Political Theory 31 (April, 2003): 321-5. 

Review of Ship of State by Norma Thompson.  Society 40 (April, 2003): 82-84.

Review of Aliens in America: The Strange Truth About Our Souls, by Peter A. Lawler.  Philadelphia Inquirer, October 2002.

Review of Christian Faith and Modern Democracy by Robert Kraynak.  Commonweal, October 26,  2001.

Review Essay:  “Chasing Plato.” Review of J. Peter Euben’s Corrupting Youth; Christopher Rocco’s Tragedy and Enlightenment; Gerald M. Mara’s Socrates’ Discursive Democracy.  Political Theory, 28 (June, 2000): 421-439.

Review Essay:  Reconstructing America  by James W. Ceaser and Requiem for Modern Politics by William Ophuls.  In Polity: The Journal of the Northeastern Political Science Association, 30 (Spring, 1998):  547-554.

Review of Real Politics by Jean Bethke Elshtain.  Commonweal, May 22, 1998.

Review of Reinventing the American People, Edited by Robert Royal.  Commonweal, May 3, 1996.

Review of Democracy: The Unfinished Journey, Edited by John Dunn. Commonweal, April 9, 1993.

Review of The End of History and the Last Man by Francis Fukuyama.  Commonweal, May 3, 1992.
•    Reprinted in Contemporary Literary Criticism (Detroit, Mich: Gale Research Co., 2001).


Occasional Writing

“Tocqueville.”  Entry in American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia.  Wilmington, DE: I.S.I. Books, 2006.

“Escaping the Cave:  On Film, Reality, and Civic Education.” Introduction to special issue, Perspectives on Political Science 31 (Spring, 2002): 69-70.

 “Higher Math.” (On Ron Howard’s film “A Beautiful Mind”).  Commonweal, February 8, 2002. Reprinted in Princeton Alumni Weekly, April, 2002.

Entry on “Benjamin R. Barber,” for American Political Scientists: A Dictionary, Edited by Glenn H. Utter and Charles Lockhart  (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002): 17-20.

“George Bailey’s Secret Life.”  (On “It’s a Wonderful Life”) In Commonweal, December 19, 1997.

Entries in The Encyclopedia of New England Culture: “John Bailey,” “Ella Grasso,” and 
“Lowell Weicker.”  Yale University Press, Forthcoming 2002.

Articles in The Mark Twain Encyclopedia: “The Boxer Rebellion,” “Ulysses S. Grant,”             “Imperialism,” “William Marcy ‘Boss’ Tweed.”  Garland Publishing, 1993.


CONFERENCE PAPERS

“The End of Modernity?  Peak Oil and Political Theory.”  Western Political Science Assocation Meeting.  Las Vegas, NV, March, 2007.

“Conservatism in America?”   Presented before the American Society for Political and Legal Philosophy at the American Association of Law Schools Annual Conference.  Washington, D.C.  January, 2007.

“The Alternative Tradition in America:  Against the Hartz Thesis.”  Association for Political Theory Meeting.  Bloomington, IN.  October, 2006.

“The Alternative Tradition: The Anti-liberalism of Wendell Berry.”  American Political Science Association Annual Meeting.  Philadelphia.  September, 2006.

“Minding One’s Own Business:  The Division of Labor in Plato’s Republic.” American Political Science Association Annual Meeting.  Philadelphia.  September, 2006.

“Liberty, Equality and Fraternity in the Thought of Wilson Carey McWilliams.”  American Political Science Annual Meeting.  Washington, D.C.  September, 2005.

“What G.K. Chesterton Saw in America.”  Invited presented at a conference entitled “America Through Foreign Eyes,” held at Indiana University, March, 2005.

“Transcendentalism Ancient and Modern:  Orestes Brownson vs. Ralph Waldo Emerson.”  Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL.  September, 2004.

“Aristotle on the Limits of Democracy.”  Presented at the New England Political Science Association Conference, Portsmouth, NH.  May, 2004.

“Hearing Tocqueville in DeLillo’s White Noise.”  Presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association Meeting.  Philadelphia, PA.  November, 2003.

“Toward a Critique of Democratic Faith.”  Presented at American Political Science Association.  Philadelphia, PA.  September, 2003.

“Civil Religion and Democratic Faith.”  Presented at the New England Political Science Association Conference, Providence, RI.  May, 2003.

“Democratic Faith.”  Presented at Law and Public Affairs Conference on Religion and Law, Princeton University.  February, 2003.

“Democratic Faith.”  Presented at the Northeastern Political Science Conference, Providence, RI.  November, 2002.

“A Pattern Laid Up in Heaven:  Plato’s Democratic Ideal.”  Presented at the Northeastern Political Science Conference, Philadelphia, PA.  November, 2001.

“Civil Religion and Democratic Faith in Rousseau.”  Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.  September, 2001.

“Awakening from the American Dream:  The End of Escape in American Cinema?”  Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA.  September, 2001.

 “Was Huck Greek?: The Odyssey of Mark Twain.”  Presented at the Elmira College Center for Mark Twain Studies.  Elmira, NY.  August, 2001.  Also presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, August, 2002.

“Tocqueville on Democracy, Religion, and Philosophy.”  Presented at the New England Political Science Association Conference, Portsmouth, NH.  May, 2001.

“The Utility of Religion: Tocqueville’s Thoughts on Religion in a Democratic Age.”  Presented at the Western Political Science Association, Las Vegas, NV.  March, 2001.

“Protagoras Unbound:  The Mythical Democracy of Protagoras’ Great Speech.”  Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Washington, D.C.  August, 2000.

“Comedy and Memory:  The Ancient Spirit of Mark Twain.”  Presented at the New England Political Science Association Conference, Hartford, CT.  May, 2000.

“The Harrowing of Rousseau’s Emile.”  Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting.  Atlanta, 1999.

“The Politics of Hope and Optimism.”  Presented at the Communitarian Summit.  Washington D.C.:  February, 1999.

“Antigone and the Limits of Tragedy.”  Presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association
Annual Meeting.  Boston:  November, 1998.

“John Dewey’s Democratic Faith.”  Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting.  Boston:  September, 1998.

“John Dewey on Religion and Politics.”  Presented at the New England Political Science Association Conference, Worchester, MA.  May, 1998.

“Plato on Democratic Self-Rule.”  Presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association Meeting, Philadelphia, PA.  November, 1997.

“The Chastened Democratic Faith of Abraham Lincoln.”  Presented at the New England Political Science Association Conference, New London, CT.  May, 1997.

“Plato’s Odyssey: Reconciling the Ancient Quarrel Between Philosophy and Poetry,” 
    Presented at the Northeastern Political Science Association: Providence, R.I.  November, 1994.

“Pluralism, Friendship and Community,” Presented at the International Political Science Association
 XVI World Congress, Berlin, Germany.  August, 1994.

“The Odyssey of Political Theory,” Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual         Meeting, Chicago. September 1992.

“The Democratic Implications of Advice and Consent” Presented at the Law and Society Association     Annual Meeting: Philadelphia.  May, 1992.


PRESENTATIONS AND LECTURES

“Varieties of Liberal Faith, Civil and Transformative.”  Invited Lecture for ETHICA.  Asti, Italy.  October, 2007.

“The Alternative Tradition in America,” Ingersoll-Weaver Award Ceremony, Charlotte, NC.  October 2007.

“The Alternative Tradition in America,” Community, Place and Tradition Conference.  Charlottesville, VA.  March, 2007.

“The End of Modernity?  Peak Oil and Political Theory,”  University of Maryland, February, 2007.

“The End of Modernity?  Peak Oil and Political Theory,” Pomona College, February, 2007.

“Teaching the American Culture Wars.”  Durango Colorado School District.  July, 2006.

“Growing Religious Pluralism in the U.S. and Germany?  Prospects for the Future.”  Invited Lecture for the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies.  Humboldt University, Berlin, Germany.  May, 2006.

“Renewing the Heritage:  Religion and Politics in America.”  Annual Christus Lecture.  Spring Hill College.  April, 2006.

“The Political God of Our Times:  Faith in Democracy.”  Invited Lecture for Conference “The Political God of Our times: Civic Religion and Democratic Politics  in Europe and America.”  Princeton University.  March, 2006.

“The Odyssey After 9/11.”  Invited Lecture:  Brigham Young University.  February, 2006.

“Democracy in America Under the Constitution.”  Constitution Day Lecture.  Berry College.  September, 2005

“The Odyssey After 9/11.”  Lecture to the Honors College.  University of Tulsa.  September 11, 2005.

“Democratic Faith.”  Presented at American University, Political Philosophy Colloquium.  March, 2005.

“Democratic Faith.”  Invited speaker.  Yale University Political Philosophy Colloquium.  May, 2004.

“Democratic Faith.” Invited Speaker, Villanova University, March, 2004.

“Toward a Critique of Democratic Faith.”  Invited Speaker, Boston College.  2004.

“A Model of Democratic Charity.”  Invited Speaker:  Berry College.  November, 2003.

“The Choice of Odysseus.”  Invited Speaker: Oglethorpe University.  November, 2003.

“Citizenship as a Vocation.”  Invited Lecture, N.J. Governor’s School.  Monmouth, NJ, July, 2003.

“Democratic Faith.”  Invited Lecture, University of Oregon, May 2003.

“Democratic Faith.”  Princeton University Political Philosophy Colloquium, April, 2003.

“Invisible Foundations:  Science, Democracy, and Faith among the Pragmatists.”  Invited lecture, Cornell University (for Conference entitled “Ethnography in the Realm of the Pragmatic”), March, 2003.

“Democratic Faith.”  Invited Lecture, University of Virginia, February 2003.

“Democratic Faith.”  Invited Lecture, Indiana University, November 2002.

“Democratic Faith.”  Invited Lecture, Mershon Citizenship Lecture Series. The Ohio State University, October 2002.

“Ordinary Virtues,” Invited Lecture, New Jersey Governor’s School.  Monmouth, NJ, July, 2002.

“Democratic Faith.”  Center for the Study of Democratic Politics Seminar, Princeton Univ., April 2002.

“Democratic Faith.”  Political Philosophy Colloquium, Harvard University.  March, 2002.

“The Choice of Odysseus.”  2002 Goldfarb Lecture, Colby College, February, 2002.

“What’s Wrong with Democracy.”  Invited Lecture to the Princeton 55Plus Club.  October, 2001.

“Responding to the Unimaginable:  Voltaire vs. Rousseau on the Lisbon Earthquake.” Invited Lecture, College Colloquium, Christ College, Valparaiso University.  September 15, 2001.

“What Students Should Know,” Atlanta Princeton Alumni Club, April 2001.

“The Utility of Religion for Democracy.” Invited Lecture, Intercollegiate Studies Institute, March 2001.

“The Legacy of Abraham Lincoln.”  Short Hills Lincoln Club, Annual Lincoln Day Luncheon.  February, 2001.

“The University and the World.”  Washington D.C. Princeton Alumni Club.  January, 2001.

Political Ethics and Public Affairs Forum, Princeton University.  “Political Rhetoric and Democratic Deliberation.”  October, 2000. 

University of Chicago.  “Against Cosmopolitanism:  Resisting the Sirens’ Song.”  For “Lessons of Classical Political Thought for the 21st Century” John M. Olin Lectures.  February, 2000.

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for Secondary School Teachers: 
    Rutgers University, August, 1999:  “Ancient Traditions in Colonial American Thought.”

Princeton University Political Philosophy Colloquium.  “The Politics of Hope and Optimism:  The Democratic Faith of John Dewey.”  March, 1999.

Rockefeller College Fellows Luncheon, Princeton University.  “Was Huck Greek?:  Reflections on the Odyssey and Huckleberry Finn.”  April, 1999.

Walt Whitman Center Seminar:  “John Dewey’s Democratic Faith.”  Rutgers University, March 1998.

National Endowment for the Humanities Summer Seminar for Secondary School Teachers: 
    Rutgers University, August, 1996:  “Liberal Traditions in American Foreign Relations.”

UNIVERSITY ACTIVITIES

Georgetown University
Speaker, “Take Back Georgetown Day,” February, 2007.
Speaker, Phi Delta Epsilon Lecture Series, February, 2007.
Speaker, Phi Delta Epsilon Lecture Series.  February, 2006.
Princeton University
Columnist, The Daily Princetonian, 2002 – 2004.
Invited Faculty Dinner Speaker: “The End of Education.” Rockefeller College, Princeton University.
Human Values Forum, Princeton University, 2000-2005.
Invited Participant, Colloquium on Religion and the Law, Princeton University Program in Law and Public Affairs, February, 2003.
Panelist, “The State of Intellectual Life at Princeton,” Princeton USG sponsored forum, November 2002.
Panelist, “What it Means to Be an American.” Sponsored by James Madison Program, September, 2001.
Faculty Speaker for Early Admitted Princeton Freshmen:  Washington D.C. and Atlanta, 2001.
Faculty Fellow, Charter Eating Club, Princeton University:  1999-2001.
Speaker, to “Paideia,” Princeton Student Organization promoting faculty-student dialogue.
    1999 – On the Election; 
2000 – On the Electoral College
Speaker, to the Princeton University ACLU, on Church/State relations.
Political Ethics and Public Affairs Colloquium, Invited Participant.  Princeton University, 1997-2005.
Political Philosophy Colloquium, Invited Participant. Princeton University, 1997-2005.

DEPARTMENTAL AND UNIVERSITY SERVICE

Georgetown University
Founding Director, The Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy, 2006-
Field Chair, Political Theory. Department of Government.  2006-.
Advisory Committee, Berkley Center, 2007-
Steering Committee, Berkley Center, 2006-2007
Graduate Admissions Committee.  Department of Government.  2005-6, 2006-7.
Political Theory Search Committee.  2005-6
Director: Political Philosophy Colloquium.  2005-
Political and Social Thought Summer Seminar.  May-June, 2005, 2006.

Princeton University:
Freshman/Sophomore Advisor and Faculty Fellow, Rockefeller College:  1998–2005
Political Theory Advisor (Departmental Representative), 2002 –2005
Departmental Committee on Junior Faculty Advancement, 2002-3.
University Committee for the Use and Care of Animals: 2000-2003.
Executive Committee, James Madison Program, 2002-2005
Faculty Associate, James Madison Program, 2000 – 2002
Faculty Affiliate, Center for the Study of Democratic Politics, 2001 – 2005.
Undergraduate Committee, Politics Department: 2000-2001.
Mellon Dissertation Seminar Leader: Political Theory, 2000.

PROFESSIONAL ACTIVITIES
Chair, Best First Book Award Committee, Foundations of Political Science Section, American Political Science Association, 2006-7.
Liberty Fund Conference, “On Vico’s New Science,” Washington, D.C., October, 2007.
Liberty Fund Conference, “Tocqueville and Wharton on America,” Charleston, SC. June, 2007.
Liberty Fund Conference, “Conversion Literature,” Pasadena, CA, February 2007.
Distinguished Lecturer:  “The Culture Wars.”  U.S. Department of Education Summer Institute:  Durango School District.  Durango, Colorado.  July, 2006.
Liberty Fund Conference: “Tradition.”  March, 2006.
Invited Discussant, “Toleration and Truth: The Impact of Liberal Societies on Religion,” Center for the Interdisciplinary Study of Religion, Emory University.  March, 2006.
Liberty Fund Conference (Director):  “Homer’s Odyssey.”  December, 2005.
Liberty Fund Conference (Discussion Leader): Community and Liberty.  October, 2005
Program on Politics and Economics Summer Seminar.  George Mason University.  Summer, 2005.
Mentor, I.S.I. Honors Program, “What G.K. Chesterton Saw in America.”  July, 2005.
Liberty Fund Conference:  “Christopher Lasch’s Culture of Narcissism.”  March, 2005.
Liberty Fund Conference:  “Hume’s Essays.”  February, 2004.
Invited Speaker, Honor’s Program Annual Conference, I.S.I. “On Vocation.” Indianapolis, April 2004.
Fulbright Summer Institute in American Studies for Foreign Secondary School Teachers:  “American Political Fiction.”  University of Massachusetts at Amherst.    July, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2003.
Liberty Fund Conference:  “Utopianism in Swift and Butler,” June 2003.
Mentor, I.S.I., “Reconsidering Russell Kirk.”  Oxford, England.  August, 2003.
Liberty Fund Conference, Discussion Leader:  “Patriotism and Cosmopolitanism,” March 2003.
Mentor, I.S.I. “Progress and Revolution.”  Washington D.C.  July, 2002.
Center for Civic Education:  Invited participant, Annual Conference.  Washington, D.C. May, 2002. Mentor, I.S.I.  “Shakespeare in Oxford,” Oxford, England.  August, 2001.
Liberty Fund Colloquium:  “Liberty and Self-Rule,” July, 2001.
Commonweal Colloquium:  Catholicism and Politics.  April, 2001.
Liberty Fund Conference:  “Abraham Lincoln on Liberty and Union,” March 2001.
Liberty Fund Conference:  “The Political Thought of Guizot,” November, 2000.
Liberty Fund Conference: “Bertrand de Jouvenel’s A Pure Theory of Politics,” July 2000.
Erasmus Institute Summer Faculty Workshop, Notre Dame:  June 2000.
Liberty Fund Conference:  “Shakespeare’s Early Comedies,” May 1999.

PROFESSIONAL SERVICE
Series Editor.  “Political Companions to Great American Authors.”  University of Kentucky Press, 2004-(Forthcoming titles on Thoreau, Henry Adams, Walt Whitman, Tom Wolfe).
Member at Large.  Politics, Literature and Film Section.  2005-6.
Review Panel Member, “Landmarks of American History,” N.E.H., September, 2004.
Program Co-Chair, New England Political Science Association.  2004-2005.
Award Committee Member, Best Paper Award, A.P.S.A. Politics and Literature Section.  2003-4.
Section Chair (2002-3), A.P.S.A. Politics and Literature Section.  2003-2004.
Editorial Advisory Board, University of Kentucky, “Provocations: Political Theory and Contemporary Issues,” 2002-present.
Guest Editor, Perspectives on Political Science, Spring 2002:  “Images in a Cave:  American Film”
Panel Organizer for the Society for Greek Political Thought, 2001 Northeast Political Science Association Annual Meeting.
Award Committee, Best Graduate Student Conference Paper.  New England Political Science
    Assoc., 1998.


Panel Discussant / Roundtables:
American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.  Roundtable participant, “Author Meets Critics: Joshua Dienstag’s Pessimism. September, 2007.
American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.  Roundtable participant, “Author Meets Critics: Michael Kazin’s A Godly Hero.
American Political Science Association, Chicago, IL.  Roundtable participant, “Reforming Higher Education.”  September, 2007.
New England Political Science Association, Boston, MA.  Roundtable participant:  “Author Meets Critics:  Lucas Swaine’s The Liberal Conscience,” May, 2007.
Southwestern Political Science Association, Albuquerque, NM.  Roundtable respondent, “Author Meets Critics:  Patrick Deneen’s Democratic Faith.”  April, 2007.
New England Political Science Association, Portsmouth, NH.  Discussant: “Democracy in Alexis de Tocqueville.”  May, 2006.
New England Political Science Association, Portsmouth, NH.  Roundtable on “The Intellectual Contribution of Wilson Carey McWilliams.”  May, 2006.
Northeastern Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA.  Roundtable on “Wilson Carey McWilliams and American Political Thought,” November, 2005.
Association for Political Theory, St. Louis, MO.  Discussant, “Early Modern Political Thought,”.  October, 2005.
American Political Science Association Annual Meeting.  Roundtable on “The Legacy of Wilson Carey McWilliams.”  Washington, D.C.  September, 2005.
New England Political Science Association, Portland, ME.  Roundtable on Patrick J. Deneen’s Democratic Faith.  May, 2005
New England Political Science Association, Portland, ME.  Roundtable on Daniel J. Mahoney’s Bertrand de Jouvenel.  May, 2005
New England Political Science Association, Portland, ME.  Roundtable on Gerald M. Pomper’s Ordinary Heroes.  May, 2005
Association of Political Theory.  Discussant: “The Other Enlightenment: Hume, Montesquieu, Tocqueville.”
APSA, Chicago, IL.  Roundtable Chair and participant:  “Author Meets Critics:  John Seery’s America Goes to College.” September, 2004.
Southern Political Science Conference.  New Orleans, LA.  Roundtable participant: Religion and Politics in America.  January, 2003.
Recipient of Artinian Travel Award for attendance at the Southern Assoc. Meeting.
APSA, Philadelphia, PA.  Roundtable Chair:  “The Politics of Literature.”  September, 2003.
Discussant.  New England Political Sci. Assoc., Providence, RI.  “Passions and Politics.”  May, 2003.
APSA, Boston, MA. “Mortality in Political Theory.” September, 2002.
APSA, Atlanta, GA.  “Roundtable on Michael Davis’s Autobiography of Philosophy.”  September 2000.
Northeastern Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA.  “Political Dispositions.”  October, 1999.
New England Political Science Association, Providence, RI.  “Roundtable on Mary Nichol’s Redeeming Woody:  ‘Woody Allen as Platonic Mythmaker”  May, 1999.
APSA, Chicago, IL.  “McWilliams’ Fraternity in America After 25 Years.” Sept. 1998.
New England Political Science Association, Springfield, MA.  “American Political Fiction.”  May 1996.


Reviewer:
Yale University Press, 2005, 2006, 2007 (twice)
Northern Illinois University Press, 2005
Cambridge University Press, 2005
University Press of New England, 2005
Princeton University Press, 2004 (twice), 2005
Pennsylvania State University Press, 2004
Oxford University Press, 2004
Cambridge University Press, 2003
University of Kentucky Press, 2003, 2005, 2006 (twice)
Polity Press (U.K.), 2003
Journal of Politics, 2003, 2006
Cornell University Press, 2001.
Political Theory, 2001, 2002, 2005, 2006.
State University of New York Press, 2001.
American Political Science Review, 1998, 1999 (twice), 2000, 2001 (thrice), 2002 (twice), 2003 (twice), 2005, 2006.
Broadview Press, 2001
Catholic University Press, 2007
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2001.
Review of Politics, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006.
Edinburgh University Press, 2000.
American Journal of Political Science, 1999, 2001, 2003, 2004.
University of Minnesota Press, 1999.

Subjects reviewed:  Athenian democracy, Plato (Apology, Republic, Protagoras, Symposium, Laws), Odyssey, Aristophanes, Xenophon, Aristotle, Cicero, Rousseau (First and Second Discourses, Social Contract, Emile), Algernon Sidney, Paine, Madison, Tocqueville, W. James, Walt Whitman, Thoreau, Twain, John Dewey, modern political thought, democratic theory, pragmatism, civic education, “cunning,” citizenship.


Dissertation Committees:
Georgetown University
•    Brian Smith (Theories of Decline)
•    Eugen Nagy (Catholic University – Kierkegaard)
•    Rachel Templer (Temporality in Plato and Thucydides)
•    Gaelen Murphy (The Promise of Modernity)
•    Joanne Tobin (Emerson and Democracy)

Princeton University
•    Thomas Chuaqui  (Moral Skepticism)
•    Jonathan Allen  (Critique and Self-cultivation)
•    Aurelian Craiutu (French Doctrinaires - recipient of 2000 APSA Leo Strauss Award)
•    Brenda Lyshaug  (Autonomy)
•    David Tubbs  (Family Law/Theory)
•    Kenneth Alexo  (Patristic Church Fathers)
•    Denise Dutton  (Cynicism in American Thought)
•    Paul Bou-habib  (Locke on Religious Toleration)
•    Micah Watson (Rawls and Civil Religion)
•    Joseph Prud’homme (On Judges and Judgment)
•    Eric Mitnick (On Group Rights)
•    Amy Shuster (Political Judgment)
•    Susan McWilliams (Chair – Travel in Political Theory)




REFERENCES

Benjamin R. Barber, University of Maryland
Charles Beitz, Princeton University
Jean Bethke Elshtain, University of Chicago Divinity School
Robert K. Faulkner, Boston College
Timothy Fuller, Colorado College
Robert George, Princeton University
Jacob Howland (Ancient Philosophy), University of Tulsa
Jeffrey Isaac, Indiana University
George Kateb, Princeton University (Emeritus)
Peter Augustine Lawler, Berry College
Daniel J. Mahoney, Assumption College
Charles Mathewes (Religion Department), University of Virginia
Wilfred McClay (American Intellectual History), University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
James A. Morone, Brown University
Mary Nichols, Baylor University
Thomas Pangle, University of Texas at Austin
Arlene Saxonhouse, University of Michigan
John Seery, Pomona College
Cornel West, Princeton University
James Boyd White, University of Michigan Law School
Catharine Zuckert, University of Notre Dame