Tocqueville Forum

2009- 2010 Post-Doctoral Fellow

The 2009-10 Jack Miller - Veritas Fund Post-Doctoral Fellowship: Christopher West

This fellowship is sponsored by a partnership between The Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History (JMC), and the Veritas Fund, a donor advised fund created by the Manhattan Institute’s Center for the American University (CAU). The purpose of the fellowship is to promote research and teaching in American history and political thought, and in the heritage of the Western tradition. These fellowships allow each recipient the opportunity to research, teach, and build their future careers in higher education.

Christopher West (c.v.) is the Tocqueville Forum's Jack Miller - Veritas Fund Post-Doctoral Fellow for the 2009-10 academic year.  Chris earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Rutgers University in October 2008, where he also earned his B.A. in Political Science and English Literature in 1993.

After completing his undergraduate studies, Chris worked for The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he helped organize and convene regular working groups for policy activists, congressional staff, and other policy experts in the Washington community. While there, he also wrote on the subject of federalism and unfunded mandates, and was the managing editor of The Guide to Public Policy Experts.

He has taught extensively in the areas of political theory, American politics, and public policy at Rutgers University, Lehigh University, Monmouth University, and the Center for Transformative Leadership. He was named a Civitas Fellow in Faith and Public Policy by the Center for Public Justice in 2002. His primary areas of interest lie in American political thought, religion and politics, American political culture, the American Presidency and political parties. He is currently finishing a book on the historical and theoretical origins and development of presidential popular leadership.