MAHG Faculty & Staff

Faculty

Abbylin H. Sellers

PEPPERDINE UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Abbylin H. Sellers is the Edward L. Gaylord Professor of Public Policy at Pepperdine University in the School of Public Policy. She teaches welfare policy and the core curriculum courses on great books and foundations of American constitutionalism, which lay a foundation for effective public policy solutions being guided by moral and ethical principles. Her research focuses on welfare policy, political behavior, and immigrant entrepreneurship, with her work appearing in Political Psychology; Politics, Groups, and Identities; Presidential Studies Quarterly; and the Journal of Military History. She annually serves on the summer faculty for the James Madison Foundation’s Summer Institute in Washington, DC.

Abigail Vegter

WILLIAM JEWEL COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Abigail Vegter is Assistant Professor of Political Science at William Jewell College. She earned her PhD in political science at the University of Kansas, concentrating in the subfields of American politics and public policy with a minor in research methodology. She maintains an active research agenda focusing on religion and politics, gun politics, public opinion, political behavior, and policy attitudes in the United States.

Adam M. Carrington

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Associate Professor of Political Science

Adam M. Carrington is Associate Professor of Political Science at Ashland University, teaching courses on U.S. political institutions and the intersection of faith and political thought. Previously, he taught in The Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship at Hillsdale College, focusing on the U.S. Constitution, Constitutional Law, The American Presidency, and Politics & Literature. He publishes primarily on matters of American political institutions, especially the judiciary.

Adam Seagrave

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
Director of Academic Affairs for Teacher Programs and Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Adam Seagrave (Ph.D., University of Notre Dame) is Associate Director and Associate Professor in the School of Civic and Economic Thought and Leadership at Arizona State University. In addition to his academic scholarship and teaching, Professor Seagrave has worked extensively with K-12 educators and has led the development of K-12 instructional materials on American history and government topics.

Andrew E. Busch

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, KNOXVILLE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Andrew E. Busch is a Professor and the Associate Director of the Institute of American Civics at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His teaching and research focuses on American political institutions, elections, and public policy. He is the author or co-author of more than three dozen scholarly chapters and articles as well as more than 20 books.

Andrew Lang

MISSISSIPPI STATE UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Andrew F. Lang specializes in the history of nineteenth-century America, using the era of the American Civil War as a lens through which to investigate the century’s dynamic setting. His most recent book, A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era (2021), is published in University of North Carolina Press’s landmark series, Littlefield History of the Civil War Era. From a field of more than 90 submissions, the book ranked as one of seven finalists for the 2022 Gilder Lehrman Lincoln Prize, which stands among the foremost awards in American historical scholarship.

Brent J. Aucoin

JUDSON COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Brent J. Aucoin is Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Professor of History at Judson College in Wake Forest, North Carolina. He is particularly interested in post-Civil War Southern history, race relations and American religious history.

Cara Rogers Stevens

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Assistant Professor of History

Cara Rogers Stevens is an Assistant Professor of History at Ashland University, where she also co-directs the Ashbrook Scholar Program. She has a master’s degree in history from the University of Texas at Dallas and a Ph.D. from Rice University. Her research has been published in several academic journals.

Charissa Threat

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Charissa Threat is an Associate Professor of History at Chapman University. She received her Ph.D. from the University of Iowa. Her research focuses on the intersections of civil-military relations, race, gender, and conflict in Twentieth-century America.

Christopher C. Burkett

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Associate Professor of Political Science

Christopher Burkett is Associate Professor of Political Science and director of the Ashbrook Scholar Program for undergraduate students at Ashland University. He teaches courses in the Master of Arts in American History and Government program on the American Founding, Western films and novels, and American Foreign Policy. He holds a Bachelor of Arts degree from Ashland University, and received his M.A. in Politics from the University of Dallas and his Ph.D. from the Institute of Philosophic Studies, also at the University of Dallas.

Dan Monroe

MILLIKIN UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Dan Monroe is Associate Professor of History at Millikin University. Monroe earned his doctorate at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He specializes in American History and has taught seminars and given scholarly talks throughout the United States.

Daniel K. Williams

TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY
Senior Fellow

Daniel K. Williams is a senior fellow at the Ashbrook Center at Ashland University. Before joining the Ashbrook Center, he was a tenured professor of history at the University of West Georgia, where he taught courses on the history of the United States, with a particular focus on American religion and politics.

David F. Krugler

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-PLATTEVILLE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

David Krugler grew up in Wauwatosa, Wisconsin. He left his home state to attend Creighton University in Omaha, Nebraska. After graduating with degrees in English and history, he earned a M.A. and Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. He moved back to Wisconsin in 1997 to teach at the University of Wisconsin—Platteville, where he’s now Professor of History.

David Foster

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Professor of Political Science

David Foster is Professor of Political Science at Ashland University. He teaches undergraduate courses in political philosophy and international relations and graduate courses on Alexis de Tocqueville, the political thought of Mark Twain and the Federalist Papers. He has published on John Locke, liberal education and Mark Twain.

David Hadley

COLLEGE OF INTERNATIONAL SECURITY AFFAIRS, NATIONAL DEFENSE UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

David Hadley is Associate Professor of Security Studies in the Joint Special Operations Master of Arts program at the College of International Security Affairs, National Defense University (JSOMA/CISA/NDU). His Field of expertise is modern U.S. history, with a specific focus on the history of U.S. diplomacy and the history of intelligence and espionage in the Cold War era.

David Tucker

TEACHING AMERICAN HISTORY
Senior Fellow

David Tucker is a Senior Fellow at the Ashbrook Center and General Editor of TAH’s Core Document volumes. He received his Ph.D. in history at the Claremont Graduate School. He has published several books, along with chapters and articles on Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Franklin.

Dennis K. Boman

AMERICAN INTERCONTINENTAL UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Dennis K. Boman is the author of Lincoln’s Resolute Unionist: Hamilton Gamble, Dred Scott Dissenter and Missouri’s Civil War Governor and Lincoln and Citizens’ Rights in Civil War Missouri: Balancing Freedom and Security, for which he received the Missouri Humanity Council’s Distinguished Literary Achievement Award.

Elizabeth Amato

GARDNER-WEBB UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Elizabeth Amato, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Political Science in the Department of Social Science at Gardner-Webb University. Her teaching responsibilities include courses such as Constitutional Law, American Political Thought, African American Political Thought, Presidency & Congress, American Political Parties, Ancient and Medieval Political Philosophy and Modern Political Philosophy. She also offers special topics courses on the pursuit of happiness, statesmanship, first ladies, women and politics and the politics of coffee and tea.

Eric C. Sands

BERRY COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Eric Sands, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Government at Berry College in Mount Berry, Georgia. He published a book that examines the public philosophy of Abraham Lincoln and how the development of Lincoln’s ideas affected the politics of Reconstruction. He also published articles in multiple political science publications. Sands has served as an Annual Fellow for the Jack Miller Center and is currently an Academic Partner for the Bill of Rights Institute. He earned his Ph.D. in Government from the University of Virginia.

Eric Pullin

CARTHAGE COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Eric Pullin is Associate Professor of History and Asian Studies at Carthage College in Kenosha, Wisconsin. He earned a B.A. in history from Rockford College, an M.A. in history from Northern Illinois University, an A.M. in Labor and Industrial Relations from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a Ph.D. in History from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Professor Pullin’s primary teaching and research interests address the international relations between India and the United States during the 20th century. He also teaches courses on the History of India, the History of the United States, Western Heritage, Global Heritage and the History of Dictionaries.

Gastón Espinosa

CLAREMONT MCKENNA COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Gastón Espinosa is the Arthur V. Stoughton Professor of Religion at Claremont McKenna College. He specializes in American Religious History, Religion and Politics, and Religion, Race & Civil Rights Movements (Black, Mexican American, Native American).

Gregory A. McBrayer

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Associate Professor of Political Science

Gregory A. McBrayer, Associate Professor of Political Science and director of the core curriculum at Ashland University. He teaches courses in political philosophy and international relations. McBrayer has published articles in several academic journals, is the co-author of Plato’s Euthydemus and the editor of Xenophon: The Shorter Writings.

Gregory L. Schneider

EMPORIA STATE UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Gregory Schneider is Professor of History at Emporia State University, where he has taught since 1998. He teaches courses in modern American history, the 1960s, diplomatic history, the history of railroads, and the history of conservatism. His research interests lie in the history of American conservatism.

J. David Alvis

WOFFORD COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

David Alvis is Associate Professor of Political Science at Wofford College. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from Fordham University in New York and his master’s in American Studies from the University of Dallas. He teaches courses on American Politics, including The American Presidency, Constitutional Law and Political Parties. His publications include articles on the Electoral College, the Presidency, Progressivism and early twentieth century politics, the Obama Presidency and the films of John Ford.

Jace Weaver

UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Jace Weaver is the Franklin Professor of Native American Studies and Religion, former Director of the Institute of Native American Studies and Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of Georgia. Dr. Weaver’s work in Native American Studies is highly interdisciplinary, though focusing primarily on three areas: religious traditions, literature, and law.

James R. Stoner

LOUISIANA STATE UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

James R. Stoner, Jr. is the Hermann Moyse, Jr. Professor and Director of the Eric Voegelin Institute in the Department of Political Science at Louisiana State University. He is the author of three books, as well as a number of articles and essays. He was a Senior Fellow of the Witherspoon Institute of Princeton, New Jersey and co-edited three books published by Witherspoon.

Jason Jividen

SAINT VINCENT COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Jason Jividen. Ph.D. is Associate Professor of Politics and Chair of the Politics Department in the McKenna School of Business, Economics and Government at Saint Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania. Hi is also the Fellow in Civic and Constitutional Affairs for the Center for Political and Economic Thought and Director of the Aurelius Scholars Program in Western Civilization. Jividen has taught courses in the history of political philosophy, American political thought and institutions and constitutional law.

Jason W. Stevens

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Jason Stevens, Assistant Professor of Political Science, joined Ashland University in 2011. He teaches political thought and history courses with fields of expertise in the American Founding, Abraham Lincoln, and political philosophy. He is also Co-Director of the Ashbrook Scholar Program.

Jay D. Green

COVENANT COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Jay D. Green is Professor of History at Covenant College in Lookout Mountain, Georgia, where he has been on the faculty since 1998. He holds a Ph.D. in history from Kent State University and a B.A. from Taylor College.

Jeffrey Sikkenga

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Professor of Political Science and Executive Director

Jeffrey Sikkenga is Executive Director of the Ashbrook Center and Professor of Political Science at Ashland University. He has been at Ashland and connected to the Ashbrook Center since 1997, serving as an adjunct fellow of the Center, a faculty member in Ashbrook’s Teaching American History program, co-director of the Ashbrook Scholar Program and Interim Executive Director.

Jennifer D. Keene

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Jennifer D. Keene is Professor of History and Chair of the History Department at Chapman University. She received her Ph.D. in History from Carnegie-Mellon University and is a specialist in American military experience during World War I. Keene has published three books on the American involvement in the First World War and is the lead author for an America history textbook. She is currently working on a book detailing the African American experience during the First World War. Keene is also on the advisory board of the International Society for First World War Studies and serves as the book review editor for the Journal of First World War Studies.

Jeremy D. Bailey

UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Jeremy D. Bailey is a professor in the Department of Classic and Letters at the University of Oklahoma, where he holds the Sanders Chair in Law and Liberty and is the Director of the Institute for the American Constitutional Heritage. His research interests include the political thought of the early republic as well as constitutional controversies concerning executive power. He has authored several books and his articles have appeared in many academic journals.

John Dinan

WAKE FOREST UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

John Dinan, Ph.D. is Professor of Politics at Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem, North Carolina. His research focuses on state constitutionalism, federalism and American political development. He is the author of several books, and he writes an annual entry on state constitutional developments for The Book of the States. He is the editor of Publius: The Journal of Federalism and is a past chair of the Federalism and Intergovernmental Relations Section of the American Political Science Association. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Virginia.

John E. Moser

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Professor of History; Chair, Master of Arts in American History and Government

John Moser is Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History and Political Science and the Master of Arts in American History and Government at Ashland University. He has an M.A. and Ph.D. in History from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Moser has published numerous works on subjects ranging from comic books to Japanese foreign policy. He has also published several role-playing games in the Reacting to the Past series.

Jonathan W. White

CHRISTOPHER NEWPORT UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Jonathan W. White is professor of American Studies at Christopher Newport University. He is the author or editor of 17 books that cover a variety of topics including civil liberties during the Civil War, the USS Monitor and the Battle of Hampton Roads, the presidential election of 1864, and what Abraham Lincoln and soldiers dreamt about.

Joseph Postell

HILLSDALE COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Joseph Postell is Associate Professor of Politics at Hillsdale College, where he teaches courses on American politics, Congress, Political Parties, and administrative law. His research focuses primarily on American political institutions and their relationship to the modern administrative state.

Joseph R. Fornieri

ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Dr. Joseph R. Fornieri is Professor of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology and the Director of the non-partisan Center for Statesmanship, Law, and Liberty. A former High School teacher, Fornieri’s mission includes outreach to secondary teachers and students throughout the country. An award-winning instructor at both the secondary and university level, Fornieri teaches classes in American political thought and leadership, rhetoric, political philosophy, and the First Amendment.

Joshua Dunn

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE, KNOXVILLE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Joshua Dunn is the Executive Director of the Institute of American Civics at the Howard H. Baker School for Public Policy and Public Affairs. His research and teaching interests are in constitutional law and history, education policy, federalism, and freedom of speech and religion, and his research and commentary have been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, and Los Angeles Times.

Kathleen Pfeiffer

OAKLAND UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Kathleen Pfeiffer is Professor of English and Creative Writing at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan. She teaches courses in American literature, African American literature, the Harlem Renaissance, biography, memoir and creative nonfiction. She received her M.A. and Ph.D. from Brandeis University, and her B.A. cum laude with Departmental Distinction from Emmanuel College.

Lauren K. Hall

ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Lauren Hall is professor and associate dean of Academic Affairs at the Rochester Institute of Technology College of Liberal Arts. She is the author of The Medicalization of Birth and Death (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2019) and Family and the Politics of Moderation (Baylor University Press, 2014) and the co-editor of a volume on the political philosophy of French political thinker Chantal Delsol. She has written extensively on the classical liberal tradition, including articles on Edmund Burke, Adam Smith, and Montesquieu. She serves on the editorial board of the interdisciplinary journal Cosmos+Taxis, which publishes on spontaneous orders in the social and political worlds. Her current research is on the moral and political implications of healthcare regulations as well as issues relating to gender and the family.

Mack Mariani

XAVIER UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Mack Mariani is Professor of Political Science and former Chair of the Department of Political Science at Xavier University. Mariani currently serves as the interim director of Xavier University’s Philosophy, Politics and the Public honors program. Professor Mariani’s teaching and research interests include campaigns and elections, congress and the legislative process, women and politics, and political internships/experiential learning.

Marc K. Landy

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Edward & Louise Peterson Professor, Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Marc Landy is the Edward and Louise Peterson Professor of American History and Government at Ashland University and Professor of Political Science at Boston College. He is the author, co-author or editor of multiple books and articles.

Matthew D. Norman

UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI BLUE ASH COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Matthew D. Norman is Associate Professor of History at University of Cincinnati Blue Ash College. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a B.A. from Knox College. His research interests include Abraham Lincoln and the United States Civil War.

Melissa M. Matthes

UNITED STATES COAST GUARD ACADEMY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Melissa M. Matthes is Professor of Humanities at the United States Coast Guard Academy in New London, Connecticut. She holds a Ph.D. in the history of consciousness from the University of California at Santa Cruz, an M.Div. in Religion and Politics from Yale Divinity School, and a B.A. from Williams College.

Natalie Fuehrer Taylor

SKIDMORE COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Natalie Taylor is Associate Professor of Government at Skidmore College. She earned her M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Theory from Fordham University. She has published The Rights of Woman as Chimera: the Political Philosophy of Mary Wollstonecraft and edited a volume titled A Political Companion to Henry Adams. At Skidmore College, Taylor teaches courses on U.S. Government Institutions, Feminist Political Thought and American Political Thought.

Peter C. Myers

UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-EAU CLAIRE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Peter C. Myers, Ph.D. is Professor of Political Science, specializing in political philosophy and U.S. constitutional law, at the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire. He earned his B.A. in Political Science from Northwestern University and his Ph.D. in Political Science from Loyola University Chicago. His Ph.D. dissertation, “John Locke on the Naturalness of Rights,” received the American Political Science Association’s Leo Strauss Award for the Best Doctoral Dissertation in the Field of Political Philosophy in 1992.

Robert M.S. McDonald

UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Robert M. S. McDonald is Professor of History at the United States Military Academy, where he has taught since 1998. He is the author, editor or co-editor of six books. He also edited Ashbrook’s Core Documents volume on the American Revolution.

Sarah M. Burns

ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Sarah Burns is a Fellow at the Quincy Institute and an Associate Professor of Political Science at Rochester Institute of Technology. In her book, The Politics of War Powers, she demonstrates how the Constitution creates an invitation to struggle between the branches. Since World War II, Congress has failed to engage in the struggle, allowing presidents to create and execute poorly developed policy in the realm of war.

Sean Sutton

ROCHESTER INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Sean Sutton is Associate Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the Rochester Institute of Technology. He received his Ph.D. in Politics from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas, where his research culminated in a dissertation critiquing rational choice theory. He is also the co-author of The Supreme Court against the Criminal Jury: Social Science and the Palladium of Liberty.

Stephen F. Knott

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Thomas & Mabel Guy Professor of American History and Government

Stephen F. Knott is the Thomas & Mabel Guy Professor of American History and Government at Ashland University and Emeritus Professor of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval War College. Prior to accepting his position at the Naval War College, Knott was Co-Chair of the Presidential Oral History Program at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He is the author of several books.

Stephen K. Tootle

COLLEGE OF THE SEQUOIAS
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Stephen Tootle is Professor of History at the College of the Sequoias in Visalia, California. He taught American Political History, American Intellectual History and U.S. foreign policy at the University of Northern Colorado and Georgia State. His reviews, articles and essays have appeared in a variety of publications. He also co-hosts a weekly podcast “The Paper Trail,” and a weekly webcast, “Tootle Talk.”

Susan Hanssen

UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Susan Hanssen is Associate Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History at the University of Dallas. She received her PhD in history from Rice University in Houston, Texas and her bachelor’s degree in history from Boston University.

Suzanne Hunter Brown

Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Suzanne Brown recently became a Resident Scholar after teaching at Dartmouth College for over thirty-five years. She is a writer of short stories as well as a literary critic; her articles have appeared in Modern Fiction Studies and other journals, while her stories have been published in Southern Review, Yale Review, Virginia Quarterly Review, Carolina Quarterly, Southwest Review, and other magazines.

Thomas Bruscino

UNITED STATES ARMY WAR COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Thomas Bruscino, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of History in the Department of Military Strategy, Planning and Operations at the United States Army War College. He holds a Ph.D. in military history from Ohio University. Bruscino has been a historian at the U.S. Army Center of Military History in Washington, D.C. and the U.S. Army Combat Studies Institute at Fort Leavenworth, and a professor at the U.S. Army School of Advanced Military Studies. He is the author of two books and numerous book chapters and his writings have also appeared in many academic publications.

Todd Estes

OAKLAND UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Todd Estes is Professor of History at Oakland University. His teaching specialty is early American history from the American Revolution through the Jacksonian era and his research concentrates on early U.S. political history and political culture. Estes is the author of the book The Jay Treaty Debate, Public Opinion, and the Evolution of Early American Political Culture, plus many articles and essays.

Vincent J. Cannato

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS-BOSTON
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Vincent J. Cannato is Associate Professor of History at the University of Massachusetts-Boston, where he teaches courses on New York City history, Boston history, immigration history and twentieth-century American history. He is the author or co-editor of three books and has written for numerous publications, including The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The Washington Post. He has also received a Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to support his research.

William Atto

UNIVERSITY OF DALLAS
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

William Atto, Ph.D. is Associate Professor of History at the University of Dallas. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. His specialties include United States history with an emphasis on nineteenth century America, as well as American political, military, and intellectual history.