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Faculty & Staff

Abigail Vegter

BERRY COLLEGE
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Abigail Vegter is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Berry College. She earned her Ph.D. 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 Seagrave

ARIZONA STATE UNIVERSITY
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. His research focuses on the central ideas of the American political tradition, both in the American context itself as well as its antecedents in the history of political thought. In addition to his teaching and research, Seagrave serves as managing editor of the journal American Political Thought, as well as founder and co-editor of the journal Starting Points, and associate editor of the journal Compass.

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 is A Contest of Civilizations: Exposing the Crisis of American Exceptionalism in the Civil War Era.

Charissa Threat

CHAPMAN UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Charissa Threat is Associate Professor of History at Chapman University. She received her Ph.D. from University of Iowa and taught most recently at Spelman College.  Her research focuses on the intersections of civil-military relations and race, gender and conflict.

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, received his M.A. in Politics from the University of Dallas and his Ph.D. from the Institute of Philosophic Studies at the University of Dallas.

Dan Monroe

MILLIKIN UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Dan Monroe is Associate Professor of History and Chair of the Department of History and Political Science 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.  He is also the author of three books. He was a fellow at the Virginia Historical Society and Lincoln Legal Papers. Monroe is currently president of the Illinois State Historical Society and is a member of the board of the Abraham Lincoln Association. Monroe also serves as the Illinois Historian on the Board of Trustees of the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library and Museum.

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 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 five books, along with chapters and articles on Thomas Jefferson, John Quincy Adams and Benjamin Franklin.

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 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.

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. Alvis also co-authored the book The Contested Removal Power, 1789-2010 and Statesmanship and Progressive Reform.

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 W. Stevens

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Jason Stevens, is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Ashland University. He teaches political thought and history courses with fields of expertise in the American Founding, Abraham Lincoln and political philosophy. He received his B.A. from Ashland University, where he was an Ashbrook Scholar, and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Politics from the University of Dallas Institute of Philosophic Studies.

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.

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 four books and his articles have appeared in many academic journals.

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.

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 on American political institutions and their relationship to the modern administrative state.  He is the author or editor of four books and his articles have appeared in a variety of journals and law reviews. He is also a frequent contributor to the Liberty Fund’s Law and Liberty website.

Joshua Dunn

UNIVERSITY OF TENNESSEE
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.  

Previously he was the executive director of the Center for the Study of Government and the Individual at the University of Colorado Colorado Springs. Dunn was also a professor and chair of their department of political science. He was also a fellow in contemporary history, public policy, and American politics at the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia and a visiting professor in the Department of Government at the College of William & Mary where he began his teaching career. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Virginia.

Ken Masugi

JOHN HOPKINS UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Ken Masugi is a Lecturer of Political Science for the Advanced Academic Programs Department at the Johns Hopkins University Washington Center for Advanced Governmental Studies. Masugi wrote speeches for two Cabinet members and for Justice Clarence Thomas when he was Chairman of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. He is co-author, editor or co-editor of eight books on American politics. While directing programs at the Claremont Institute, he also served as editor of its quarterly Claremont Review of Books. He is on the editorial board of two political science journals. He is currently writing a book on the Declaration of Independence and multiculturalism.

Lucas E. Morel

WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY
Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Lucas Morel, Ph.D. is the John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics and Head of the Politics Department at Washington and Lee University. He also teaches in the Master’s Program in American History and Government at Ashland University. He holds a Ph.D. in Political Science from Claremont Graduate University. He is the author, editor or co-editor of five books. Morel is a former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute; a founding member of the Academic Freedom Alliance; a consultant on the Library of Congress exhibits on Lincoln and the Civil War; a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society; and currently serves on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which will plan activities to commemorate the founding of the United States of America.

Marc K. Landy

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Edward & Louise Peterson Professor of American History & Government 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 six books and five articles.

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. 

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.

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.

Stephen F. Knott

ASHLAND UNIVERSITY
Thomas & Mabel Guy Professor of American History and Government Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Stephen F. Knott is the Thomas & Mabel Guy Professor of American History and Government at Ashland University and Professor of National Security Affairs at the United States Naval War College. Previously, 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 seven books.

Suzanne Hunter Brown

Honored Visiting Graduate Faculty

Suzanne Brown is a Resident Scholar after teaching at Dartmouth College for more than 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 and Southwest Review.

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. Currently, he is working on a book about the debate over ratification of the U.S. Constitution in 1787-1788. Estes has won several teaching prizes and was named a Distinguished Lecturer by the Organization of American Historians.

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.