EDUCATION
PhD Political Science, Boston College, 2012
B.A. Political Science, Williams College, 2006
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Associate Professor, University of Dallas, 2018–present
Visiting Fellow, University of Texas at Austin, 2024–25
Interim Associate Dean, University of Dallas, 2020–21
Senior Policy Analyst (contractor), Office for Civil Rights, U.S. Department of Health
and Human Services, 2020
Deputy Director, U.S. Congressional Joint Economic Committee, 2019
Research Associate, Catholic University of America, 2018–19
Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Texas at Austin, 2014–15
Assistant Professor, University of Dallas, 2012–18
RECENT COURSES
POL 1311 Principles of American Politics
POL 3325 American Foreign Policy
POL 3332/5304 Aristotle’s Politics
POL 3334/5306 Enlightenment and Liberal Democracy
POL 3342 Politics and the Family
POL 4353 Resistance & Revolution
POL 6377 Cicero
POL 6378 The American Founding
POL 6387 Locke
POL 6388 Rousseau
POL 7371 Xenophon
POL 7374 Plato's Laws
POL 7374 Dialogues of Plato
POL 7375 Early Modern Political Theology
IPS 8326 Augustine & Aquinas
IPS 8342 Hobbes and Rousseau
ARTICLES AND BOOK CHAPTERS
“How the Declaration Disagrees with John Locke.” In Natural Rights, the Common Good, and the American Revolution, edited by Yuval
Levin, Adam J. White, and John Yoo (Washington: AEI Press, 2025), pp. 63–92.
“Augustine on Religion and Social Hierarchies.” In Augustine and Frontiers of Pluralism, edited by Boleslaw Z. Kabala, Thomas P. Harmon, and Ashleen Menchaca-Bagnulo (New York: Routledge, 2025), pp. 39–51.
“Hobbes and God in Locke’s Law of Nature.” British Journal for the History of Philosophy 32, no. 5 (2024), pp. 999–1029.
“Philosophy and Religion in Farabi’s Interpretation of Plato’s Laws.” In Farabi and His Thoughts: Proceedings of the first world congress on Farabi and Islamic culture and civilization, edited by Reza Mahoozi (Tehran: Institute for Cultural, Social and Civilization Studies, 2024), pp. 233–52.
“A New Approach to Augustine’s Dialogues.” Review of Politics 86, no. 1 (Winter 2024), pp. 115–27.
“Wollstonecraft, Mill, and Rousseau on the Subjection of Men.” [Co-author with Kimberley J. Burns.] Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy 49, no. 2 (Winter 2023), pp. 155–76.
“Democracy in the Thought of John Locke.” In Democracy and the History of Political Thought, edited by Patrick N. Cain, Stephen Patrick Sims, and Stephen A. Block (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2021), pp. 201–217.
“The Pitfalls of Christian Political Moralism: Book 1 of Utopia and its Augustinian Source.” Moreana 57, no. 1 (2020), pp. 89–102.
“Augustine and Platonic Political Philosophy: The Contribution of Joseph Ratzinger." In Augustine’s Political Thought, edited by Richard Dougherty (Rochester, NY: University of Rochester, 2019), pp. 245–72.
“Liberal Practice v. Liberal Theory.” National Affairs 41 (Fall 2019), pp. 127–41.
“Ökumene an der Basis. Ein Blick auf die Reisen Benedikt XVI. nach Deutschland.” In Ut Unum Sint. Theologie der Ökumene bei Joseph Ratzinger / Benedikt XVI,, edited by Michaela C. Hastetter and Stefanos Athanasiou (Regensburg: Friedrich Pustet, 2018), pp. 148–64.
“Augustinians and Lockeans on Religion in American Public Life.” In Religion und Politik in der freiheitlichen Demokratie / Religion and Politics in Liberal Democracy, edited by Klaus Stüwe (Berlin: Duncker & Humblot, 2018), pp. 95–111.
“Ratzinger on the Augustinian Understanding of Religious Freedom.” Communio: International Catholic Review 44, no. 2 (2017), pp. 296–322.
“Alfarabi and the Creation of an Islamic Political Science.” Review of Politics 77, no. 3 (2016), pp. 365–89.
“The Place of the Bible in the Strauss-Kojève Debate.” In Philosophy, History, and Tyranny: Re-examining the Debate Between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève, edited by Timothy Burns and Bryan-Paul Frost (Albany: SUNY, 2016), pp. 83–117.
“Augustine on the Moral Significance of Human Law.” Revue d’études augustiniennes et patristiques 61, no. 2 (2015), pp. 273–98.