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Faculty & Staff

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 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 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.

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.

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.

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 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 several 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.

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.

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.

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, 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.

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 several 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 primarily on American political institutions and their relationship to the modern administrative state.

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

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.

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.