Research and Professional Activities

I have been at Juniata since 1991. Before that I was on the staff of the Bicentennial Commission for the U.S. Constitution, in Washington, D.C. My undergraduate degree is from Carleton College (1976), and my M.A. and Ph.D. are from Claremont Graduate School.  Click here for my vita.

I will be on sabbatical leave during the 2007-08 academic year, and I will be working on editing a volume of selected writings by Gouverneur Morris.  Morris (1752-1816) was the delegate who put the U.S. Constitution in its present form, and wrote the preamble; but he was also a leading member of the Continental Congress, was U.S. Minister to France during the French Revolution, and was a leading proponent of the Erie Canal. 

Since I was on the Bicentennial Commission staff I have been involved in various programs with the Center for Civic Education, headquartered in California.  I am currently (summer and fall 2004) working on revisions to their textbook, We, the People:  The Citizen and the Constitution.  In 1996 and 2001, I took part in Center programs to train teachers in Bosnia to teach about democracy. The Center's website tells you more about its programs and has links to civic education groups worldwide. 

I have a continuing interest in the writings of the Roman statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero, and I have written a number of papers on his political thought.  The most recent was on his understanding of property rights. 

I am also interested in the way that film and literature reflect, and reflect upon, politics.  I am currently working on an essay on "The Wizard of Oz" for a conference in May 2007.