Alexander Hamilton Fellows


"Happy will it be if our choice should be directed by a judicious estimate of our true interests, unperplexed and unbiassed by considerations not connected with the public good. But this is a thing more ardently to be wished, than seriously to be expected. The plan offered to our deliberations, affects too many particular interests, innovates upon too many local institutions, not to involve in its discussion a variety of objects foreign to its merits, and of views, passions and prejudices little favourable to the discovery of truth." Alexander Hamilton, Federalist #1

 

Charter Fellows

Douglas Ambrose
Ambrose is professor of history at Hamilton College, where he has taught since 1990. He holds a Ph.D. in history from the State University of New York at Binghamton. His teaching and research interests include early America, the Old South, and American religious history. His publications include Henry Hughes and Proslavery Thought in the Old South (LSU 1996) and The Many Faces of Alexander Hamilton: The Life and Legacy of America's Most Elusive Founding Father (NYU 2006), a volume he co-edited with Hamilton colleague Robert W. T. Martin. He has also written numerous articles, book reviews and encyclopedia entries about Southern slavery and Southern intellectual life. Ambrose is a recipient of Hamilton College’s Class of 1963 Excellence in Teaching Award.

James Bradfield

Bradfield is the Elias W. Leavenworth Professor of Economics at Hamilton College. He teaches courses in microeconomics and in the theory of financial markets. With Robert Paquette, he teaches a course on the role of property, both as a concept and as an institution, in the rise of the modern state. To an important extent, the AHI is an outgrowth of that course. Professor Bradfield has written (with Jeffrey Baldani and Robert Turner) Mathematical Economics, now published in a second edition (2005) by Thomson-Southwestern Learning, and Introduction to the Economics of Financial Markets (Oxford University Press, 2007). Known for years as an excellent teacher and academic advisor, he was awarded a prize for excellence in teaching in 2006 by the Hamilton Chapter of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity. In 2007, the Student Assembly of Hamilton College awarded him the Sidney Wertimer, Jr., prize for excellence in teaching. He is now working on a book that will explain for a lay audience what academic economists have learned about how, and how well, financial markets promote mutually beneficial exchanges.

Robert L. Paquette

Paquette is Publius Virgilius Rogers Professor of American History at Hamilton College. He received his B. A. cum laude in 1973 from Bowling Green State University. He received his Ph. D. with honors in 1982 from the University of Rochester. He has published dozens of books and articles on the history of slavery. His Sugar Is Made with Blood (Wesleyan University Press, 1988) won the Elsa Goveia Prize, given every three years by the Association of Caribbean Historians for the best book in Caribbean history. More recently, his essay "Of Facts and Fables: New Light on the Denmark Vesey Affair" (co-authored with Douglas Egerton) won the Malcolm C. Clark Award, given by the South Carolina Historical Society. He has co-edited (with Stanley Engerman) The Lesser Antilles in the Age of European Expansion (University Press of Florida, 1996);  (with Louis A. Ferleger) Slavery, Secession, and Southern History (University Press of Virginia, 2000); (with Stanley Engerman and Seymour Drescher) Slavery (Oxford University Press, 2001); (with Mark M. Smith) The Oxford Handbook of Slavery in the Americas (Oxford University Press, 2010); with Rebecca J. Fox, "Unbought Grace":  An Elizabeth Fox-Genovese Reader" (University of South Carolina Press, 2011); He is currently working on A Grand Carnage (Yale University Press), a study of the largest slave insurrection in United States history and, with Douglas Egerton, Court of Death:  A Documentary History of the Denmark Vesey Affair (University Press of Florida). In 2005, the University of Rochester invited him to return to his alma mater to receive the Mary Young Award for distinguished achievement.  A recipient of grants from the American Council of Learned Societies, American Historical Association, the National Endowment of the Humanities,as well as for the AHI from VERITAS, Watson-Brown Foundation, Armstrong Foundation, Jack Miller Center, Koch Foundation and the American Council of Learned Societies, Paquette co-founded the Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization. In 2006-2008, he served on the  Scholars Council of the Jack Miller Center. In 2008 he was appointed to the advisory board of the Cobb Forum on Southern Jurisprudence and Intellectual Thought of the Watson-Brown Foundation.  That same year President George W. Bush forwarded Paquette's nomination to the Senate for a seat on the National Council of the National Endowment for the Humanities. He has taught at Hamilton College for thirty years. He lives on the edge of campus with his wife Zoya and their two children.

 

Senior Fellows

H. Lee Cheek

Cheek is Associate Vice-President of Academic Affairs at Athens State University in Athens, Alabama.  He previously served as Vice-President of College Advancement and Professor of Political Science at Brewton-Parker College in Mt. Vernon, Georgia. Dr. Cheek received his bachelor's degree from Western Carolina University,  his M.Div. from Duke University, his M.P.A. from Western Carolina University , and his Ph.D. from The Catholic University of America.  Dr. Cheek taught at Brewton-Parker College from 1997-2000, and he rejoined the Brewton-Parker faculty in 2005. In 2000, 2006, and 2007. Cheek was awarded Brewton-Parker College's "Professor of the Year Award" by the student body; and, in 2008, the Jordan Excellence in Teaching Award was bestowed upon him by the College's faculty and administration. From 2000 to 2005, Dr. Cheek served as Associate Professor of Political Science at Lee University. In May 2002, Dr. Cheek was given Lee University’s Excellence in Scholarship award ; and in May 2004, he received Lee University's Excellence in Advising award. He has also served as a congressional aide and as a political consultant. Dr. Cheek's books include Political Philosophy and Cultural Renewal ( Transaction/Rutgers, 2001, with Kathy B. Cheek); Calhoun and Popular Rule , (University of Missouri Press, 2001; paper edition, 2004 ); Calhoun: Selected Speeches and Writings (Regnery, 2003); Order and Legitimacy ( Transaction/Rutgers, 2004); an edition of Calhoun's A Disquisition on Government ( St. Augustine's, 2007); and a critical edition of W. H. Mallock's The Limits of Pure Democracy(Transaction/Rutgers, 2007 ). He has also published numerous journal articles in publications like the Journal of Politics , Methodist History, International Social Science Review, Hebraic Political Studies , and is a regular commentator on American politics. Cheek’s current research includes an intellectual biography of Francis Graham Wilson (I.S.I. Books, 2009) , a study of the American Founding, and a book on Patrick Henry's constitutionalism and political theory. Cheek is also the founder and director of the Wesley Studies Society and a United Methodist clergyman. He currently serves on the editorial board of Humanitas and The University Bookman , and has served as a Fellow of the Earhart Foundation, Wilbur Foundation, the Center for Judicial Studies, and the Center for International Media Studies. He lives in Vidalia, Georgia, with his wife, Kathy B. Cheek , a teacher of ballet and owner of the Savannah Conservatory of Dance.

Theodore J. Eismeier

Eismeier is Professor of Government at Hamilton College, where he has taught since 1978. He graduated magna cum laude from Dartmouth College and received his PhD with Distinction from Yale University. A recipient of the Class of 1962 Outstanding Teacher Award, he teaches courses in American political institutions and public policy and regularly directs the Hamilton College Semester in Washington Program. He is the editor with Douglas W. Rae of Public Policy and Public Choice (Sage, 1979). He is the author, with Philip H. Pollock, of Business, Money, and the Rise of Corporate PACs in American Politics (Quorum Books, 1988), and has published widely in professional journals on the subject of campaign finance. He is currently working on a project on the Hudson River and the Politics of Place. He resides in Clinton and Poughkeepsie with his wife Betsy

Pamela K. Jensen

     Jensen is Professor of Political Science at Kenyon College, where she has been teaching since 1979. She received her A.B. degree from Kent State University and her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago. She teaches courses in modern political philosophy, the introduction to politics, politics and literature, and African-American political thought.  Her scholarly interests include the philosophy of Montesquieu and Rousseau, Shakespeare, and the writings of African-American thinkers on liberal democracy. She has published essays in several journals and books on these subjects. She is contributing editor of Finding a New Feminism: Rethinking the Woman Question for Liberal Democracy. She was named Harry Clor Professor of Political Science for a five year term, and received the Trustees’ Senior Faculty teaching award at Kenyon in 1998 and the Senior Cup, given by Kenyon’s senior class, in 2000. She also served a two-year term on the national council of the American Political Science Association and a term as president of the Ohio Association of Scholars. She was project director for the We the People Grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, awarded to Kenyon College in 2007 to establish the Center for the Study of American Democracy. She has a daughter, Rebecca, and three grandchildren, Col, Lily, and Quinn. She lives in Mount Vernon, Ohio.

Robert P. Kraynak

Kraynak is Professor of Political Science at Colgate University, Department Chairman, and Director of The Center for Freedom and Western Civilization. He came to Colgate in 1978 from Harvard University, where he received his Ph. D. in government. He teaches courses in the fields of political philosophy and general education, including courses on American political thought. He received the Colgate Alumni Corporation's "Distinguished Teaching Award" in 2006. His published books are History and Modernity in the Thought of Thomas Hobbes (Cornell University Press, 1990), Christian Faith and Modern Democracy (Notre Dame University Press, 2001), and In Defense of Human Dignity, edited with Glenn Tinder (Notre Dame University Press, 2003). He is a contributing author to Human Dignity and Bioethics, published by the President's Council on Bioethics. Kraynak served in the U. S, Army Reserves, is the faculty advisor to the College Republicans at Colgate, and is an active member of St. Mary's Church in the village of Hamilton, N.Y., where he lives with his wife, Sandra, and their four children.

Daniel J. Mahoney

Mahoney is Chairman and Professor of Political Science at Assumption College in Worcester, Massachusetts, where he has taught since 1986. He received his PhD from Catholic University in February 1989. His areas of scholarly expertise include statesmanship, religion and politics, French politics and political philosophy, and antitotalitarian thought. His books include The Liberal Political Science of Raymond Aron (1992, 1998 for the French edition), De Gaulle: Statesmanship, Grandeur, and Modern Democracy (1996, 2000), Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn: The Ascent From Ideology (2001, 2008 for the augmented French edition) and Bertrand de Jouvenel: The Conservative Liberal and the Illusions of Modernity (2005). He has also edited or co-edited many books including, most notably, The Solzhenitsyn Reader: New and Essential Writings, 1947-2005(2006).  Mahoney’s essays, articles, and reviews have appeared in a wide range of public and scholarly journals in the United States and abroad. His writings have also appeared in French, Italian, Portuguese, Hungarian, Norwegian, Czech, and Russian translation. His latest book, The Conservative Foundations of the Liberal Order: Defending Democracy Against Its Modern Enemies and Immoderate Friends, will appear from ISI Books at the end of 2010. In 1999, he was the recipient of the Prix Raymond Aron, an award named after the distinguished French political thinker, who renewed Tocqueville’s conservative-minded liberalism and vigorously opposed totalitarianism in all its forms. Mahoney lives in Worcester, Massachusetts.

David Nichols

Nichols is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Baylor University. Before coming to Baylor, he was the Director of the Honors Program at Montclair State University, and has taught at Fordham University, Claremont McKenna College, and served as the Olin Senior Scholar at the University of Virginia. Nichols has also worked as a Program Officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities. He is the author of The Myth of the Modern Presidency (Pennsylvania State University Press, 1994) (Arabic translation published 2002) and is co-editor and co-author (with Mary Nichols) of Readings in American Government (Kendall/Hunt, 7th ed., 2004). In addition to his work on the presidency, Nichols also writes on topics in American political thought, constitutional law, political parties and politics, literature and film.  He and his wife Mary reside in Waco Texas, and have two sons, Keith and John.

Mary Nichols

Nichols is Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at Baylor University. Before coming to Baylor in 2004, she taught in the political science department at Fordham University, in the Honors program at the University of Delaware, and as Visiting Professor of Government at Harvard University. She teaches courses in the history of political philosophy, politics, and literature, and politics and film. Her books include Socrates and the Political Community: An Ancient Debate (SUNY Press, 1987), and Citizens and Statesmen: A Commentary on Aristotle's Politics (Rowman & Littlefield, 1968). Her book, Socrates on Friendship and Community:  Reflections on Plato's Symposium, Phaedrus, and Lysis will  be published in 2009 by Cambridge University Press. She and David Nichols co-edit, Readings in American Government (Kendall/Hunt, 7th ed., 2004). She serves on the editorial boards of the Review of Politics and Polity.  She is also director of the project, "Contemporary Media and the Great Books: A New Approach to the Classics," a curriculum package that studies seminal texts in Western thought in conjunction with classical and contemporary American films. She and her husband David have two sons, Keith and John.

Michael Rizzo


Rizzo is Assistant Professor of Economics at the University of Rochester.  He majored in economics at Amherst College, where he was graduated magna cum laude in 1996. After graduation he worked for several years as an investment banker at Putnam, Lovell and Thornton (PLT) in New York City. He received graduate degrees in economics at Cornell University, an M. A. in 2002 and Ph. D. in 2004. Professor Rizzo’s fields of specialization include the economics of education, labor economics, applied econometrics, and environmental economics. He also serves as a faculty research associate with the Cornell Higher Education Research Institute and as a consultant with Scannell & Kurz, Inc., an enrollment management firm based in Rochester, NY.

Professor Rizzo is working on two books:  one on economic aphorisms and another on the economic, logical, and moral inconsistencies inherent in some of our most deeply held beliefs.  His also specializes in teaching basic economics to non-academic audiences. He has published articles on economics in a wide variety of newspapers and has appeared on Fox News and many other national media outlets. Professor Rizzo maintains a blog, “The Unbroken Window,” designed as an educational resource to elevate public literacy in economics.

Professor Rizzo lives with his wife Rachel, their daughter Amelia and son Isaac, and their two Boston Terriers in Bushnell’s Basin, NY.

Fellows

Christopher Hill

Chris Hill earned his PhD from The University of Texas at Austin in 2008 and has advanced degrees in both medieval and modern European history. He has taught at the University of Texas and Hamilton College, where he received the Sidney Wertimer Award for excellence in teaching in 2010. A legal historian by training, he is particularly interested in the relationship between religion and law during the high Middle Ages and the impact that relationship had on the idea of individual liberty in the developing English common law. An ardent critic of political orthodoxy in academe, he wrote while a graduate student a novel satirizing political correctness on a fictional college campus. The book, Virtual Morality, won the Editors’ Book Award from Pushcart Press in the year 2000. His reviews have appeared in the Wall Street Journal. He is currently researching the history of the concept of liberty as a Bakwin Fellow at the AHI. He and his wife, Stephanie, live with their three children in Waterville, NY.

Sheila O'Connor-Ambrose

Sheila O’Connor-Ambrose earned a Ph.D. in women’s studies from Emory University in 2007, with the support of an H.B. Earhart Fellowship Grant (2005-06), an Andrew J. Mellon Dissertation Fellowship (1996-97), and an Emory University Dean’s Teaching Fellowship (1995-96).  She wrote her dissertation--which was directed by Elizabeth Fox-Genovese--on marriage and the quest for the dedicated life in the writings of the novelist Gail Godwin.  O’Connor-Ambrose edited and introduced Fox-Genovese’s Marriage: The Dream That Refuses to Die (published posthumously by ISI Books, 2008), and she coedited Explorations and Commitments: Religion, Faith, and Culture, Volume IV of History and Women, Culture and Faith: Selected Writings of Elizabeth Fox-Genovese (University of South Carolina Press, forthcoming).  The author of several articles, O’Connor-Ambrose is a member of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars, the World Women’s Alliance for Life and Family (Rome, Italy), and the Syracuse Diocesan Commission on the Status of Women in Society.  She and Douglas Ambrose, Professor of History at Hamilton College, co-direct the Christopher Dawson Society for the Study of Faith and Reason.  They live with their three children, Antonia, Augusta, and Dominic, in Utica, NY.