The Alexander Hamilton Institute for the Study of Western Civilization (AHI) is pleased to announce the addition of Dr. Timothy W. Burns to the ranks of its senior fellows. Dr. Burns is Professor of Political Science and Graduate Program Director at Baylor University, where he teaches courses in ancient and modern political philosophy, Shakespeare’s politics, politics and literature, and the American Founding.
“Over the years,” said AHI President Robert Paquette, “I have had a chance to observe and converse with Dr. Burns. He is learned, principled, and a ferocious champion of liberal arts education, traditionally understood. In this regard, he stands in sharp contrast to those college presidents, bemoaning the demise of their own institutions, while proving utterly flaccid in marshalling the intellectual wherewithal with which to defend them. AHI intends to work closely with him on any number of initiatives, including the continued growth and development of the annual “great books” summer conference with Baylor’s Department of Political Science, begun in partnership with Tim’s outstanding colleagues, Mary and David Nichols.”
Dr. Burns received his BA (Phi Beta Kappa) from Boston College, and his MA and PhD from the University of Toronto, where he studied with Thomas L. Pangle and Clifford Orwin. He has taught at Hiram College, Texas State, Boston College, and Skidmore College, and directed the Skidmore in Paris program and the Baylor in St. Andrews program (Scotland). He is editor in chief of Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, series co-editor (with Thomas L. Pangle) of Palgrave MacMillan’s Recovering Political Philosophy, an advisory board member of Lexington Books’ Politics, Literature, and Film series, and the Northeast Chair of the Society for Greek Political Thought.
He is author of Shakespeare’s Political Wisdom (Palgrave MacMillan, 2013), co-author (with Thomas L. Pangle) of Key Texts of Political Philosophy: An Introduction (Cambridge, 2014), editor of After History? Francis Fukuyama and his Critics (Rowman and Littlefield, 1994), editor of Recovering Reason: Essays in Honor of Thomas L. Pangle (Lexington, 2010), editor of Brill’s Companion to Leo Strauss’ Writings on Classical Political Thought (Brill, 2015), co-editor (with Peter Lawler) of The Future of Liberal Education (Routledge, 2014), and co-editor (with Bryan-Paul Frost) of Philosophy, History, and Tyranny: Re-examining the Debate Between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève (SUNY Press, 2016). He is translator of Marcellinus’ “Life of Thucydides,” author of essays on Homer, Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Aristophanes, Augustine, Shakespeare, Bacon, Hobbes, Turgot and the Federalists, Nietzsche, John Courtney Murray, Chesterton, Leo Strauss, Martin Luther King, Jr., Francis Fukuyama, Robert Putnam, modern republicanism, liberal education, and the world state, and the author of numerous book reviews. He is currently working on a book on Xenophon’s Cyropaedia.
Dr. Burns has been a John M. Olin postdoctoral fellow, a postdoctoral fellow in the Center for Constitutional Government at Harvard University, a Salvatori Institute Fellow, and an ISI Richard M. Weaver Fellow. He is the recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Bradley Foundation, the Earhart Foundation, the Jack Miller Center, the Foundation for Defense of Democracy, the Morton Seminar Foundation, and the Charles Koch Foundation. He has given invited lectures at Thomas More College, Washington and Lee University, Augusta State University, University of Texas at Austin, Union College, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, University of Dallas, Hiram College, Michigan State University, St. Mary’s College of St. Andrews University (Scotland), Queens College (NY), Christopher Newport University, Morehead State University, Boston College, Lee University, Renmin University (Beijing, China), Zhejiang University (Hangzhaou, China), East China Normal University (Shanghai, China), and Ashland University. He is a faculty member of the Hudson Political Studies Summer Institute (Washington, DC).
Tim and his wife Ilsa are the parents of Daniel and David Burns. They live in Waco, Texas.
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