Holy Cross Political Science Professors Receive Grant for Lecture Series and Enhanced Course Offerings

The Charles Carroll Program at the College of the Holy Cross has been renewed with a $100,000 grant from the Manhattan Institute’s VERITAS Fund for Higher Education at DonorsTrust and the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles and History.

In 2010, two faculty members in the political science department at the College received a $75,000 grant to start the program, named after the only Roman Catholic to sign the Declaration of Independence.  Donald Brand, professor, and Daniel Klinghard, associate professor, used the funds during the 2010-11 academic year to develop courses in political science, and to support their newly created Charles Carroll Program lecture series.

The grant renewal provides funds to continue the lecture series—which brings highly regarded speakers to campus to lecture on topics ranging from historical political figures to market economics—and provides new funding for the establishment of a postdoctoral fellowship, as well as day-long seminars for local high school students.

“The response was overwhelming last year,” explains Klinghard. “Students routinely packed the College’s premier lecture space to hear renowned speakers.”    Past speakers include Gary Jacobsohn, professor of government at the University of Texas at Austin; Robert E. Wright, Nef Family Chair of Political Economy at Augustana College; Aristide Tessatore, professor of political science at Furman University; and Paul Stern, professor of political science and philosophy at Ursinus College. A daylong conference  in December featured Jonathan Israel, professor of modern European history at the Institute for Advanced Studies; Carla Mulford, professor of English at the University of Pennsylvania; and Vincent Phillip Munoz, Tocqueville Associate Professor of Religion & Public Life at Notre Dame.

The program’s first event of the 2011-12 academic year and the College’s official Constitution Day speaker is Jeremy Bailey, assistant professor of political science at the University of Houston and author of Thomas Jefferson and Executive Power (Cambridge University Press 2007). He will speak about Jefferson’s Constitution and Madison’s Bill of Rights on September 8 at 4 p.m. Other events will be announced throughout the year.

The postdoctoral fellow will teach for one year in the political science department and one year in Montserrat, the College’s program for first-year students designed to integrate more effectively academic, co-curricular and residential experiences. The fellow is also responsible for helping to organize speakers. 

This year’s grant also includes funds to run a series of day-long seminars for local high school students on issues related to the U.S. Constitution. Building on a pilot program operated last year by B. Jeffrey Reno, associate professor of political science at the College, the seminars provide students with an opportunity to study primary documents relating to the Constitution and to examine the political ramifications of constitutional conflict throughout American history. “This is great model for engaging students,” says Klinghard. “They get a chance to spend the day on a college campus, experience college-level work, and see, first-hand, how invigorating this subject can be.”

Reno will run the seminars.