PhD in politics, University of Dallas (Institute of Philosophical Studies), 2008. Concentration on the American Founding, as well as Aristotelian rhetoric, ethics, and politics.

M.A. in politics, University of Dallas, 1999.

B.A. in speech communications with an emphasis in classical rhetoric, Black Hills State University (SD), 1994, summa cum laude.

     Dissertation Topic

Because Men are not Angels: The Understanding of Human Nature Informing the United States Constitution. The dissertation is a rhetorical analysis of the debates in the Constitutional Convention; it explores how the Framers understood the challenges posed by man’s problematic nature, and the political solutions they offered to meet those challenges.

Leo Paul S. de Alvarez, advisor
Richard Dougherty, second reader
Thomas West, third reader