2025 Summer Fellows and Faculty Sponsors
2024 James Madison Fellows
Alec Bresler, ’24
“Freedom and Safety of the Press in Reporting on Russia and Dangerous Regimes”
Faculty Sponsor: Jessica Graybill, professor of Russian & Eurasian Studies
Jane Garrity, ’25
“Debates about Economic Policies at the American Founding and Their Relevance Today”
Faculty Sponsor: Fred Chernoff, professor of political science
Michael Jones, ’26
“Great Power Conflict Between China and the US in Africa”
Faculty Sponsor: Dominika Koter, associate professor of political science
Thomas Nemec, ’26
“The Reception of Suetonius and Roman Historians in Eighteenth Century Political Thought”
Faculty Sponsor: Daniel Tober, assistant professor of the Classics
Robert (Jerry) Pfeifer, ’25
“Free Speech and Hate Speech at the European Court of Human Rights”
Faculty Sponsor: Ed Fogarty, associate professor of political science
Ciara Sanders, ’26
“The Politics of Clean Water: Policies, Institutional Structures, and Human Rights”
Faculty Sponsor: Sam Rosenfeld, associate professor of political science
Steven Torre, ’25
“Rhetorical Strategies of US Presidents in State of the Union Addresses”
Faculty Sponsor: Alexander Karn, associate professor of history
Talia Troy, ’25
Faculty Sponsor: “Just War Theory and Practice in Eastern Orthodox Christianity”
Valerie Morkevičius, associate professor of political science
Sarah van Dyke, ’25
“Developments in US National Security Policies in the South China Sea”
Faculty Sponsor: Frances Wang, assistant professor of political science
Alexa Watson, ’26
“The Challenge of AI to the US Judiciary and Legal Profession”
Faculty Sponsor: Hibi Pendleton, senior lecturer in philosophy
George Wilson, ’25
“Secularism in the French Republic”
Faculty Sponsor: Jill Harsin, professor of history
James Madison Fellows
Jamie Anderson ’24
“Julius Caesar and the Western Military Tradition”
Faculty Sponsor: Daniel Tober, assistant professor of the Classics
Andrew Audas ’25
“Intellectual Property Rights in the Global Economy”
Faculty Sponsor: Ed Fogarty, associate professor of political science
Matt Calenzo ’24
“The Moral and Political Philosophy of Cicero”
Faculty Sponsor: Robert Kraynak, professor of political science
Michael Hanratty ’24
“The Development of the Supreme Court’s Power of Judicial Review”
Faculty Sponsor: Stanley Brubaker, professor of political science
Mostafa Mohamed ’23
“Metaphysical Realism in Medieval Philosophy: A Comparison of Western and Islamic Traditions”
Faculty Sponsor: Joseph Stenberg, assistant professor of philosophy
Fabrizio Montisci ’24
“U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Sub-Saharan Africa: The Challenge of Authoritarian Actors for Democracy”
Faculty Sponsor: Dominika Koter, associate professor of political science
Kevin Nguyen ’24
“The Ethics of Human Desire: A Study of Levinas, Gerard, and Lacan”
Faculty Sponsor: David Dudrick, George Carleton Jr. Professor of philosophy
Claire Prall-Freedman ’23
“The Spatial Imprint of Fascism in Vichy France”
Faculty Sponsor: Carolyn Guile, associate professor of art and art history
Louis Rosuck ’24
“The Life of Virtue in Maimonides and Aristotle”
Faculty Sponsor: Benjamin Stahlberg, senior lecturer in religion
Andy Weinstein ’24
“Technology and State Propaganda in Russia”
Faculty Sponsor: Masha Hedberg, assistant professor of political science
Margo Williams ’23
“Content Moderation by Big Tech: Internet Policy Formation in the United States”
Faculty Sponsor: Valerie Morkevičius, associate professor of political science
James Madison Fellows
Joel Alfaro MAT
“US Military Intervention in Latin America: A Reflection of American Ideals?”
Changwen Fang ’25
“Eros and Philosophy: A Comparison of Plato, Freud, & Marcuse”
Jordan Hurt ’24
“Analyzing Cultural Heritage Policy through the Example of Ukraine”
Eli Gould ’23
“Polarization and Democratic Consensus in America”
Dean Kardas ’24
“The Origins of Christianity: A Historiographical and Philosophical Investigation of the Resurrection Narratives of the Gospels”
Ridley Lindstrom ’24
“Democracy Building in Nigeria”
Ilyas Talwar ’24
“The Visigoths and the End of the Western Roman Empire”
Tate Wright ’23
“Ancient Roman Poetry: Bucolic Love Themes”
James Madison Fellows
Blythe Berk ’23
“The Saudi Path to Modernization”
Carson Durdel ’22
“Cicero and the Fall of the Roman Republic”
Jackson Gillum ’21
“Just War Theory and Practice”
Madeline Graham ’22
“Architectural Patronage and Civic Virtue in Renaissance Florence”
Jillian Holliday ’23
“The Transformation of Religious Freedom”
Peter LeRoux ’21
“How to Define the Presence of Absence: A Study of the Memorialization of 9/11”
Kevin Reim ’22
“Alexander Solzhenitsyn and the Gulag Experience of Good and Evil”
Fiona Saunders ’22
“Academic Freedom in the American University”
Matthew Silver ’22
“Aristotle, Nietzsche, and the Nature of Truth”
Ian Swain ’22
“Translations of Greek & Roman Poetry”
Duncan Wieland ’22
“The Critique of Identity Politics”
Jieyi (Jenny) Wu ’23
“Reception and Sources of Dante's Divine Comedy”
James Madison Fellows
Anjali Barrett ’22
“Immigration and American Citizenship - The Founders View and Beyond”
Nicholas Blake ’21
“Albert Camus' Plague and the Existential and Religious Responses to Natural Disasters and Suffering”
Michael Caron ’21
“Are There Two Edmund Burkes?’
Isabelle Dunning ’21
“Interpreting Thucydides Peloponnesian Wars: A Critical Assessment of International Relations Scholarship”
Yireh (Raina) Jung ’23
“Architecture and Culture during the Venetian Plagues of 1576 and 1630”
Will Nagle ’20
“Weber and Tocqueville on American Political Culture: The Protestant Ethic and Democratic Morality”
Connor Scannell ’21
“Democratic Development: DeTocqueville v. Acemoglu and Robinson”
Samuel Stuttard ’20
“Gothicists: Ruskin, Pugin, and Gothic Architecture in Upstate NY”
Ted Totojani ’23
“Dostoevsky as a Religious and Political Thinker”
Han (Sherlock) Shi ’21
“The Origin of Historiography: Herodotus and Sima Qian”
Ryan Zoellner ’20
“Survey of Western Christian Just War Theory Compared to Islamic Notions of JWT & Governance”
Yang Zhang ’21
“Political Systems and Pandemic Responses: A Comparative Study”