Contact Information & Background:

Professor of Government
Ladd 316, Phone: 580-5247
E-Mail: tburns@skidmore.edu

Ph.D & M.A. received from University of Toronto
B.A. received from Boston College

AWARDS AND HONORS

• Nominee, 2013 Edwin M. Moseley Faculty Research Lecture
  
• Nominee, Best Political Theory Paper Award, Midwest PSA, 2011
  
• Nominee, Best Paper Award, Midwest PSA, April 2010
• Jon Ramsey Honors Forum Lecture, February 2007
• Who's Who Among America's Teachers, 1998, 2007
• “Teachers Who Make A Difference,” 2004
• Nominee, Skidmore President’s Award, 2003, 2006
• Nominee, Skidmore Commencement Speaker, 2002, 2006
• Bradley Postdoctoral Fellowship, Boston College, 1997-98
• Postdoctoral Fellowship, Program on Constitutional Gov’t Department of Government, Harvard University, 1996-97
• Henry Salvatori Fellowship for Academic Leadership, 1995
• Nominee, Presidential Award for Excellence In Teaching, Southwest Texas State University, 1994, 1995
  

PUBLICATIONS

Books

• Shakespeare's Political Wisdom.  Palgrave Macmillan, April 2013.
• Political Philosophy: An Introduction (with Thomas L. Pangle).  Cambridge University Press.  2013.
• Recovering Reason: Essays in Honor of Thomas L. Pangle. (Editor) Lexington Books Hardcover and Paperback editions, August, 2010. (Reviewed: http://tinyurl.com/4ewbqxp)
• After History? Francis Fukuyama And His Critics. (Editor) Rowman & Littlefield, 1994.

Books in Progress

• Companion to Leo Strauss’ Writings on Classical Political Thought (Editor) Under contract, Brill Academic Publishing. Forthcoming 2015.
• Philosophy, History, and Tyranny: Re-examining the Debate Between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève. (Co-editor with Bryan-Paul Frost).  Under contract, SUNY Press. 2014.
  

Series Co-Editor

• Palgrave-MacMillan's Recovering Political Philosophy series (with Thomas L. Pangle).
  

Edited Edition of Journal

• Klesis: Revue Philosophique. 2011: 19 Autour de Leo Strauss. (June, 2011) Co-Editor (with Lucien Ouhlabib).
  

Articles and Book Chapters

• "John Courtney Murray, Religious Liberty, and Modernity." Logos, January 2014.
  
• “Martin Luther King, Augustine, and Civil Disobedience,” in From Compassion to Humanity: Essays in Honor of Clifford Orwin, Andrea Radasanu, editor (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2014).
• Editor, special issue of Perspectives On Political Science, on Liberal Education. September 2013.
• “Why Do We Wear These Robes and These Hoods?” Perspectives On Political Science, September 2013.
  
• “Hobbes and Dionysius of Halicarnassus on Thucydides, Rhetoric and Political Life.” Polis, Vol. 30, no. 2 (Fall 2013).
• “A New Perspective on Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil.” Interpretation, A Journal of Political Philosophy Vol. 39.3 (Fall 2012), 283-87.
• “Leo Strauss’s ‘The Intellectual Situation of the Present,’” in Leo Strauss’s Political-Philosophic  Discoveries in the 1930s, M. Yaffe and R. Ruderman, editors (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013).
• "Leo Strauss on the Origins of Hobbe's Natural Science," in Leo Strauss' Political-Philosophic Discoveries in the 1930s, M. Yaffe and R. Ruderman, editors (New York: Palgrave MacMillan, 2013). (Reprinted from The Review of Metaphysics, Volume 64 Number 4, 823-855.)
  
• “Bacon’s New Atlantis and the Goals of Modernity,” in Socrates and Dionysus: Philosophy and Art in Dialogue, Ann Ward, editor (Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2013).
• "On One Hand and On The Other." The Vocabula Review, Volume 15, Number 4 (April 2013).
  
• “Nicias in Thucydides and Aristophanes, Part II: Nicias and Divine Justice in Aristophanes.”  Polis, Vol. 30, no. 1 (Spring 2013).
• "Roman Virtues in a Christian Commercial Republic: Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice." Perspectives In Political Science, Fall 2013.
  
• “Nicias in Thucydides and Aristophanes' Part I: Nicias and Divine Justice in Thucydides.  Polis, Vol. 29, no. 2 (Fall 2012)
• “Cleon in Thucydides and Aristophanes,” in The Political Theory of Aristophanes: Rethinking the Quarrel Between Poetry and Philosophy.  Bryan-Paul Frost and Jeremy J. Mhire, editors  (SUNY Press, 2013).
  
• "Shakespeare's Julius Caesar and the Problem of Classical Republicanism."  Shakespeare and the Body Politic, Bernard J. Dobski and Dustin A. Gish, editors.  (Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2013).
  
• Hobbes et Denys d'Halicarnasse: la politique et la rhétorique chez Thucydides. La Rhétorique Démocratique En Temps De Crise: Discours, Déliberation, Légitimation. Crystal Cordell,ed. France: (Presses Universitaires de Rennes, collection "Res Publica," 2013).  (French translation, by Marc-André Wiesmann, of "Hobbes and Dionysius of Halicarnassus on Thucydides, Rhetoric and Political Life," Polis 30.2).
  
• The Problematic Character of Pericles' Civic Republicanism.” Civic Republicanism, Enlightenment and Modernity: Ancient Lessons for Global Politics, edited by Geoffrey Kellow and Neven Brady Leddy.University of Toronto Press. 2013.
• "Leo Strauss.”  Congressional Quarterly’s Encyclopedia of Modern Political Thought. 2013.
• “Leo Strauss on the Origins of Hobbes's Natural Science."  Klesis: Revue Philosophique. July 2011.  (Reprinted from The Review of Metaphysics, Volume 64 Number 4, 823-855.)
  
• “Leo Strauss: His Life and Work.” Klesis: Revue Philosophique 2011: 19 (June, 2011).  (Reprinted from CQ Encyclopedia entry.)
• “The Virtue of Thucydides’ Brasidas.” The Journal of Politics, Volume 73, issue 02.
• “Leo Strauss on the Origins of Hobbes's Natural Science.” The Review of Metaphysics, Volume 64 Number 4  (June 2011), 823-855.
• “Fall of Communism, End of History.” Encyclopedia of Political Thought. 2013.
• "Marcellinus' Life of Thucydides, translated into English from the Greek, with an introductory essay."  Interpretation, A Journal of Political Philosophy. Volume 38, issue 1 (December, 2010), 3-25.
• “What War Discloses.” Recovering Reason, ch. 3, 31–52. August 2010.
• "The Rationalism of Father Brown," Perspectives on Political Science, Vol. 34, No. 1 (Winter 2005), 37-45.
• “Ancient and Modern Political Rationalism in the Thought of Leo Strauss,” in Gladly To Learn and Gladly To Teach, Douglas Kries and Michael Foley, editors. Lexington Books, 2002, 145-162.
• “The Liberal Uses of Religion.” Review essay of What’s God Got To Do With The American Experiment? E.J. Dionne Jr. and John J. Diiulio Jr., eds. (Brookings Institution Press, 2000). First Things, May 2001.
• “Bowling With Strangers.” Review Essay of Robert Putnam’s Bowling Alone, Philanthropy, August 2000.
• “Virtuous Liberalism.” The Political Science Reviewer, March 1999, 272-314.
• “Friendship and Divine Justice in Homer’s Iliad.”  Poets, Princes, and Private Citizens: Literary Alternatives to Postmodern Politics. J.Knippenberg & P. Lawler, eds. Roman and Littlefield, 1996.
• “Modernity’s Irrationalism.” After History? ch. 9, 177-234.
  

Works in Progress

• The Future of Liberal Education (Co-editor, with Peter Lawler).  To be submitted to Routledge, 2013.
  
• Thucydides and the Grounding of the Rational Life.  To be completed August 2013.
  
• “On ‘The Liberalism of Classical Political Philosophy,” in Companion To Leo Strauss’ Writings on Classical Political Thought” (Brill, 2015).
• “Leo Strauss’ Rediscovery of Classical Political Philosophy,” in Companion To Leo Strauss’ Writings on Classical Political Thought (Brill, 2015).
  
• “The Place of the Strauss-Kojève Debate in the Corpus of Strauss’ Writings,” in Philosophy, History, and Tyranny: Re-examining the Debate Between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojève.
  

Book Review

• Review of Republican Theory in Political Thought: Virtuous or Virtual? by Bill Brugger (New York: St. Martin’s press, 2000), The American Political Science Review, December 2000.

SELECT PROFESSIONAL PRESENTATIONS

• Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 11-14, 2013. "The Merchant of Venice: Roman Virtue in a Christian Commercial Republic." Discussant on panel, "Ancient Poetry and Philosophy." Chair of panel, "Machiavelli on Imitation and the Common Good."
  
• "The Merchant of Venice: Roman Virtue in a Christian Commercial Republic."  Invited talk, Union College, April 8, 2013.
  
• “Bacon’s New Atlantis and the Goals of Modernity.”  Invited lecture, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, November 16, 2012.
• Northeast Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Boston, MA, November 15-17, 2012.  "The Conclusion of Cyrus' Education."
• American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, August 30-September 2, 2012.  Discussant on panel, "Religion, Politics, and Leo Strauss."
• International Society for the Study of European Ideas, Cyprus.  July 2-4, 2012.  "Bacon's New Atlantis and the Goals of Modernity."
  
• Northeastern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, November 18, 2011.  Remarks on Joshua Parens’s “Strauss on Philosophic Exile.”
• American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, September 3, 2011.  “Remarks on “Socrates on Justice, Eros, and the Gods.”
  
• Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 2, 2011 “Hobbes, Thucydides, and the Collapse of Political Rhetoric.”
• Colloque International, Democratic Rhetoric in Times of Crisis: Discourse, Deliberation, Legitimation. Nice, France, 20-21 Jan.“Thucydides, Teacher of Rhetoric? From the Roman Rhetorical Schools to Hobbes.”
  
• Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 24, 2010.  “Leo Strauss on the Origin and Intention of Hobbes’ Natural Science”
• American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, 4 September, 2009. Remarks on Robert Goldberg’s “Tyrannical Hopes in Plato’s  Charmides” and David Leibowitz’s “Thrasymachus’ Blush”
• Michigan State U. Symposium on Science, Reason, and Modern Democracy Conference on “Religion in Modernity,” April 16-18, 2009.  Discussant, “Philosophical Foundations of the Modern Project of Secularization.”
• Augusta State College, Augusts, Georgia, March 10, 2008. Invited Lecture, “The Melian Dialogue”
• Skidmore College, Department of Theater, August 29, 2008.  “Christianity or Political Life: Shakespeare’s Richard II”
• Northeastern PSA Annual Meeting, November 14-16, 2008, Boston, MA.  Chair, “Xenophon and Plato on Leadership and Virtue”  Discussant, “Piety in the Leadership of Xenophon,” Eric Buzzetti, Concordia University
• Southern PSA Annual Meeting, January 4 2007. Discussant, “The Passion for Honor and Justice: Aristotle’s Account of Political Ambition,” by Susan Hamilton, Harvard U.
• N.E. PSA Annual Meeting, April 23, 2007 “Thomas Pangle’s Leo Strauss: An Introduction To His Thoughtand Intellectual Legacy”
• Skidmore College Annual Jon Ramsey Honors Forum Lecture, Feb. 16, 2007,  “Honor, Cynicism, and Liberal Education”
• American PSA Annual Meeting, Chicago, IL, August 30, 2007, “What War Discloses”
• The University of Texas at Austin, October 19, 2007,  Invited Lecture, “Brasidas and the Limits of Politics”
• Southern PSA Annual Meeting, Atlanta, GA,  January 2006.  Chair and discussant, “Classical liberalism and the theory of the American Constitution.” Papers delivered by Steven Kautz and Thomas Powers. Chair, “The Revival of the Theologico-Political Question in Weimar.”
• Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, New Orleans, LA., January 2005.  “A New Perspective on Nietzsche’s Beyond Good and Evil”.  Remarks on papers on panel, “The Political Thought of Leo Strauss,” Papers delivered by Werner Dannhauser, Angel Jaramillo, and Rafael Major.
  

PANEL/GUEST LECTURE PARTICIPANT AT SKIDMORE

• “Why Do We Wear These Gowns And These Hoods?” Annual Phi  Beta Kappa Induction Speech, Forthcoming, May 2011.
  
• “Richard II,” Lary Opitz’s Production Seminar, Sep. 22, 2008
  
• “Plato’s Crito,” Nov. 4, 2008. Roy Rotheim’s “Human Dilemmas” Scribner Seminar
  
•  “The Melian Dialogue: Power, Justice, and Enduring Problems in International Politics.” Jan. 27, 2006 Jim Kennelly’s IA class
  
• “Academic Integrity,” Talk given to Dean of Students’ Staff, March 9, 2005
• “Liberal Education and Honor,” Talk given at First-Year Orientation, September 6, 2004
• “Misology and Liberal Education,” Pi Sigma Alpha induction ceremony remarks, April 2004
• Faculty Who Have Made A Difference: Periclean Honor Society Annual Wine and Cheese Reception, April 3, 2003
• “Handling Academic Integrity Board Violations,” David Karp’s IB Training Session (with T. Levith and G. Burton), November 1, 2002
• “Student Bill of Rights Forum,” November 11, 2002
• “Shades of Gray,” December 5, 2002
• “An Evening With Christopher Hitchens,” (organized by Bob Boyers) November 29, 2001
• “Plato’s Crito,” Liberal Studies 1, November 28 and 29, 2000
• “The Melian Dialogue,” Classics 200:The Classical World (Dan Curley’s class), February 14, 2000
• “Why IR Realists Are Wrong about Thucydides’ Melian Dialogue,” International Affairs 101 (Marc Wisemann’s class), March 28, 2000
  

GRANTS AWARDED

• Laboratoire ERMES, Nice, France. Grant to attend colloque international, “Democratic Rhetoric in Times of Crisis: Discourse, Deliberation, Legitimation,” held at the University of Nice on January 20-21, 2011. (http://tinyurl.com/2d6vpuk)
• Skidmore College Faculty Development Grant to attend the ERMES Nice Conference.
• Earhart Foundation Grant, summer funding to begin work on Introduction to Political Philosophy.
• Skidmore College Faculty Development Grant to attend seminar on Nietzsche in January 2010.
• Jack Miller Center grant to bring Steven Kautz to campus for talk on Lincoln and dinner with students. SGA Speakers’ Bureau grant for the Steven Kautz lecture.
• Grant to Attend Seminar on the thought of Leo Strauss, Carl Friedrich von Siemens Stiftung (Siemens Foundation, Munich), 2002
• Grant to fund Student Leadership Conference, Pi Sigma Alpha National Office (with Matthew Slater), 1999-2000
• Aristophanes and Political Philosophy, Seminar Grant from The Morton Seminar Foundation, 1999
• Civic Responsibility and Higher Education: A Symposium. Texas Committee for the Humanities. Humanities Advisor, 1995
• The Civitas Project: Educating For Citizenship, Part I Texas Committee for the Humanities. Project Director, 1995
• The Civitas Project: Educating For Citizenship, Part II: National Conference of Public Engagement Project Directors. NEH. Project Director, 1995

PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATION AND SERVICE

Current membership

• American Political Science Association
• Political Theory Section of American Political Science Association
• Politics and Literature Section of American Political Science Association
• Midwest Political Science Association
• Society for Greek Political Thought
  

Service to the Government Department  

• Advisor to Government majors and minors
• Advisor to Philosophy/Government majors
• Erwin Levine Political Theory Prize Committee
• Department Searches (1999-2000, 2001-2002, 2009, 2010, 2012)
• Assessment Committee Member
• Kuroda Seminar Selection Committee, 2011–
• Organizer of Pi Sigma Alpha guest lectures, 1998-2003
• Faculty Advisor, Pi Sigma Alpha 1998-2003 (Skidmore College chapter)
  

Service to the College

• Committee on Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure, substitute member, Fall 2012 and Spring 2013
• Committee on Appointments, Promotion, and Tenure, Fall 2011
• Phi Beta Kappa, chapter president, 2010-11.
• Faculty Director, Skidmore Fall Semester in Paris Program
• Phi Beta Kappa, chapter vice-president, 2009-10.
• Prospective Student Outreach for Minority Students, 2009
• Summer Advising of Admitted Students, 2008, 2009
• Integrity Board, 2005-2008; IB Review Team, 2007-08
• Integrity Board Respondent Support, 2008-09
• Faculty Executive Committee, 2004-2007, chair 2005-06; author, new Operating Code, 2006
• Honors Council, 2004-2007
• Assessment of Classics, Philosophy, and Government courses on “The Big Questions,” March-July 2006; author of final report, 2006
• Task Force on Integrity Board, Summer 2006
• Assessment of College-wide and Senior Writing, June 2005
• Phi Beta Kappa, members in course committee 2002-2005, 2007
• Committee on Faculty Governance, 2003-2004, 2004-2005
• Committee on Admissions and Student Aid, 2003-04
• Advisor of First Year Students, 2001, 2003, 2004, 2005-06, 2008-09
• All College Council, 2000-2002
• Chair, Student Bill of Rights Subcommittee, 2002-2003
• Palamountain Prose Award Committee, 2002, 2003
• Honor Code Discussion Group 1999-2000
  

Service to Students 

• Director, Political Theory Reading Group, 2002-2004
• Campus Representative (with Andrea Wise) of CICU National Campus Voter Registration, 2000.
  

Service to the Political Science Profession

• Society for Greek Political Thought, Northeast Chair, 2012-
• Reviewer, Focus Press, Philosophy and Public Policy Series
  
• Reviewer, Rowman and Littlefield
  
• Reviewer, The American Political Science Review
  
• Reviewer, The Journal of Politics
  
• Reviewer, American Political Thought
  
• Reviewer, Polis
  
• Reviewer, Political Research Quarterly
  
• Reviewer, The Review of Politics
  
• Reviewer, Social Philosophy Today
  
• Reviewer, Perspectives on Political Science
• Outside Examiner, Senior Thesis, Kenyon College Dep’t of Pol Sci, 2004
  
• Best undergraduate Paper Committee, SW Social Science Association, Spring 2003.