Conservative Thought and Policy Program

Visiting Scholars in Conservative Thought and Policy (VSCTP) come from academic, military, media or policy communities. They teach a load commensurate with their field and offer public lectures, public seminars and informal discussions with students and the public. While on campus, the visiting scholar brings in prominent members of the conservative intellectual community from around the country for a day at CU Boulder.

Each year, the Benson Center launches a national search for a Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy. The application for 2024-25 is now open.

The Center seeks highly visible individuals who are deeply engaged in either the analytical scholarship or practice of conservative thought and policymaking, or both. Thus, applications will be welcome from the academic, policy, military, and media communities, among others. The term of the appointment is variable, with a minimum of two to a maximum of four semesters. The position begins in August of the academic year. Visiting Scholars continue a tradition of fostering intellectual diversity on the Boulder campus through the Benson Center. Interested applicants should apply through the CU Boulder job portal. Applications received by October 2 will be given full consideration and will close on December 2, 2023. Questions should be directed to bensoncenter@colorado.edu.

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Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy

Headshot of Todd J. Zywicki

Todd J. Zywicki

Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
TODD J. ZYWICKI is George Mason University Foundation Professor of Law at Antonin Scalia Law School at George Mason University and Research Fellow of the George Mason Law and Economics Center. During the Fall 2023 semester he served as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the Bruce Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization at the University of Colorado-Boulder. From 2020-2021 he was Chair of the...
todd.zywicki@colorado.edu

Former Visiting Scholars in Conservative Thought and Policy

William B. Allen Headshot

William B. Allen

2018-19 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought & Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
William B. Allen was the 2018-19 CWCTP Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy and was a Senior Scholar in Residence for 2019-20. Allen is the emeritus dean, James Madison College and emeritus professor of political philosophy at Michigan State University. In fall 2019, Allen taught CWCV-4000-001 Foundations of Western Civ and PSCI-4024-002 Senior Seminar: Political Theory
Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy Francis Beckwith

Francis Beckwith

2016-17 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought & Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Francis Beckwith served as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the 2016-17 academic year. He is the fourth person to hold the position. Beckwith earned a PhD in philosophy from Fordham University and a master of juridical studies from the Washington University School of Law in St. Louis. Beckwith, professor of philosophy and church-state studies at Baylor University in Texas, will succeed Brian Domitrovic, whose appointment ends...
francis.beckwith@colorado.edu
Bradley J. Birzer Headshot

Bradley J. Birzer

2014-15 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Bradley J. Birzer was the Visiting Conservative Scholar for the 2014-15 academic year. He is the co-founder of The Imaginative Conservative and Russell Amos Kirk Chair in History at Hillsdale College . Dr. Birzer is author of American Cicero: The Life of Charles Carroll , Sanctifying the World: the Augustinian Life and Mind of Christopher Dawson , J.R.R. Tolkien’s Sanctifying Myth: Understanding Middle-earth , co-editor of The American Democrat and...
Brian Domitrovic Headshot

Brian Domitrovic

2015-16 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
The University of Colorado Boulder appointed Brian Domitrovic as the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the 2015-16 academic year. He is the third person to be appointed to the position. Domitrovic holds a Ph.D. in history from Harvard University, where he also did graduate work in the department of economics. He earned his bachelor’s degree at Columbia University, studying history and mathematics. Steven R. Leigh, dean of...
Benson Center Lock up

John Eastman

2020-21 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
John Eastman was the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the 2020-21 academic year.
Headshot of Steven Hayward

Steven Hayward

2013-14 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought & Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Steven Hayward was the First Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy. He was appointed for the 2013-2014 academic year. Steven Hayward holds a Ph.D. in American Studies from Claremont Graduate School. He has been the F.K. Weyerhaeuser Fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, where he was principal author and project director of the AEI’s “Energy and Environment Outlook.” Hayward has been a visiting lecturer in the Government Department of...
Alan Kahan

Alan S. Kahan

2021-23 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Alan S. Kahan was the visiting scholar in conservative thought and policy for the 2021-22 academic year and is returning for the 2022-23 fall term . Kahan, a historian, political theorist and author, is professor of British Civilization at the Université de Paris-Saclay. Kahan is the author of Aristocratic Liberalism: The Social and Political Thought of Jacob Burckhardt, John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville (Oxford, 1992); Liberalism in Nineteenth-Century...
alan.kahan@colorado.edu
Robert Kaufman

Robert Kaufman

2017-18 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Robert Kaufman (2017-8) has been selected as the 2017-8 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy. Robert is the Robert and Katheryn Dockson Professor of Public Policy at the Pepperdine University School of Public Policy. He is no stranger to the CU Boulder campus, having participated for nine years in the CU Conference on World Affairs. He has written four books, including his most recent, Dangerous Doctrine: How Obama’s Grand Strategy Weakened America. Kaufman is a former Bradley Scholar and current adjunct scholar at the Heritage Foundation. In Fall 2017, Prof. Kaufman will be teaching PSCI 2028: Special Topics: Prudence and the Art of Statesmanship and PSCI 4243: Modern Warfare: Terrorism, Ideology, Identity.
Robert.Kaufman@colorado.edu
Stephen Presser Headshot

Stephen Presser

2018-19 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought & Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Stephen B Presser was the visiting conservative thought and policy scholar for the 2018-2019 academic year. Presser is a leading American legal historian and expert on shareholder liability for corporate debts. He is frequently an invited witness before committees of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives on issues of constitutional law. He holds a joint appointment with the J. L. Kellogg Graduate School of Management and also teaches in...
Colleen Sheehan Headshot

Colleen Sheehan

2019-20 Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought & Policy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Colleen A. Sheehan was the Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy for the 2019-20 academic year. At that time, Sheehan was professor of political science at Villanova University and director of the Ryan Center for Free Institutions and the Public Good. Sheehan has served in the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, and was a Pennsylvania gubernatorial apointee to the Pennsylvania State Board of Education, and to the Governor's Advisory Committee...