Director

Daniel Jacobson

Daniel Jacobson

Director • Bruce D. Benson Professor of Philosophy
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Daniel Jacobson works on a range of topics in ethics, moral psychology, aesthetics, and the moral and political philosophy of J. S. Mill. He has published extensively on issues concerning sentimentalism, the philosophy of emotion, and freedom of speech. Jacobson has held fellowships from the National Endowment for the Humanities, American Council of Learned Societies, and the Princeton University Center for Human Values. He founded and headed the Freedom and...

Associate Faculty Director

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Taylor Jaworski

Associate Faculty Director
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Taylor Jaworski is an associate professor in the Department of Economics. His research and teaching interests are in economic history and economic geography. Jaworski has been a regular participant in Benson Center faculty seminars and a host/panelist in several events including lectures with Jared Rubin , Noel Johnson , and the Hamilton: The Man Behind the Musical CU faculty panel discussion. Jaworski received his BA from The George Washington University,...

Assistant Director

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Alexandra Roberts

Assistant Director
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization

External Relations Manager

AJ Shively

Alexander (AJ) Shively

External Relations Manager
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization

Visiting Scholar in Conservative Thought and Policy

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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...

Sabbatical Fellows

Kathryn E. Davis

Kathryn Davis

Roubos Sabbatical Fellow
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Kathryn E. Davis is the Roubos Sabbatical Fellow for the 2023 calendar year. Kathryn E. Davis (PhD, University of Dallas) is an Associate Professor of English and Co-Director of the Classical Education in Rome Summer Program at the University of Dallas (UD). She was named the 2022 Haggar Fellow, an honor awarded annually to a junior faculty member nominated by faculty colleagues for excellence in teaching. She is a member...
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Brandon Warmke

Sabbatical Fellows
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Brandon Warmke is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Bowling Green State University. He has published widely in moral, social, and political philosophy, including papers on public discourse, forgiveness, free will and moral responsibility, virtue ethics, social morality, and conservatism. With Justin Tosi, he is the author of Grandstanding: The Use and Abuse of Moral Talk (Oxford, 2020) and Why It’s OK to Mind Your Own Business (Routledge, 2023). He also...

Faculty Fellows

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Eric Alston

Faculty Fellow
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Eric Alston is a Scholar in Residence in the Finance Division and the Faculty Director of the Hernando de Soto Capital Markets Program in the Leeds School of Business at the University of Colorado Boulder. He also serves as a Research Associate with the Comparative Constitutions Project. Alston received his MA in Economics from the University of Maryland and his JD from the University of Chicago. His research and teaching...
Matthew Burgess

Matthew Burgess

Faculty Fellow
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Matthew Burgess is an assistant professor in the Environmental Studies Program, a faculty affiliate in Economics, a fellow at the Cooperative Institute in Environmental Sciences (CIRES), where he directs the Center for Social and Environmental Futures. His research interests are economic growth futures and their environmental impacts, natural resource management and conservation, mathematical modeling of human-environment systems, and political polarization of environmental issues. Burgess has worked extensively on promoting intellectual...
Paul Diduch

Paul Diduch

Faculty Fellow
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Paul Diduch is an instructor in the Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics & Society and directs the Herbst Certificate for Engineering, Ethics & Society and the Herbst “Culture Wars in Rome” study abroad program at CU Boulder. Diduch considers himself first and primarily a scholar of ancient philosophy, mainly Platonic philosophy, and secondarily a student, teacher, and researcher of the history and philosophy of science, with special emphasis on the...
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Alex Priou

Faculty Fellows
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Alex Priou is Teaching Assistant Professor in the Herbst Program for Engineering, Ethics, and Society at the University of Colorado Boulder. His research interests are in the history of political philosophy, with a specialization in Plato and the Pre-Socratic poets and philosophers. He's the author of three books: Becoming Socrates: Political Philosophy in Plato's Parmenides (2018), Defending Socrates: Political Philosophy Before the Tribunal of Science (2023), and Musings on Plato's...
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Núria Silleras-Fernández

Faculty Fellow
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Núria Silleras-Fernández is Associate Professor at the Department of Spanish and Portuguese of the University of Colorado Boulder and affiliated faculty in the Humanities program. Her research focuses on Medieval and Early Modern Iberian, Mediterranean, and European Studies, cultural and intellectual history, gender, literature, religion, power, emotions, and translation. She is the author of three scholarly books: Power, Piety, and Patronage in Late Medieval Queenship. Maria de Luna (Palgrave: 2008),...
Benjamin Teitelbaum

Benjamin Teitelbaum

Faculty Fellow
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Benjamin Teitelbaum is associate professor of Ethnomusicology, International Affairs. For over a decade, he has worked as an ethnographer of European reactionary intellectualism and rightwing expressive culture. Teitelbaum says, "Having long rejected standard imperatives to research these topics as an activist, I have come to value with heightened urgency principles for which the Benson Center is a primary ambassador on campus, namely, free speech and free inquiry."

Harper PhD Fellows

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Idowu Odeyemi

Harper PhD Fellow
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Idowu Odeyemi is a philosophy Ph.D. student and an alumnus of the Open Student Workshop on Global Priorities Research at Oxford University. His research centers on social and political philosophy, moral philosophy, and applied epistemology. As a June Harper Ph.D. Fellow, Idowu's research would seek to investigate two topics: First, whether effectiveness conflicts with reparation or if the former overrides the latter and vice versa. This topic bites into a...

Student Interns

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Will Godsil

Project Management Intern
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Will Godsil is a junior at CU Boulder, graduating in May of 2025. He is majoring in Business Administration with concentrations in Finance and Accounting, and minoring in Political Science.
Alisa Johnson

Alisa Johnson

Project Management Intern
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Alisa is a senior graduating in December of 2023. She is pursuing a BA is Economics, a BA in Mathematics, and a BM in Violin Performance.
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Rebecca Rodriquez

Marketing and Social Media Management Intern
Benson Center for the Study of Western Civilization
Rebecca is a senior at CU Boulder, graduating in May of 2024. She is pursuing a BA in Art History with a minor in Business.