Academic specialty is the intellectual and legal history of the early republic. Since 2002 holds an appointment in history at the University of Richmond and currently is Director of Pre-law Advising. Courses taught include surveys in American history and classes on the American Revolution, American Indians before 1840, U.S. Legal History, Church and State in American History, Colonial Jamestown, early Virginia, slavery in Early America, Baseball and American Culture, The Social Gospel and Reform 1830-1850, Puritan Thought in Early New England, the Intellectual History of the Revolutionary Era, and a seminar on American slavery. Since 2006, has also taught “Foundations of Leadership” in the Jepson School of Leadership Studies. A course entitled, “Leadership and Philanthropy”, exploring the history of private sector social action in America, has been cross-listed in leadership and history. During the 2004-05 academic year, directed the first year law skills program in the T.C. Williams School of Law at the University of Richmond. Taught a course entitled “The Moral Limits of Criminal Law” as part of a University of Richmond summer program at Cambridge University in England in 2007. Currently working on a biography of Virginia jurist and legal scholar of the early republic, St. George Tucker.
Publications
Books
One Nation Under Law: America’s Early National Struggles to Separate Church and State (Dekalb, IL: Northern Illinois University Press, Legal History Series, 2004). Second printing, 2005, as History Book Club Selection. Paperback edition 2005.
Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History (N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 2003). Co-edited with Lawrence J. Friedman. Paperback edition 2004.
Chapters in Books
Michael Morrison, et. al., Encyclopedia of United States Political History, CQ Press. Chapters on religious toleration and republicanism (current project).
Christopher Tomlins and Michael Grossberg, eds. The Cambridge History of Law in America. (N.Y.: Cambridge University Press, 2008). Chapter on law and religious establishment in colonial America, co-authored with Prof. Betty Mensch, SUNY-Buffalo Law School.
Contributed new Foreward to the resissue of Sidney E. Mead, The Lively Experiment (Eugene, OR: Wipf and Stock Publ., Inc., 2007).
Burlingame, Dwight F., ed., Philanthropy in the U.S.: An Encyclopedia. 3 volumes. (Santa Barbara, CA: 2004). Chapters on Legal History of Philanthropy and Stephen Girard.
Grimm, Robert, ed., Notable American Philanthropists. Chapter on Stephen Girard. (Wesport, CT: Greenwood Press, 2002).
Articles and Presentations
Debate: “Was the U.S. Constitution a Betrayal of the American Revolution?” Sponsored by the Society of the Cincinnati at University of Richmond, April 15, 2008.
Roundtable Discussion Participant on David Holmes, The Faiths of the Founding Fathers (N.Y.: Oxford University Press, 2006) at “Christianity and American History” Conference at Liberty University, April 20-21, 2007.
“The Virtuous Republic: A Civic Conversation.” Presented at the Virginia Festival of the Book, Charlottesville, Virginia, March 25, 2006. Broadcast on Book TV on C-SPAN.
“Transforming Society Through Law: St. George Tucker, Woman’s Property Rights, and an Active Republican Judiciary”. Presented at Symposium entitled: “St. George Tucker and His Influence on American Law” at Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William and Mary, February 25, 2005. Selected among symposium papers to be published in the William and Mary Law Review in February 2006.
“Culture Wars as a Persistent Issue: The Early Republic’s Debate over Church and State.” Presented as Scholar-in-Residence at Texas Lutheran University to combined history and liberal arts faculties at colleges and universities in and around San Antonio, Texas. September 14, 2000.
“In Perfect Accordance with his Character: Thomas Jefferson, Slavery and the Law,” Indiana Magazine of History, vol. XCV, no. 2 (June, 1999).
“Creating Roles for Religion and Philanthropy in a Secular Nation: The Dartmouth College Case and the Design of Civil Society in the Early Republic,” Journal of College and University Law, vol. 25, no. 3 (Winter, 1999).
“Immigrant Labor and the Milwaukee Road: A Comparative Case Study of Japanese and Mexican Contract Labor,” Railroad History, vol. 179 (Autumn, 1998)
“Searching for Consistency: Jefferson’s Political Ideology and Slavery.” Presented to the Meeting of the Indiana Association of Historians. Bloomington, Indiana. March 2, 1996.
“Employment at Will and the Growth of Statutory Limitation.” Presented as a featured speaker at seminar titled: “Discharge and Documentation in Wisconsin,” sponsored by Lorman Educational Services. Brookfield, Wisconsin, January, 1994.
“Sexual Harassment in the Wake of the Thomas Hearings.” Presented to Rotary International. Evanston, Illinois, March, 1992.
“Personality: May it Sway Employment Decision-Making,” Wisconsin Lawyer, The Journal of the State Bar Association, vol. 64, no. 12 (December, 1991).
‘Security Issues in Dealing with Unions.” Presented before APEX (Assets Protection Executives), a group of corporate Security Directors. Chicago, Illinois, October, 1989.
“Politics and Law: Union Security Agreements and the First Amendment,” Midwest Labor and Employment Law Journal, vol. 1, no. 5, (July, 1984).
“An Interpretation of the Impact of Recent Legal Decisions on EEOC Policy and Procedures.” Presented before the joint Annual Spring Conference of the Wisconsin Chapter of the International Personnel Manager’s Association and the Wisconsin Public Employers’ Labor Relations Association. Madison, Wisconsin, April, 1983.
“Recent Changes in Wisconsin’s Worker’s Compensation Laws.” Presented before the International Society of Safety Engineers, Madison, Wisconsin, October, 1981.
Book Reviews
“Does Making History Law Render it More Relevant?” Review of Michael I. Meyerson, Liberty’s Blueprint: How Madison and Hamilton Write the Federalist Papers, Defined the Constitution, and Made Democracy Safe for the World (Basic Books, 2008), at H-Net, June, 2008.
Review of Bruce J. Dierenfield, The Battle Over School Prayer: How Engel v. Vitale Changed America (University of Kansas Press, 2007), in Law and History Review (2008).
Review of Nicholas Guyatt, Providence and the Invention of the United States, 1607-1876 (Cambridge University Press, 2007), in Journal of American History (2008).
Review of Chris Beneke’s Beyond Toleration: The Religious Origins of American Pluralism (Oxford University Press, 2006) for the Catholic Historical Review (July, 2007).
Review of Daniel J. Hulsebosch’s Constituting Empire: New York and the Transformation of Constitutionalism in the Atlantic World in The Register (Fall, 2006).
“What did the Founders really have in mind?” Review of Kathleen McCarthy’s American Creed: Philanthropy and the Rise of Civil Society, 1700-1865 (University of Chicago Press, 2003) in National Voluntary Sector Quarterly Vol. 35, no. 2 (June 2006).
Review of James Hitchcock’s The Supreme Court and Religion in American Life (Princeton University Press, 2004), in American Journal of Legal History (Spring 2006).
“Was the Constitution Rewritten by Anti-Catholics?: A New Approach to the Church-State Controversy”, Review of Philip Hamburger’s Separation of Church and State (Harvard University Press, 2002), at H-Net, March, 2003.
“Feeling Good about History”, Review of Andrew Burstein’s America’s Jubilee (N.Y.: Knopf, 2001), at H-Net, February, 2002.
Review of Herman Belz’s, Abraham Lincoln, Constitutionalism, and Equal Rights in the Civil War (Fordham University Press, 1998), in Maryland Historical Magazine, vol. 93, no. 2, 233-236 (Summer, 1998).
Peer Reviews
Journal of American History
Journal of the Early Republic
Oxford University Press
Academic Grants and Awards
2004 Skystone Ryan Research Prize. Awarded by the Association of Fundraising Professionals for Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History. Juried Prize Winner.
2003 Virginia Hodgkinson Research Prize. Awarded by the Independent Sector for Charity, Philanthropy, and Civility in American History. Second Prize awarded by jury panel.
Golieb Fellow, New York University School of Law. Postdoctoral fellowship with junior faculty standing to pursue work in legal history during 2001-2002 academic year.
History Department Nominee for Indiana University Esther Kinsley Ph.D. Dissertation Award. Selected as the most deserving departmental dissertation in 2000-2001 academic year.
Hodgson Russ Fellow at the SUNY-Buffalo Law School. Research fellowship to complete dissertation and pursue other scholarship while teaching at the law school, 1999-2000, 2000-2001 academic years.
Grant of $2,000 from the Baldy Center for Law and Social Policy to explore viability of a work on the intellectual and legal career of St. George Tucker, Spring 2000.
Co-recipient of $70,000 grant from the Center on Philanthropy to co-edit a graduate-level text on the history of American philanthropy, Summer 1999.
Awarded mark of “distinction” in passing the major field comprehensive examination for Ph.D. at Indiana University, Spring 1997 (This was the first such award of merit in several years.)
Associate Instructor Fellowship: Stipend and full funding of academic study through Indiana University History Department, 1996-1997 academic year.
Virginia Gunderson Essay Prize: Indiana University annual award for best graduate student essay in United States History, 1996.
Research Fellowship: Research stipend and full funding of academic study through the Center on Philanthropy, January 1995-June1996, and for preparation of dissertation, 1997-2000.
Education
Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana Ph.D. 2000. The dissertation explores the ideological tension in the design of the civil society presented through the intellectual, legal, and cultural struggles over disestablishment in the early republic.
Marquette University, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, M.A. 1994, J.D. 1981.
Northwestern University, Evanston, Illinois, B.A. 1978.
Previous Experience – Teaching
Adjunct Professor of Law: Marshall-Wythe School of Law, College of William & Mary, 2003-2004 academic year. Course taught: Early American Legal History.
Instructor of Law: SUNY-Buffalo Law School, 1999-2000 and 2000-2001 academic years. Courses taught: legal history and legal research and writing.
Experience - Law
9/92-12/94: Buchanan & Barry, S.C., Milwaukee, Wisconsin
(of counsel relationship).
Specialty firm in the area of labor and employment law.
12/84-9/92: Baxter Healthcare Corporation, Deerfield, Illinois.
Director, Employee Relations/Corporate Labor Counsel.
Promoted three times in almost eight years with Baxter and takeover predecessor, American Hospital Supply, culminating tenure with company as senior labor attorney for five-attorney staff. Supervised attorneys, human resources professionals, and support staff. For three and one-half years, prior to expansion of department and consolidation with employee relations, served as sole labor counsel for the corporation.
Duties within this $9 billion, 62,000 employee, multinational corporation included policy formation and implementation for all domestic labor relations concerns. I, or my staff, had responsibility for all labor relations litigation; collective bargaining; arbitration; affirmative action; unfair labor practice charges and complaints; EEO charges; wage and hour concerns; and internal advice and training on labor relations policies, procedures, and concerns. In fulfillment of this last responsibility, I conducted innumerable seminars for corporate managers varying in length from one hour to three days on a variety of legal and policy issues. I also initiated and supervised the corporate minority internship program for college students.
6/83-12/84: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
Staff Attorney, promoted to Senior Trial Attorney 4/84.
Duties included litigating cases in the federal court system and providing legal counsel and advice to assist in case investigation and resolution. Worked as lead counsel on cases out of Minneapolis, Milwaukee and Chicago offices.
5/81-5/83: Brigden, Swietlik and Petajan, Milwaukee, Wisconsin
A labor and employment law specialty firm with a nationwide clientele