Bryan-Paul Frost, Ph.D.

James A. and Kaye L. Crocker Endowed Professor

Department of Political Science

The University of Louisiana at Lafayette

Lafayette, Louisiana 70504-1652

337-482-5692 (v), 337-482-6170 (f), e-mail: bfrost@louisiana.edu

 

EDUCATION:

 

Ph.D. conferred 1996, University of Toronto, Department of Political Science. Major field: Political Theory; minor fields: International Relations and Comparative Politics. Dissertation: “A Critical Introduction to the Political Philosophy of Alexandre Kojève.” Committee members: Professors Thomas Pangle (supervisor), Alan Brudner, and Ronald Beiner. External Examiner: Professor Susan Shell, Boston College.

 

M.A. conferred 1991, University of Toronto, Department of Political Science.

 

B.A. conferred 1990, St. John’s College, Santa Fe, New Mexico. St. John’s has an all-required, liberal arts curriculum based on the Great Books of the Western World.

 

EMPLOYMENT:

 

2005–present: Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette

 

2004–05: Visiting Professor at the University of Toronto, Department of Political Science (taught two sections of the undergraduate course POL 200: Political Theory: Visions of the Just Society, and one section of the graduate seminar POL 404/2014: The Problem of Natural Right).

 

2001–present: Adjunct Professor of Philosophy at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette.

 

1998: Adjunct Professor for the College of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois. Taught U.S. in World Affairs (18-324F).

 

1996–2002: Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette (tenure track); 2002–present: tenure granted.

 

 

HONORS/AWARDS:

 

2005–06, UL Lafayette: Recipient of the Louisiana State/Board of Regents ATLAS Humanities Research Fellowship.

 

2002: Recipient of the 2002 UL Lafayette Summer Sabbatical Research Award.

 

2001–present: Recipient of the James A. and Kaye L. Crocker Endowed Professor of Political Science.

 

2000: Recipient of the 2000 UL Lafayette Summer Research Award.

 

1999: Recipient of the Spencer Foundation Small Grants Award (accepted); recipient of the 1999 UL Lafayette Summer Research Award (declined).

 

1998: Recipient of an Earhart Foundation Summer Research Grant.

 

1997: Recipient of the 1997 UL Lafayette Summer Research Award. Nominated for the John M. Olin Faculty Fellowship for Junior Professors; the Phi Kappa Phi Emerging Scholar Award; and the Southern Graduate School Young Scholar Award.

 

1996, University of Toronto: Dissertation nominated for the American Political Science Association’s Leo Strauss Award.

 

1990–6: Recipient of the Open Doctoral Fellowship (1995–6); Scarborough College Teaching Assistant Award (1995); Simcoe Special Fellowship (1991–5); Bradley Foundation Fellowship and the Differential Fee Waiver Scholarship (1991–2); and recipient of the Earhart Foundation Fellowship (1990–1).

 

1986–90, St. John’s College: Awarded the Silver Medal for graduating with the highest academic record; awarded Honors for oral defense of senior thesis, “Some Thoughts on Plutarch’s Political Philosophy”; and acknowledgement of excellence for sophomore essay, “On the Troubles of Becoming a God.”

 

BOOKS AND EDITED VOLUMES:

 

Political Reason in the Age of Ideology: Essays in Honor of Raymond Aron, edited by Bryan-Paul Frost and Daniel Mahoney (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2007).

 

History of American Political Thought, edited by Bryan-Paul Frost and Jeffrey Sikkenga (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2003).

 

Alexandre Kojève’s Outline of a Phenomenology of Right, translated, with notes and introductory essay by Bryan-Paul Frost and Robert Howse, edited by Bryan-Paul Frost (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2000). Paperback edition by Rowman and Littlefield, 2007.

 

JOURNAL ARTICLES (peer refereed):

 

“Preliminary Reflections on the Rhetoric of Aristotle’s Rhetoric,” Expositions 2 (no. 2, 2008), 163–88.

 

 “Better Late Than Never: Raymond Aron’s Theory of International Relations and Its Prospects in the 21st Century,” Politics and Policy 34 (September 2006), 506–31.

 

“A Critical Introduction to Alexandre Kojève’s Esquisse d’une phénoménologie du droit,” Review of Metaphysics 52 (March 1999), 595–640.

 

“Resurrecting a Neglected Theorist: The Philosophical Foundations of Raymond Aron’s Theory of International Relations,” Review of International Studies 23 (Spring 1997), 143–66.

 

“An Interpretation of Plutarch’s Cato the Younger,” History of Political Thought 18 (Spring 1997), 1–23.

 

“The Specificity and Autonomy of Right: Alexandre Kojève’s Legal Philosophy,” Interpretation 24 (Fall 1996), 25–65. This is co-authored by Robert Howse.

 

“Raymond Aron’s Peace and War, Thirty Years Later,” International Journal 51 (Spring 1996), 339–61.

 

CHAPTERS IN BOOKS/JOURNAL ARTICLES (non-peer refereed):

 

“Introduction: The Enduring Relevance of Raymond Aron” (co-authored with Daniel J. Mahoney), English translation of Stanley Hoffmann, “Raymond Aron and Alexis de Tocqueville,” and “An Introduction to Raymond Aron: The Political Teachings of the Memoirs,” in Political Reason in the Age of Ideology: Essays in Honor of Raymond Aron, edited by Bryan-Paul Frost and Daniel Mahoney (New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Publishers, 2007), 1–8, 105–23, and 285–307, respectively.

 

“Raymond Aron on the End of the History of International Relations,” Perspectives on Political Science 35 (Spring 2006), 75–82.

 

“Mais vale tarde do que nunca: a teoria das relações internacionais de Raymond Aron e as suas perspectivas face ao século XXI,” Relações Internacionais 7 (September 2005), 5–24. (This is a Portugese translation and shortened version of “Better Late Than Never: Raymond Aron’s Theory of International Relations and Its Prospects in the 21st Century.” The journal is published by the Instituto Português de Relações Internacionais.)

 

“Religion, Nature, and Disobedience in the Thought of Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau,” in History of American Political Thought, edited by Bryan-Paul Frost and Jeffrey Sikkenga (Lanham, MD: Lexington Press, 2003), 355–75.

 

“Is a Global Liberal Democratic Order Inevitable?” in Globalization: Will Freedom or World Government Dominate the International Marketplace? Vol. 29, Ludwig von Mises Lecture Series (Hillsdale, MI: Hillsdale College Press, 2002), 103–24.

 

BOOK REVIEWS/ESSAYS:

 

“Review of James H. Nichols, Jr., Alexandre Kojève: Wisdom at the End of History,” Society (forthcoming).

 

“Review of Alain Besançon, A Century of Horrors: Communism, Nazism, and the Uniqueness of the Shoah,” Society 46 (no. 1, 2009), 90–92.

 

“Review of David Pryce-Jones, Betrayal: France, the Arabs, and the Jews,” Society 45 (no. 2, 2008), 208–9.

 

“Review of Pierre Manent, A World beyond Politics? A Defense of the Nation-State,” Perspectives on Political Science 36 (no. 4, 2007), 231–32.

 

“Review of Paul Hollander, ed., From the Gulag to the Killing Fields: Personal Accounts of Political Violence and Repression in Communist States,” Society 44 (no. 4, 2007), 83–85.

“Review of R. R. Palmer, Twelve Who Ruled: The Year of the Terror in the French Revolution,” Perspectives on Political Science 35 (Summer 2006), 173.

 

“Alexandre Kojève,” in Europe since 1914: Encyclopaedia of War and Reconstruction, eds. John Merriman and Jay Winter, vol. 3 (Detroit: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 2006), 1577–79.

 

“Defending the War in Iraq,” Society 43 (no. 6, 2006), 94–100. A review essay of Gary Rosen, ed., The Right War?: The Conservative Debate in Iraq and Thomas Cushman, ed., A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq.

 

“Alexandre Kojève,” in Gallery of Russian Thinkers, http://www.isfp.co.uk/russian_thinkers, School of Russian and Asian Studies, Moscow State University, http://www.sras.org/news2.phtml?m=495, ed. Dmitry Olshansky (March 2006).

 

“Review of Paul Hollander, ed., Understanding Anti-Americanism: Its Origins and Impact at Home and Abroad,” Society 43 (no. 3, 2006), 87–89.

 

“Individualism, Emersonian Style,” Polity 37 (no. 2, 2005), 286–93. A review essay of Lawrence Buell, Emerson, Peter S. Field, Ralph Waldo Emerson: The Making of a Democratic Intellectual, George Kateb, Emerson and Self-Reliance, and Kenneth S. Sacks, Understanding Emerson: “The American Scholar” and His Struggle for Self-Reliance.

 

“Review of Bernard Henry-Lévy, War, Evil, and the End of History,” Society 42 (no. 5, 2005), 86–88.

 

“Review of Tzvetan Todorov, Hope and Memory: Lessons from the Twentieth Century,” Society 42 (no. 1, 2004), 92–94.

 

“Heaven on Earth—Yours, at a Price,” Books in Canada 24 (November 1995), 19–21. This is a review of recent Canadian contributions to Kojève scholarship, especially Shadia B. Drury’s book, Alexandre Kojève: The Roots of Postmodern Politics.

 

WORK UNDER REVIEW AND IN PROGRESS:

 

I am actively engaged in revising my dissertation on Alexandre Kojève into a publishable book-length manuscript; I am also beginning a new study entitled “The Promises and Problems of Civic Education: Aristotle’s Rhetoric and the Nature of Civic Discourse.”

 

Articles in preparation and/or under review: “Corrupting or Edifying: The Role of Philosophy in Roman Civic Education According to Cato the Elder and Cicero”; “Rousseau’s Rome: How the Model of All Free People’s Governed Themselves”; and “Tocqueville’s Worst Fears Realized? The Political Implications of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Transcendental Spiritualism.”

 

ACADEMIC CONFERENCES AND INVITED LECTURES:

 

Discussant at the University of Toronto-Brown University Collaborative Political Theory Conference, May 2005: commented upon Tina Rupcic, “Warping the Rule: Aristotle on the Teachers of Rhetoric.”

“Better Late Than Never: Raymond Aron’s Theory of International Relations and Its Prospects in the 21st Century.” Invited conference paper presented at the colloquium on Raymond Aron in celebration of the 100th anniversary of his birth, organized by the Instituto da Defesa Nacional, and the Instituto Portugués de Relações Internacionais, Universidade Nova de Lisboa,  Lisbon, Portugal, April 14–15, 2005.

 

“Tocqueville’s Worst Fears Realized? The Political Implications of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s Transcendental Spiritualism.” Presented at the Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, January 2004. Discussant: Mark Griffith, University of West Alabama. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Louisiana State Political Science Annual Meeting, March 2003. Discussant: Alex Aichinger, NSU.

 

“How to Move a Mob and Other Tricks: The Role of Rhetoric in Aristotle’s Liberal Education” and “The Problematic Place of Philosophy in Roman Civic Education.” Inaugural lectures presented for the Classical Mind Series, Ashland University, Ashland, Ohio, September 2003.

 

“Indoctrination or Liberation? The Promises and Problems of Roman Civic Education and its Relevance Today.” Lecture presented as a Dow Visiting Scholar, Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan, April 2002.

 

“The Rhetoric of Aristotle’s Rhetoric.” Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, September 2001. Discussant: James Nichols, Jr., Claremont College.

 

“Is a Global Liberal Democratic Order Inevitable?” Lecture presented for the Ludwig Von Mises Lecture Series at the Center for Constructive Alternatives, Hillsdale College, Michigan, March 2001.

 

Liberty Fund Colloquium participant, “Principle and Prudence in Early American Foreign Policy,” October 2000. Director: Karl Walling, U.S. Naval War College.

 

Liberty Fund Colloquium participant, “Liberty and the Founders’ Constitution,” July 2000. Director: Donald S. Lutz, University of Houston.

 

Liberty Fund Colloquium participant, “Liberty, Responsibility, and the Good Life,” June 2000. Director: Karl Walling, Liberty Fund.

 

“The Place and Purpose of Aristotle’s Rhetoric in His Corpus as a Whole.” Presented at the Society for Greek Political Thought at the Midwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 2000. Discussant: Lisa Pace Vetter, Washington and Lee University. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, September 1999. Discussants: Sean D. Sutton, University of Dallas; Kevin Costa, University of Massachusetts, Amherst.

 

Liberty Fund Colloquium participant, “Liberty and Tyranny in the French Revolutions of 1789 and 1848,” March 2000. Director: Gordon Lloyd, Pepperdine University.

 

Chair and discussant on a panel entitled “Human Nature and the State” at the New York State Political Science Association Annual Meeting, May 1999.

 

“Rousseau’s Rome: How the Model of All Free Peoples Governed Themselves.” Presented at the New York State Political Science Association Annual Meeting, May 1999. Discussant: Jeffrey A. Smith, Colgate College. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, October 1998. Discussants: Garry Jennings, Delta State University; Sara L. Zeigler, Eastern Kentucky University.

 

“Nietzsche on Value: Legacy for Democratic Politics.” Presented at UL Lafayette’s Fourth Annual Graduate Colloquium on the theme of “Value,” October 1998.

 

“Raymond Aron, Alexandre Kojève, and Francis Fukuyama on the End of the History of International Relations.” Presented at the New England Political Science Association Annual Meeting, May 1998. Discussant: Kailash Mohapatra, Yale University.

 

Chair and discussant on a panel entitled “Topics in Classical Political Philosophy” at the Southwest Political Science Association Annual Meeting, March 1998.

 

“Alexandre Kojève and the 21st Century.” Presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, August 1997. Discussant: David Williams, University of Texas at Austin.

 

“The Role of Philosophy in Roman Moral or Civic Education According to Cato the Elder and Cicero.” Presented at the Southwest Social Science Association Annual Meeting, March 1997. Discussant: Jeffrey Sikkenga, Ashland University. I also served as discussant on a panel entitled “Rousseau and National Self-Identity.”

 

“An Introduction to the Reading of Alexandre Kojève’s Esquisse d’une phénoménologie du droit.” Presented at the Canadian Political Science Association Annual Meeting, June 1995. Discussant: Linda Cardinal, University of Ottawa.

 

“Understanding Cato the Younger: The Stoic Interpretation of Plato’s Republic.” Presented at the Society for Greek Political Thought at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, September 1994. Discussant: James W. Ceaser, University of Virginia. An earlier version of this essay was presented at the Southwestern Social Science Association Annual Meeting, April 1994.

 

“Resurrecting a Neglected Theorist: The Philosophical Foundations of Raymond Aron’s Theory of International Relations.” Presented at the Canadian Political Science Association Annual Meeting, June 1993. Discussant: David Long, Carleton University.

 

“Security, Liberty, and Well-Being: Machiavelli and Montesquieu on Cruelty.” Presented at the New York State Political Science Association Annual Meeting, April 1993. Discussant: Eric Mitchko, Columbia University.

 

REFERENCES:

 

Professor Thomas L. Pangle

University of Toronto, Department of Political Science

Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3; 416-978-3343

 

Professor Clifford Orwin

University of Toronto, Department of Political Science

Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3; 416-978-3343

Professor Daniel Mahoney

Assumption College, Department of Political Science

Worcester, MA., 01615; 508-767-7547

 

Professor David Welch

University of Toronto, Department of Political Science

Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3; 416-978-3343

 

Professor Rick Swanson

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Department of Political Science

Lafayette, LA., 70504; 337-482-6171

 

Professor Pearson Cross

University of Louisiana at Lafayette, Department of Political Science

Lafayette, LA., 705040; 337-482-6171

 

Professor Susan Shell

Boston College, Department of Political Science

Boston, MA., 02167; 617-552-4160

 

Professor Ronald Beiner

University of Toronto, Department of Political Science

Toronto, Ontario M5S 3G3; 416-978-3343

 

COURSES TAUGHT:

 

POLS 220: World Governments. Countries discussed include Great Britain, France, Japan, China, Russia, Mexico, India, the European Union, and Israel and the Middle East. I have also taught the Honors Program section of this course, POLS 221.

 

POLS 305: World War I and the Origins of the International System and POLS 305: How to Write a Research Paper. These are short, one-credit mini-courses.

 

POLS 366: U.S. Foreign Policy: Processes and Events. A discussion of the forces, processes, and contexts that shape United States foreign policy. Texts include Arthur M. Schlesinger, Jr., The Imperial Presidency; Louis Henkin, Foreign Affairs and the U.S. Constitution; Graham T. Allison and Philip Zelikow, Essence of Decision; Henry Kissinger, Diplomacy; Don Munton and David Welch, The Cuban Missile Crisis, as well as dozens of scholarly articles.

 

POLS 370: Political Philosophy: Major Thinkers. Texts discussed include Plato and Aristophanes, Four Texts on Socrates; Plato, The Republic; Aristotle, The Politics; Machiavelli, The Prince; Hobbes, Leviathan; and Locke, Two Treatises of Government. (This course replaces and is the combination of two different courses, POLS 377: Political Philosophy: Ancient and Medieval and POLS 378: Political Philosophy: Modern. Texts discussed in these two courses include those mentioned above in POLS 370 as well as Saint Augustine, City of God; Saint Thomas Aquinas, On Law, Morality, and Politics; Locke, A Letter Concerning Toleration; Rousseau, Discourse on Inequality and On the Social Contract, with Geneva Manuscript and Political Economy; and Burke, Reflections on the Revolution in France.)

 

POLS 471: Political Philosophy: Major Themes. This is a variable content course. Texts discussed include Spinoza’s Tractatus Theologico-Politicus and the Bible; Plato’s Gorgias and Phaedrus, Aristotle’s Rhetoric, and Cicero’s De Oratore; Aristotle’s Nicomachean Ethics and St. Thomas Aquinas’s Commentary on Aristotle’s Ethics; Plato’s Republic and Laws; and Xenophon’s Apology, Symposium, Oeconomicus, Memorabilia, and Education of Cyrus.

 

HONS 385: The Politics of Shakespeare. This is an Honors course in which we read and discussed Coriolanus, Julius Caesar, and Antony and Cleopatra; King John, Richard II, Henry IV (Parts 1 and 2), and Henry V.

 

HONS 385: The Sexual Politics of Jane Austen. This is an Honors course in which we read and discussed Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, and Emma. It was co-taught with Professor Mary Anne Wilson of the English Department.

 

POLS 450(G): American Political Thought. Authors and texts discussed include Franklin, Paine, Adams, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, Hamilton, The Federalist, The Anti-Federalist, Tocqueville, the Lincoln-Douglas debates, W.E.B. Du Bois, and Martin Luther King, Jr. (This course is open to graduate students as well.)

 

POLS 467(G): Ethics and International Politics. An examination of the various moral and theoretical foundations of international relations (e.g., classical, Christian, and/or modern), and how these theories have (or have not) been followed or applied in practice. Authors discussed include Plato, Aristotle, Thucydides, Cicero, Augustine, Aquinas, Vitoria, Machiavelli, and Kant.

 

UNIVERSITY AND PROFESSIONAL SERVICE:

 

Vice-president of the Louisiana State Political Science Association (2004–5)

            UL Lafayette’s Faculty Sponsor for the College Republicans (2008–present)

            UL Lafayette’s Faculty Grievance Committee (2002–4)

            UL Lafayette’s Student Discipline Committee (2002–4)

UL Lafayette’s Canadian Studies Committee (1998–present)

UL Lafayette’s Graduate Faculty (1997–present)

UL Lafayette’s Undergraduate Curriculum Committee (1997–2000)

Political Science Department’s Forums Committee (2006–present, chairman)

Political Science Department’s Personnel Committee (2006–present, chairman; 2007, chairman of Search Committee [successful hire]; 2008, chairman of Search Committee [successful hire])

Political Science Department’s Curriculum Committee (1996–8; chairman, 1998–2001)

Political Science Department’s Course Revision Committee (2001–4)

Political Science Department’s Faculty Development Committee (1998–2001)

Editor of the Department’s newsletter to students and alumni (1997–present)

 

HONORS THESES/INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECTS SUPERVISED:

 

Supervisor of Meredith Clark’s independent research project entitled, “20th Century Ideologies.” Completed May 2004.

 

Supervisor of Jon Perkins’ independent research project entitled, “Democracy, Nobility, and Political Philosophy.” Completed December 2003.

Supervisor of Zlatan Kirlic’s independent research project entitled, “The Future of International Relations: A Critical Analysis.” Completed May 2002.

 

Supervisor of Simone Manuel’s independent research project entitled, “Public Rulers, Private Men: The Kings of Shakespeare’s English History Plays.” Completed December 2001.

 

Supervisor of Blaine Arnold’s independent research project entitled, “The Theoretical Character and Historical Reality of Marxism in the 20th Century.” Completed December 2000.

 

Director of Jeremy Mhire’s honors thesis, “The Role of the Ideas in Books Six and Ten of Plato’s Republic.” Defended April 2000.

 

Committee member of Jessica Clement’s honors thesis, “The Nature of Friendship in Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice.” Defended April 2000.