21–22 Fellows
Stephanie Ahrens
Princeton University
Department of Politics
Stephanie Ahrens is a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. Her academic interests lie at the intersection of political theory and American politics. Her work focuses on community in democracy and the normative aspects of political relationships. While at Princeton, she will finish a book manuscript that responds to ongoing declines in political trust in the United States by defining what trust should look like among members of a constitutional democracy. Stephanie earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago and a University Scholars B.A. from Baylor University with concentrations in Political Science and Classics.
Jacob Boros
Princeton University
Department of Politics
Jacob Boros is a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. His research focuses on American environmental thought, especially the ideas of the twentieth-century conservationist Aldo Leopold. His current book project examines how Leopold helps Americans with differing perspectives talk to one another productively about environmental issues. Jacob is also examining the British geographer Halford J. Mackinder’s relationship with the realist tradition of international relations theory. These two projects share a focus on the connection between physical space and political life. He earned his B.A. in history and politics from Saint Vincent College and his M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Baylor University.
Emily Finley
Princeton University
Department of Politics
Emily Finley is a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. Her research interests include the history of political thought, politics and the imagination, and political ideology. Her current line of research traces the direct and indirect influence of Jean-Jacques Rousseau on Catholic social and political thought. She holds a B.A. in classical studies from Trinity University, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political theory from the Catholic University of America
Chad Hegelmeyer
New York University
Department of English
Chad Hegelmeyer is a postdoctoral fellow in the English department of New York University, where he also completed his Ph.D. in 2020. His dissertation examined the fact-checking of poetry, fiction, and literary journalism at major American magazines since the 1930s, arguing that these peculiar practices belong to a more pervasive, critically neglected concern with factual accuracy in American literature. More broadly, his research focuses on literary production within institutional contexts like magazines, prisons, and the U.S. military. Chad graduated with a B.A. in English and Linguistics from UC Berkeley. At NYU he teaches courses in American literature and literary theory.
Katelyn Long
Harvard University
Chan School of Public Health
Katelyn Long is the John and Daria Barry postdoctoral fellow at the Human Flourishing Program at Harvard University and a postdoctoral fellow at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health. Her current work focuses on determinants of well-being, group dynamics of religion on human flourishing, and the development of tradition-specific spiritual well-being measures. She completed her DrPh at Boston University’s School of Public Health, where her dissertation focused on the role of faith-based and charitable health care providers. She earned her M.S. in Public Health from the University of Utah and her B.A. in religion from Vanguard University.
Iván Luzardo Luna
University of Pennsylvania
Department of Economics
Iván Luzardo Luna is a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania’s Department of Economics working with Professor Jesus Fernandez-Villaverde at the Penn Initiative for the Study of Markets (PISM). His primary research focuses on quantitative economic history and is aimed at identifying the reasons behind structural unemployment. He also considers how labor markets adapt to structural changes such as deindustrialization or automation. His secondary research field is economic growth, particularly related to the case of Latin America. Iván received his Ph.D. in Economic History from the London School of Economics and his M.S. in Economics from Georgetown University.
Nicolás García Mills
University of Chicago
Department of Philosophy
Nicolás García Mills is a John and Daria Barry Foundation post-doctoral fellow in the Philosophy Department at the University of Chicago. Previously, he taught in the Philosophy Department at Tufts University. He specializes in Kant and post-Kantian German philosophy (especially Hegel). More specifically, his research focuses on the practical, moral as well as social and political philosophies of Kant and Hegel and their contemporary relevance. During his time at the University of Chicago, he plans to work on a book manuscript, in which he articulates and defends the interpretive view that Hegel is an ethical naturalist and puts him into conversation with various forms of neo-Aristotelian naturalism. He earned his B.A. from the Universitat de Barcelona (Spain) and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois at Chicago.
Molly Gurdon Pinkoski
Columbia University
Department of Philosophy
Molly Gurdon Pinkoski is a doctoral candidate in philosophy at Columbia University, and a graduate fellow at the Zephyr Institute in Palo Alto, California. She works mainly in moral philosophy, with particular interest in the thought of Aristotle, Anscombe, and Kant. Her dissertation articulates and defends a neo-Aristotelian account of absolute moral prohibitions. Her writing has appeared in the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Examiner. She received a B.A. in Philosophy and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford.
Nathan Pinkoski
Zephyr Insitute
Palo Alto, CA
Nathan Pinkoski is the director of academic programs at the Zephyr Institute. He has written for a variety of scholarly and popular publications, including Catholic Social Science Review, First Things, Interpretation, Law and Liberty, Perspectives on Political Science, The Political Science Reviewer, and The Review of Politics. He holds a B.A. (Hon) from the University of Alberta, Canada, and an M.Phil. and D.Phil. in Politics from the University of Oxford. He had held research fellowships and lectureships at Princeton University and the University of Toronto. He recently co-edited Augustine in a Time of Crisis (Palgrave-MacMillan Press).
Allen Porter
Princeton University
Department of Politics
Allen Porter is a John and Daria Barry Postdoctoral Research Fellow with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions in the Department of Politics at Princeton University. His current research focuses on bioethics and political philosophy. His dissertation investigated the rhetoric and underlying political ideology of contemporary university activism. During his fellowship he will be working on turning his dissertation into a book. He holds a B.A. in German from Princeton University, a M.A. in philosophy from Tulane University, and a M.A. and Ph.D. in philosophy from Rice University.
Alfredo Watkins
Duke University
Kenan Institute for Ethics
Alfredo Watkins is a Postdoctoral Fellow with the Arete Initiative in the Kenan Institute for Ethics at Duke. He holds a Ph.D. in philosophy from UNC-Chapel Hill and a B.A. from UCLA. His interests include ancient and medieval philosophy, political philosophy, and philosophy of science. Currently he is working on neo-Aristotelian theories of mathematics, and will be teaching a course in the Spring titled "Contemporary Nationalism and Classical Political Theory."
Heather P. Wilford
Yale University
Department of Political Science
Heather P. Wilford is a Postdoctoral Fellow and Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at Yale University. Her research and teaching engages with a broad array of thinkers in the history of political philosophy, with an emphasis on Ancient philosophy and on 18th and 19th century French and British authors. She has written and presented on ethics, liberalism, empire, and popular sovereignty in the writings Rousseau, Tocqueville, and Mill. Her articles have appeared in The Adam Smith Review and National Affairs. She has taught courses at Middlebury College, Carleton College, Boston College, and Yale University. She holds a B.A. from Middlebury College and a Ph.D. from Boston College.