ABOUT

Patrick J. Deneen is Professor of Political Science and holds the David A. Potenziani Memorial Chair of Constitutional Studies at the University of Notre Dame. Prior to joining the faculty of Notre Dame in 2012, he taught at Princeton University (1997-2005) and Georgetown University (2005-2012), where he held the Markos and Eleni Tsakapoulos-Kounalakis Chair in Hellenic Studies. From 2005-2007 he served as principle Speechwriter and Special Assistant to the Director of the U.S. Information Agency, Joseph Duffey.

Deneen's intellectual interests and publications are ranging, including ancient political thought, American political thought, liberalism, conservatism, religion and politics and literature and politics. He has written four books and edited three others. His books include The Odyssey of Political Theory, Democratic Faith, Conserving America?, and most recently, Why Liberalism Failed, which appeared in January, 2018 with Yale University Press (paperback 2019). Why Liberalism Failed has now been translated into twenty languages, including German, French, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic, Japanese, and Korean.

He teaches across his areas of interest, and offers regular courses with titles such as "Political Theory," "Constitutionalism, Law and Politics," "Liberalism and Conservatism," "The End of Education," "The American Regime," and "Tocqueville's Democracy in America."

In addition to academic work, he frequently writes for journals of opinion, including First Things, The American Conservative and the Chronicle of Higher Education. He is a regular contributor to a variety of online journals and blogs, which has gained him an extensive readership beyond academic audiences. He receives frequent invitations to lecture in both academic and non-academic settings, particularly to address undergraduate and general interest audiences. He has lectured at many academic institutions, including Harvard University, University of Pennsylvania, Valpariaso University, Georgetown University, University of Virginia, Yale University, Princeton University, Eckerd College, Villanova University, Hope College, University of Chicago, Hillsdale College, Augustana College, Mercer University, Berry College, Colby College, Gonzaga University, as well as at universities in England, France, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Ukraine, Italy, Australia and Ireland.

Deneen received a B.A. in English literature from Rutgers University, where he graduated summa cum laude with Honors and was the student commencement speaker in 1986. He received his Ph.D. in political science from Rutgers University in 1995. He wrote his dissertation - The Odyssey of Political Theory - under the direction of the late Wilson Carey McWilliams. His dissertation received the American Political Science Association's Leo Strauss Award for Best Dissertation in Political Theory in 1995. He has also studied at Trinity College in Dublin, Ireland and at the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago.

Deneen was series editor of Political Companions to Great American Authors with the University Press of Kentucky from 2005-2017; and "Radical Conservatisms" (along with co-editor Elizabeth Corey) with University of Pennsylvania Press. He serves on a number of editorial boards, including Perspectives on Political Science and American Political Thought. He is a contributing editor with the journal The American Conservative.

While at Georgetown University, Deneen founded and served as Founding Director of the "Tocqueville Forum on the Roots of American Democracy," which became a vibrant center for reflection on the contributions of political thought to American politics and culture. At the University of Notre Dame he is an affiliate faculty with the Tocqueville Program for Inquiry into Religion and American Public Life, and the Minor in Constitutional Studies, both of which he served as Interim Director from 2014-2015. He served as Acting Director of the Center for Ethics and Culture at the University of Notre Dame for the Spring 2018 semester.

Deneen lives in South Bend, IN with his wife, Inge, and three children, and are parishioners at St. Joseph Parish of South Bend. They are proud to own the house that once belonged to Notre Dame legend, Edward "Moose" Krause.

"Liberalism and Limits": A Biographic from Mars Hill Audio

"Patrick Deneen on Democracy and Human Flourishing"

"Trump Didn't Kill Conservatism": Wall Street Journal Review of Conserving America. January 12, 2017.

"George Bailey is Dead": Rod Dreher on Patrick Deneen

"A More Radically Catholic Life," Ethika Politika

"Does America Have a Conservative Tradition?": John Fea

"Debating Deneen" in First Things

Hillsdale College "Collegian"

Notre Dame Observer: Scholar to Join Political Science Dept.

"The State of the University", "The Hoya" of Georgetown

"Catholic Hope in the Heart of Leviathan" by Brad Birzer