Joseph Prud’homme

Professor of Political Science, Washington College

Joseph Prud’homme is a professor of Political Science and the Director of the Institute for the Study of Religion, Politics, and Culture at Washington College. He received his doctorate from Princeton University, where he studied in the Interdepartmental Program in Political Philosophy, with additional specialization in legal and constitutional thought. He was awarded a Fellowship at Harvard University, where he studied at the Harvard Law School and served as a member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.

Professor Prud’homme works in the areas of political philosophy, legal theory, intellectual history, and conceptual and historical approaches to the study of religion and political and cultural affairs. He has published numerous works in these fields, including the books, Religion and Politics in America from the Colonial Period to the Civil War, Curriculum and the Culture Wars: Debating the Bibles Place in Public Schools, and the forthcoming book State Religious Education and the State of Religious Life.

He regularly teaches the department’s introductory course in political theory; upper level courses in political thought; upper level courses in constitutional law and legal philosophy; and a freshman seminar (GRW) that explores fundamental questions surrounding theology and political and cultural life.

He earned two bachelors degrees with three majors (Political Science, History, and Philosophy) and one minor (Religious Studies) at Texas A&M University ,where he graduated magna cum laude and with a honors certificate. His undergraduate thesis (“Kant’s Moral Argument for the Existence of God”) was awarded the Texas A&M Thesis Prize.

He directs a partnership between Washington College and the University of Oxford, and is a frequent guest lecturer nationally and internationally.