I am a Lecturer in the Program on Ethics, Politics, and Economics and the Department of Political Science at Yale University. My book on Edmund Burke’s economic thought, titled Commerce and Manners in Edmund Burke’s Political Economy, was published by Cambridge University Press in 2020. My scholarly and teaching interests include the history of political and economic thought, the intellectual origins of conservatism and liberalism, the philosophical and ethical implications of political economy, business ethics, American constitutional theory and practice, and black political thought. I have published articles on Burke’s economic thought in the Review of Politics; Adam Smith’s views on the Navigation Acts and Anglo-American imperial relations in History of Political Thought; Frederick Douglass’ constitutional theory in American Political Thought; Burke’s and Smith’s views on Britain’s East India Company in Journal of the History of Economic Thought; Burke’s plan for the abolition of the slave trade in Slavery & Abolition; and Burke’s intellectual relationship with Leo Strauss and the Straussian political tradition in Perspectives on Political Science. I have also published articles and book reviews on related topics in National Affairs, Law & Liberty, National Review, University Bookman, and the Spectator.

My second book project, The Idea of Civil Society in Early Black Political Thought, is an examination of the idea of civil society in early black political thought, featuring Richard Allen, Absalom Jones, Frederick Douglass, Booker T. Washington, Fannie Barrier Williams, Alexander Crummell, and W.E.B. Du Bois. The manuscript is under review at Cambridge University Press.

My current book project is an attempt at a normative philosophical foundation for conservative political economy, inspired by Aristotle, Thomas Aquinas, Burke, Smith, F.A. Hayek, Wilhelm Röpke, and Thomas Sowell.

I received the Buckley Institute’s 2024 Lux et Veritas Faculty Prize, which “recognizes a Yale faculty member who actively fosters intellectual diversity for students in and out of the classroom;” the 2024 Heritage Foundation Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize, which awards scholars conducting research “related to freedom, opportunity, and traditional American values”; and the 2020 winner of the Acton Institute’s Novak Award, which is awarded annually to one young scholar conducting research on the connection between liberty and virtue. I am married to my college sweetheart and have three young daughters. In my free time I enjoy rooting for Boston professional sports teams, playing Scrabble and chess, and beating my students at pickup basketball.