Kody W. Cooper is an Associate Professor for the Institute of American Civics in the Howard H. Baker Jr. School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. His teaching and research focus on political theory, American political thought, religion and politics, jurisprudence, and constitutional law, with particular interest in natural law philosophy.  He is the author of two books and numerous articles, book reviews, and popular essays.  After graduating summa cum laude from Kansas State University, he received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from the University of Texas at Austin. Previously, he has been a Visiting Scholar at Wolfson College, Cambridge University, held postdoctoral fellowships at the University of Missouri and Princeton University, was a Visiting Fellow with the Civitas Institute at the University of Texas at Austin, and was an associate professor of political science at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga.