Timothy Brennan
Post-Doctoral Research Associate, Institute of American Civics
PhD, Political Science, Boston College
Fields of Interest: Modern Political Philosophy and American Political Thought
Phone: 865-974-6043 • Email: tbrenna7@utk.edu
Timothy Brennan is a graduate of the University of Melbourne and holds a Ph.D. in political science from Boston College. His main areas of research are modern political philosophy and American political thought, and his current research is focused especially on the political thought of Benjamin Franklin. He has published articles in Political Theory, History of Political Thought, Interpretation, the Review of Politics, History of European Ideas, The European Legacy, and the Journal of Politics. Before coming to the University of Tennessee, he taught at the University of Virginia and the University of Texas at Austin. He is originally from Sydney, Australia.
Refereed Journal Articles
“Teaching by Examples: Rousseau’s Lawgiver and the Case of Benjamin Franklin,” Political Theory (forthcoming)
“Rousseau, Franklin, and Bourgeois Liberalism,” History of Political Thought (forthcoming)
“Teaching by Contradictions: Montesquieu’s Subversion of Piety in The Spirit of the Laws,” The Review of Politics 84(Fall 2022): 520-44
“Montesquieu’s Dur-Commerce Thesis,” History of European Ideas 47 (2021): 698-712
“‘The Strength and Vigor of the Soul’: The Broader Meaning of Virtue in Rousseau’s First Discourse,” The European Legacy 26 (April 2021): 466-83
“‘I Believe I Have Demonstrated It’: The Status of Rousseau’s Original State of Nature,” History of Political Thought 41 (Winter 2020): 588-621
“Thomas Jefferson and the Living Constitution,” The Journal of Politics 79 (July 2017): 936-48
