Jacob Bruns

Ph.D. Candidate

Holland, Michigan

Education

B.A. University of Dallas, Business, 2015

M.A. University of Dallas, Humanities, 2020

M.A. Hillsdale College, Politics, 2022

“The Hillsdale graduate program is set apart by its focus on both the primary sources of wisdom in the west and the definitive writings of American politics. This combination is not found elsewhere.”

About

Jacob grew up in Michigan and completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of Dallas in Business. Following his graduation, Jacob taught for five years in a classical charter school in Arizona before joining the graduate program.

Awards & Fellowships

Ciceronian Society Nisbet Fellowship Award, Spring 2025.

Philadelphia Society Fellowship, Fall 2022.

Conference Presentations

"The Rise of Managerialism in Local Government," Society of Catholic Social Scientists, Fall 2025.

"Robert Frost & the One-Man Revolution," Ciceronian Society Conference, Spring 2025.

"Trial by Existence: Heidegger, Frost, & Our Plight," Intercollegiate Studies Institute American Politics & Government Summit, Fall 2024.

Roundtable on Timothy Carney’s Alienated America, Society of Catholic Social Scientists, Fall 2024.

"Liberal Psychology & Christianity," Society of Catholic Social Scientists, Fall 2023.

"The Aristocratic Imperative: Tocqueville & the Art of Self-Forgetting," Association for Core Texts and Courses, Spring 2023.

"Property and the Preservation of a Republic," Association for Core Texts and Courses, Spring 2021.

Selected Publications

"Alienated America: A Misappropriation of Alexis de Tocqueville." Catholic Social Science Review, Vol. 30, 2025: 15-20.

"Review of D. C. Schindler, God and the City: An Essay in Political Metaphysics." Catholic Social Science Review, Vol. 30, 2025: 237-240.

"Sparta and the Scots." Voegelin View, October 25, 2024.

"Liberal Psychology and the Decline of Christianity." Catholic Social Science Review, Vol. 29, 2024: 45-57.

"Philosophy and Liberty in a Commercial Age." Voegelin View, December 7, 2023.

"Richard Wolin: Between Scholarship and Ideology." Review of Wolin's Heidegger in Ruins: Between Philosophy and Ideology. Pietas 2, No.2, Fall 2023: 126-133.

"Machiavelli’s Rome and Sparta." Voegelin View, May 12, 2023.

Dissertation (in progress)

"The Politics of Authenticity: On the Political Meaning of Heidegger’s Destruktion"

Languages

Latin

Italian

German