Joey Barretta

Ph.D. Candidate

Mansfield, Ohio

Education

B.A. Ashland University, Political Science and History, 2017

M.A. Hillsdale College, Politics, 2019

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“What makes America great is our founding principle that ‘all men are Created equal.'”

~ Joey Barretta

About

My research is primarily focused on the political thought of Frederick Douglass and Abraham Lincoln and their views on the need to restore America to its founding principles. Their understanding of the fundamentally just nature of the Founding shows why America is great and has remained so, even after its greatest existential crisis.

After graduation I plan on teaching at the collegiate level. My time at Ashland and Hillsdale has been the most rewarding, so I intend to work in a profession in which I can forever teach and learn. I taught high school Latin and that experience reinforced my desire to inspire students as I have been inspired by my own teachers. I want to be able provide future students with an understanding of what makes America great and unlike any other nation in history: our founding principle that “all men are Created equal.”

Dissertation

Frederick Douglass on the Necessary Conditions for Freedom: Prescriptions for Post-Slavery America (in progress)

Research Interests

Frederick Douglass

Abraham Lincoln

American Founding

Conference Presentations

"From Garrisonian Purist to Prudent Patriot: Frederick Douglass’ Shift on the U.S. Constitution." Presented virtually at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 2021.

"Broadcast Regulation and the New Ends of Politics: The Public Interest, Convenience, or Necessity Standard of the Communications Act of 1934." Accepted to the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 2020 (conference cancelled due to COVID-19); presented virtually at the annual meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association, April 2021.

"The Rightly Ordered Ambition of Pericles". Presented at the annual meeting of the Northeast Political Science Association, Philadelphia, PA, November 2019.

Languages

Latin

German

Selected Publications

"Nikole Hannah-Jones Butchers Frederick Douglass’s Views on Slavery and the Constitution." The American Spectator, January 21, 2021.

"Elia Kazan’s America." The American Conservative, January 1, 2021.

"Fusionism Is Dead, Long Live Conservatism!" The Imaginative Conservative, September 9, 2020.

"Frederick Douglass, Progressive Visionary?" The Imaginative Conservative, April 30, 2020.

"The Founding Wasn't Merely Modern." The American Mind, March 9, 2020.