Graduate Scholars

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The Institute supports graduate students enthusiastically pursuing the truth and using their scholarship to transform academia and the broader culture. It recruits the highest-caliber graduate students to matriculate in the Master of Arts in Human Rights, as well as in Catholic University’s doctoral programs in politics, economics, history, philosophy, and theology, providing them the resources to rise as leaders in their fields.

School of Theology and Religious Studies

Vincent Birch

School of Theology and Religious Studies
Dominic Cassella

School of Arts and Sciences: History
Jeanne-Michelle Datiles

School of Theology and Religious Studies
Meghan Duke

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics

Sarah Dunford

School of Theology and Religious Studies
Molly Egilsrud

School of Philosophy

Genevieve Frank

School of Philosophy

Joseph Gazaille

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics

Micah Harris

School of Philosophy

Monica Jeffery

School of Theology and Religious Studies
Patrick Jones

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics
Camelia Lelesan

National Catholic School of Social Service
Jonathan Lindley

School of Arts and Sciences: English
Bridget Matz

School of Architecture
Elizabeth McCarthy

School of Theology and Religious Studies
Jason Paone

School of Philosophy
Bridget Safranek Knuffke

School of Theology and Religious Studies
Fr. Gilbrian Stoy

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics
Ian Tuttle

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics
Morgan Whitmer

School of Theology and Religious Studies

Vincent Birch

Vincent Birch is a doctoral student of historical and systematic theology in the School of Theology and Religious Studies. His research interests are focused on the ways theological knowledge fits and perfects the human person. Vincent received both a B.S. in Mathematics and Philosophy and an M.T.S. in Systematic Theology from the University of Notre Dame.

School of Philosophy

Michael Bors

Michael Bors, a native of Annapolis, MD, is a PhD candidate in the School of Philosophy at CUA. Previously he studied philosophy and theology at Thomas Aquinas College in California and classics via spoken Latin at the Vivarium Novum in Rome. His interests include logic, philosophy of nature, metaphysics, and political and cultural philosophy.

School of Theology and Religious Studies

Dominic Cassella

Dominic V. Cassella is a doctoral student of historical and systematic theology in the School of Theology and Religious Studies. He earned his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas More College of Liberal Arts and his M.A. in Theology from the Byzantine Catholic Seminary of Ss. Cyril and Methodius. His research interests blur the lines between Theology and Philosophy, with an emphasis on ancient metaphysics and its influence on Trinitarian and Christological doctrine.

School of Arts and Sciences: History

Jeanne-Michelle Datiles

Jeanne-Michelle Datiles is a doctoral candidate in History. A former lawyer, her research focuses on religion, law, and society in late medieval and early modern England, especially the transformation and shaping of memory and identity throughout the English Reformations. Related research topics include recusancy and other forms of religious/political resistance, the preservation of memory, the role of women and familial networks, and the cultural interchange between domestic and exile networks across geographic, generational, and religious communities. Her academia page can be found here.

School of Theology and Religious Studies

Meghan Duke

Meghan Duke is a doctoral student in historical theology in the School of Theology and Religious Studies. She received her BA from Thomas Aquinas College (California) and her MTS from the University of Notre Dame (Indiana). Her current interests include the theology of Thomas Aquinas, Albert the Great, Bonaventure and the topics of faith, vision of God, and beatitude.

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics

Sarah Dunford

Sarah Dunford is a doctoral student in Political Theory. She holds a B.A. in government from Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Virginia.

School of Philosophy

Marcela Duque

Marcela Duque is a doctoral student in the School of Philosophy. Originally from Colombia, she received her B.A in Philosophy from The University of Navarra, in Spain. Her interests include Plato and the tradition of Christian Platonism, classical education, environmental philosophy, aesthetics and the literary arts.

School of Theology and Religious Studies

Molly Egilsrud

Molly Egilsrud is a doctoral student in moral theology in the School of Theology and Religious Studies. Her research interests include imitation in St. Thomas’ moral theology and technology and virtue ethics. She holds degrees from Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service and the Pontifical Faculty of the Immaculate Conception at the Dominican House of Studies.

School of Philosophy

Genevieve Frank

Genevieve Frank, a Kansas City native, is a student in the School of Philosophy. She graduated from the University of Dallas with a B.A. in English and a concentration in Spanish. Her research interests include philosophy of education and the human person.

School of Philosophy

Joseph Gazaille

Joseph Gazaille is a graduate student in the School of Philosophy. He holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Providence College. His research interests include moral philosophy and the philosophy of education, with a focus on the ways in which different elements of culture affect one’s moral development. Currently, Joseph is working on a project that explores the role of eros in moral development in Plato’s Phaedrus.

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics

Micah Harris

Micah Harris is a doctoral student in Political Theory. He has worked in the Senate, the White House, the Office of the Secretary of Defense, and elsewhere in the national security community. He holds an M.A. in Liberal Arts from Saint John’s College in Annapolis. His novel, Only Small Things Are Good, was published in 2018 and described by a former Assistant Secretary of Defense as “a must read for anyone who wants to understand life in the Pentagon.”

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics

Thomas Holman

Thomas Holman is a former member of the U.S. military and a current PhD Student in the Department of Politics at The Catholic University of America. His work focuses on the ontology of the human person and its meaning for political life, with an emphasis on 20th Century continental thought.

School of Philosophy

Monica Jeffery

Monica Burke, originally from Danville, Pennsylvania, is a PhD candidate in the School of Philosophy. She holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Christendom College, where she received the Outstanding Philosophy Major Award for the Class of 2017. Her research interests include political philosophy and natural law with a focus on the thought of Thomas Aquinas.

School of Theology and Religious Studies

Patrick Jones

Patrick Jones is a PhD student in Moral Theology. He earned his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Saint John’s College, Annapolis, and his M.A. in Theology from the Dominican House of Studies. His research interests are at the intersection of Theology and Politics, with an emphasis on Saint Augustine’s relevance to modern political theology.

School of Philosophy

Philip Knuffke

Philip Knuffke is a Doctoral Candidate in the School of Philosophy. He took his B.A. in Liberal Arts from Thomas Aquinas College in his native California and his Ph.L. from The Catholic University of America. His research interests include theories of education, the relationship between premodern and modern theories of economics, and the natural philosophy and anthropology of Aristotle.

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics

Camelia Lelesan

Camelia Lelesan is a Ph.D candidate in Political Theory. Camelia holds a BA in Philosophy from the Babes-Bolyai University (Romania), a Master of Philosophy from the University of Sorbonne (France), a MA in Political Studies from the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (France), and is an alumna of Ecole Normale Superieure (France).

School of Philosophy

Daryl Li

Daryl Li is a student in the School of Philosophy. Daryl holds a MA from St. John’s College (Annapolis, MD). His research interests lies in investigating the limits of human knowledge vis-à-vis the possibility of human freedom, with an emphasis on the dialogue between Socratic philosophy and German Idealism.

National Catholic School of Social Service

Jonathan Lindley

Jonathan Lindley, originally from Upper Chichester, PA, is pursuing his Masters of Social Work in the National Catholic School of Social Service. He received his B.A. from Villanova University in Psychology and Humanities. Jonathan is interested in serving the psychiatric population through the lens of Catholic Social Teaching.

School of Arts and Sciences: English

Bridget Matz

Bridget Matz is a student in the M.A. program in English. She grew up in nearby Virginia and received her B.A. in English from George Mason University, where she graduated summa cum laude.

School of Architecture

Elizabeth McCarthy

Elizabeth Harper McCarthy is a first year Masters student in the School of Architecture and Planning. She received her B.F.A from the University of North Carolina School of the Arts where she trained in the classical theatre. She joins the School of Architecture’s Concentration in Classical Architecture.

School of Theology and Religious Studies

Jason Paone

Jason Paone is a doctoral student of historical and systematic theology whose research focuses on the confrontation of classical Christianity with philosophical modernity and its epistemological problematics. Jason holds a B.A. in philosophy and classics from the University of Texas at Austin and an M.T.S. from Duke University.

School of Philosophy

Bridget Safranek Knuffke

Bridget Safranek Knuffke, a native of Omaha, Nebraska, is a student of the School of Philosophy. She holds a B.A. in philosophy from the University of Dallas. Her research interests include the philosophy of law and bioethics, as well as questions related to virtue ethics and natural law theory.

School of Theology and Religious Studies

Fr. Gilbrian Stoy

Fr. Gilbrian Stoy, CSC, is Holy Cross Priest and doctoral student in Moral Theology in the School of Theology and Religious Studies. His research interests focus on the intersection of economics, ecology, and ethics. He has received both a B.S. and MDiv from the University of Notre Dame, as well as an MST in Christian Ethics from the University of Oxford.

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics

Ian Tuttle

Ian Tuttle is a doctoral student in political theory. From 2014 to 2017, he was a fellow with the National Review Institute in New York City. He has been regularly published in, among others, National Review and The New Criterion. He holds a B.A. in Liberal Arts from St. John’s College (Annapolis, MD).

School of Arts and Sciences: Politics

Morgan Whitmer

Morgan Whitmer is a doctoral student of Political Theory. A recent graduate of Hillsdale College (Michigan), where she majored in Politics and minored in Classical Education, she participated in the George Washington Fellows Program, the Collegiate Scholars Program, and the Washington Hillsdale Internship Program.

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