Weingartner Professors

John Lombardini (Ph.D. Princeton University) is the Weingartner Professor for 2018-21. He serves as Associate Professor of Government and Affiliate Faculty in Classical Studies, and is co-chair (with Drew Stelljes) of the Civic Scholars Project. His research is focused in the field of democratic theory, broadly construed, with a particular interest in the question of democratic authority and its place within modern representative institutions.

As co-chair of the Civic Scholars Project, he is currently working with undergraduate students to address the question: “what kinds of leadership, civic engagement, and civically-minded scholarship do we need to reinvigorate our democratic virtues, practices, and institutions?” The project provides students with the opportunity to conduct original research that bridges the worlds of academic study and civic engagement. It further aims at connecting William & Mary students with their peers at other academic institutions in order to address big global issues in their regional, national, and international manifestations.

2015-18

Joel Schwartz (Ph.D. University of California, Berkeley), Professor of Government and past director of the Charles Center, conducts research on deliberative democracy and other topics in political theory. Working with Professor Clay Clemens, he established a deliberative democracy format for the Weingartner Global Initiative. Their group of nine Weingartner Student Fellows selected the challenge of immigration of undocumented unaccompanied minors as their topic. They conducted research and focus groups on policy options, wrote a detailed briefing book for deliberation participants, and organized several public deliberations

2013-15

Francie Cate-Arries (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin-Madison) is a professor in Hispanic Studies. Her research focuses on cultural production related to the Franco regime’s "disappeared’" – civilian victims of firing squads whose mass graves are currently being exhumed nationwide in Spain. As part of her “Voices of Memory/Objects of Remembrance” project based in Madrid and Andalucía, she and the 2013 Weingartner Student Fellows, Megan Bentley and Katherine Wessman, filmed interviews with witnesses to the dictatorship’s repressive reprisals, including a former political prisoner; a veteran of 1939 French refugee camps; and family members of those executed without trial, Spanish citizens who now advocate for national legislation to recognize and redress human rights abuses during the regime. She is author of Culturas del exilio entre las alambradas: literatura y memoria de los campos de concentración en Francia, 1939-1945 (Barcelona, 2012), and a recipient of the SCHEV Outstanding Faculty Award.

2011-13

Associate Professor Paula Pickering mentored the Weingartner Student Fellows, Anushree Banerjee and Connor Smith. Pickering received a B.A. from Stanford University in 1989 and a PhD. from the University of Michigan in 2001. Her research focuses on how Western Balkan citizens and elites influence international efforts to rebuild post-conflict societies and states. She teaches comparative politics of the Eurasian region and is active in the Government department, International Relations, and Russian & Post-Soviet Studies programs.

2010-11

Professor Mike Tierney served as a mentor and guide to the Weingartner Student Fellows, Eva Baker and Sneha Raghaven. Tierny received a B.A. from William & Mary in 1987 and a Ph.D. from the University of California at San Diego in 2003. He was the Weingartner Associate Professor of Government, Director of International Relations, and Director of the Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations.