Bradley C. S. Watson joined the regular faculty of the Van Andel Graduate School of Government in 2022, having served as Distinguished Fellow in Jurisprudence in 2020 and 2021. He teaches in the areas of constitutional jurisprudence, civil rights, modern American government, American political thought, and political philosophy. Prior to joining Hillsdale, he was Professor of Politics at Saint Vincent College in Pennsylvania, where he held the Philip M. McKenna Chair in American and Western Political Thought, and was Co-Director of the Center for Political and Economic Thought, a research and public affairs institute dedicated to the scholarly exposition of freedom, Western civilization, and the American experience. He was also a recipient of the college’s highest teaching award.
He is a Senior Fellow of the Claremont Institute, a longtime board member of the National Association of Scholars, and a past president of The Philadelphia Society. He has held visiting faculty appointments at Claremont McKenna College and Princeton University, where he was a visiting fellow in the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions. He is a member of the James Madison Society at Princeton. He has also been Visiting Scholar at the Social Philosophy and Policy Center at Bowling Green State University, and W. Glenn Campbell and Rita Ricardo-Campbell National Fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University. In addition to institutional awards, he has received fellowships from numerous national and international organizations, including the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada.
He has authored or edited many books, including Progressivism: The Strange History of a Radical Idea, Living Constitution, Dying Faith: Progressivism and the New Science of Jurisprudence, Progressive Challenges to the American Constitution: A New Republic, Civil Rights and the Paradox of Liberal Democracy, Ourselves and Our Posterity: Essays in Constitutional Originalism, and The Idea of the American University. He was educated in Canada, Belgium, and the United States, and holds an undergraduate degree in economics and advanced degrees in law, philosophy, and political science.
Highlighted Publications
Watson, Bradley C. S., and Charles R. Kesler. Progressivism: The strange history of a radical idea. Notre Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2022.
Watson, Bradley C. S. Living constitution, dying faith: Progressivism and the new science of jurisprudence. Wilmington, DE: Intercollegiate Studies Institute Books, 2010.
Watson, Bradley C. S. Progressive challenges to the American Constitution: A New Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017.
Watson, Bradley C. S. Ourselves and our posterity: Essays in constitutional originalism. Lanham: Lexington Books, 2009.
Watson, Bradley C. S. The idea of the American University. Lanham, MD: Littlefield Publishers, 2011.
Recent Interviews
Batchelor, John. AMERICAN CIVILIZATION. REVIEWING JAMES HUNTER’S DEMOCRACY AND SOLIDARITY. Other. The John Batchelor Show, May 30, 2025.
Courses Taught
Van Andel Graduate School of Government
- Constitutional Jurisprudence
- Progressivism and Liberalism
Washington-Hillsdale Internship Program