UVa-Wise professor speaks during Williamsburg’s ‘Religion Month’

Professor Garrett W. Sheldon, the John Morton Beaty Professor of Political Science at The University of Virginia’s College at Wise, presented a lecture during Colonial Williamsburg’s recent celebration of Religion History Month.

“James Madison and Religious Freedom” was the topic of Sheldon’s April 23 lecture at the Dewitt Museum Auditorium. Sheldon’s speech was based on his book “The Political Philosophy of James Madison” (Johns Hopkins University Press), which explores the development of Madison’s conception of American religious liberty and its relation to his political theory.

Sheldon serves as the chair of the Department of Social Sciences at UVa-Wise, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1983. He is the author of several books on political theory and early American political thought, including “The Political Philosophy of Thomas Jefferson.” He currently is editing a book series on early American political thought for Johns Hopkins University Press.

Sheldon is the 1992 recipient of the Outstanding Faculty Award presented by the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia, the Commonwealth’s highest honor for faculty at Virginia’s public and private colleges and universities.

Sheldon has lectured at the University of Oxford, Princeton University, the University of Vienna and Moscow University. In 2006, he was invited to the White House to join four historians for a meeting with President George W. Bush. He completed his bachelor’s degree at the University of New Mexico and earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from Rutgers University.

Posted May 8, 2008