What the Constitution Means to Us: A Celebration of Constitution Day

Angela Ards

Angela Ards is Associate Professor of English at Boston College. She teaches African American and contemporary American literature, with special interests in cultural studies, literary journalism, and narratives of place. She is the author of Words of Witness: Black Women’s Autobiography in the Post-Brown Era, and her current book project uses oral histories to chronicle the lives of black Americans who bypassed the Great Migration to remain in the South. She is the recipient of fellowships from the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study and the Hutchins Center for African and African American Research.

Jonathan Laurence

Jonathan Laurence is Director of the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy and Professor of Political Science at Boston College. He received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Cornell University, a C.E.P. at Sciences Po, and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Harvard University. His principal areas of teaching and research are comparative politics and religion and politics in Western Europe, Turkey and North Africa. Prof. Laurence's latest book is Coping with Defeat: Sunni Islam, Roman Catholicism and the Modern State (Princeton University Press, 2021). Previously, The Emancipation of Europe's Muslims, was published by Princeton University Press in 2012, and received awards for Best Book in religion and politics and migration and citizenship from the American Political Science Association. His first book, Integrating Islam: Religious and Political Challenges in Contemporary France, co-authored with Justin Vaïsse, was published by Brookings Institution Press (2006) and Odile Jacob (2007) and named an Outstanding Academic Title by Choice Magazine. Prof. Laurence assumed the Directorship of the Clough Center in spring 2022.

Cathleen Kaveny

Cathleen Kaveny, a scholar who focuses on the relationship of law, religion, and morality, serves as the Darald and Juliet Libby Professor at Boston College, a position that includes appointments in both the Theology Department and the Law School. She is the first faculty member to hold such a joint appointment. Kaveny regularly teaches contract law to first-year law students. She also teaches a number of seminars that explore the relationship between theology, philosophy, and law, such as “Faith, Morality, and Law,” “Mercy and Justice,” and “Complicity.” The author of four books and more than one hundred articles and essays, Kaveny has been published extensively in the areas of law, ethics, and medical ethics.

Ken Kersch

Ken Kersch is Professor of Political Science at Boston College. His primary interests are American political and constitutional development, American political thought, and the politics of courts. Kersch is the recipient of the American Political Science Association's Edward S. Corwin Award, the J. David Greenstone Prize from APSA's politics and history section, the C. Herman Pritchett Award from APSA’s law and courts section, and the Hughes-Gossett Award from the Supreme Court Historical Society. Prof. Kersch was also the founding Director of the Clough Center, from 2008-2012.

Peter Krause

Peter Krause is Associate Professor of Political Science at Boston College. His research and teaching focus on international security, Middle East politics, terrorism and political violence, nationalism, and rebels and revolution. He is the author of Rebel Power: Why National Movements Compete, Fight, and Win (Cornell University Press, 2017) and co-editor of Coercion: The Power to Hurt in International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2018) and Stories From the Field: A Guide to Navigating Fieldwork in Political Science (Columbia University Press, 2020). He has published articles on the causes and effectiveness of terrorism and political violence, why states negotiate with ethno-political organizations, the strategies of counter-secession, social movements and territorial control in Israel, U.S. intervention in the Syrian civil war, the politics of division within the Palestinian national movement, the war of ideas in the Middle East, a reassessment of U.S. operations at Tora Bora in 2001, and field research amidst COVID-19.

Hosfmann Ospino

Hosfmann Ospino is Associate Professor of Hispanic Ministry and Religious Education at the Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. A native of Colombia, where he pursued undergraduate studies in Philosophy, he holds an M.A. in theology with concentration in Church History and a Ph.D. in Theology and Education from Boston College. His research explores the dialogue between faith and culture and the impact of this interchange upon Catholic theological education, catechesis, and ministry. He has served as the principal investigator for several nationally recognized studies on how the Hispanic Catholic presence is transforming parishes, schools and organizations. He has authored and edited more than a dozen books. He is a frequent speaker at national and international events. He is actively involved in ministry and faith formation projects in various parts of the United States.

Vlad Perju

Vlad Perju is Professor at Boston College Law School. From 2012 to 2021, he was Director of the Clough Center for the Study of Constitutional Democracy. Perju’s primary research and teaching interests include the law of the European Union, comparative constitutional law and theory, international and comparative law, and jurisprudence. Perju served as an associate professor at Harvard Law School during the Fall 2011 semester, and as a visiting professor of the theory of the state at the European Academy of Legal Theory in Brussels, Belgium. He has been an affiliate of the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University since 2010.

Laura Steinberg

Laura Steinberg is the Seidner Family Executive Director of the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society and Professor of Earth and Environmental Sciences at Boston College. Dr. Steinberg has worked extensively on research in infrastructure management, disaster preparedness and response, environmental modeling, and higher education leadership. She served on the EPA Science Advisory Board, Drinking Water Committee and as an editor and advisory board member for Natural Hazards Review, Journal of Homeland Security and Emergency Management, and the Journal of Environmental Engineering. For the American Society of Civil Engineers, she served three terms as a member of the Industry Leaders Council representing civil engineering faculty members throughout the United States.