Baylor Alum Adam Carrington Awarded New Endowed Professorship at Ashland University
Baylor University alum Adam Carrington has returned this fall to his undergraduate institution Ashland University as the Archer Endowed Professor in History & Political Science. His appointment as associate professor of political science includes a joint appointment as co-director and chaplain at the John M. Ashbrook Center for Public Affairs. He will also oversee a minor called “Faith and Society,” in which he will study and teach the intersection of political theology and political philosophy.
Carrington earned a bachelor’s degree in political science and religion at Ashland University in 2007 and his PhD in political science from Baylor University in 2014. He previously taught ten years at Hillsdale College, where he was an Associate Professor of Political Science. He was the 2018 Professor of the Year at Hillsdale, as nominated and voted on by the senior class. There he instructed both undergraduate and graduate students in the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, teaching courses on the U.S. Constitution, constitutional law, the American presidency and politics and literature. In 2020-2021, Carrington was a Garwood Visiting Fellow at the James Madison Program at Princeton University.
Carrington’s Liberty in Full: Justice Stephen Field’s Cooperative Constitution of Liberty was published by Lexington Books in 2017 (paperback 2019). He has also published numerous articles in journals such as The Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, Presidential Studies Quarterly, American Journal of Legal History, and American Political Thought. In addition to scholarly publications, his writing has appeared in The Wall Street Journal, the Washington Examiner, National Review, and Public Discourse. The Archer endowment will support his research and travel.
Bob Archer looks forward to Carrington’s work at Ashland and in the Ashbrook Scholars program there: “I think (Adam’s) teaching methods will be so well received by the Ashbrook Scholars, as well as all AU students. They’re going to learn so much from him … he’s the cream of the crop,” said Bob Archer. “The only way to get him (was) to set up an endowed chair, and we were happy to do so.”
“I’m deeply thankful to the Archers for this vote of confidence and really hope I can act in a way, teach in a way, conduct myself in a way that is worthy of it and in line with the school’s mission and really just try to be a part of the great community here,” stated Carrington. “It’s an honor. I’m very humbled.”
The endowed professorship came to be during a chance encounter when the Archers were visiting Hillsdale. Upon meeting Carrington at a luncheon, they were immediately impressed.
“We were talking for a long time about education, why I liked being part of college life,” recalled Carrington. “I thought I was selling Hillsdale … then later learned that Mr. Archer was interested in seeing if there were ways that I can kind of come back home.”
Carrington said he greatly appreciates what he has learned as a professor. “Teaching and learning really requires that you truly care about and love, not just the material, but the people you’re learning and studying with,” he said. “Unless you start from that perspective, it doesn’t really matter how much you know if you don’t first love.”