Bernard J. Dobski, Ph.D.

Professor of Political Science

508-767-7369 Founders Hall - Room 329

Degrees Earned

B.A., Boston College: Political Science, 1995
M.A., Michigan State University: Political Science, 1997
Ph.D., Michigan State University: Political Science, 2003

Undergraduate Courses Taught

POL 110 The Quest for Justice
POL 199 Great Constitutions
POL 205 Introduction to Political Philosophy
POL 207 Peace and War 
POL 338 Nationalism and Fascism 
POL 345 Political Mass Murder 
POL 351 Classical Political Philosophy
POL 352 Early Modern Political Philosophy
POL 354 Classic Utopias 
POL 372 American Foreign Policy 
POL 376 Terrorism and the Modern World 
POL 377 The Politics of Just Wars 
POL 381 Shakespeare’s Politics 
IS: POL 399 Philosopher or Statesman? Xenophon’s Education of Cyrus
IS: POL 399 Thucydides’ “History”
IS: POL 399 The Ancient Polis
POL 399ST Greek Liberty and The Polis
POL 409 Senior Seminar: The Soul of Democracy 
HON 101 Global Perspectives

Publications & Editorships

Shakespeare and the Body Politic. Co-Editor with Dustin Gish. (Lanham: Lexington Books Press, 2013).

“The Political Wisdom of William Shakespeare”. Co-editor with Dustin Gish of a special edition of Perspectives on Political Science Volume 41. Issue 4. 2012.

Souls With Longing: Representations of Honor and Love in Shakespeare. Co-editor with Dustin Gish. (Lanham: Lexington Books Press, 2011).

“The Enduring Necessity of Periclean Politics” POLIS: The Journal for Ancient Greek Thought (forthcoming)

Immortal Longings: Representations of Honor and Love in Shakespeare. Co-editor (with Dustin Gish) of a collection of essays on William Shakespeare. Accepted for publication by Lexington Books Press.

“Shakespeare, the Body Politic and Liberal Democracy.” Perspectives on Political Science (special edition dedicated to the political wisdom of William Shakespeare). Volume 41. Issue 4. 2012. Co-authored with Dustin Gish.

“Thucydides’ Philosophic Turn to Causes.” Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy. Vol. 37. Issue 2 (Winter 2010) 123-155.

“Athenian Democracy Re-Founded: Xenophon’s Political History in the Hellenika.” POLIS : The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought (special edition dedicated to the political thought of Xenophon). Vol. 26. No. 2 (2009) 316-338.

“‘We Should See Certain Things Yet, Let Us Hope and Believe: Technology, Sex, and Politics in Mark Twain’s Connecticut Yankee.” Review of Politics 69 (2007) 599-624. (co-authored with B. Kleinerman)

“Thucydides and the Olympic Character of Greek Politics.” Paper published by the ISSEI as a CD-Rom version of the panel proceedings on Socrates as the founder of European identity in Malta, July 24-30, 2006.

“The Incomplete Whole: The Structural Integrity of Thucydides’ History”. In Socrates and Dionysus: Philosophy and Art in Dialogue, edited by Ann Ward. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press. (Spring 2013).

“Shakespeare and the Body Politic.” Introductory Chapter to Shakespeare and the Body Politic. (Lanham: Lexington Books Press, 2013).

“Souls with Longing.” In Souls with Longing: Representations of Honor and Love in Shakespeare, ed. by Bernard Dobski and Dustin Gish (Lanham: Lexington Books Press, 2011) 3-18.

“Friendship and Love of Honor: The Education of Henry V.” In Souls with Longing: Representations of Honor and Love in Shakespeare, ed. by Bernard Dobski and Dustin Gish (Lanham: Lexington Books Press, 2011) 143-167.

“Thucydides and the Soul of Victory: Olympic Politics in the Peloponnesian War.” In Socrates: Reason or Unreason as the Foundation of European Identity, edited by Ann Ward, 98-111. Newcastle, UK: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007.

“The Use and Abuse of Political History.” Review Essay of Robert Kagan’s Thucydides and the Landmark Hellenika, edited by Robert Strassler and translated by John Marincola. Published in the September/October 2012 Society.

“On the Spartan and Athenian Characters.” Review Essay of Paul Rahe’s The Grand Strategy of Classical Sparta: The Persian Challenge and Debra Hamel’s The Battle of Arginusae: Victory at Sea and its Tragic Aftermath in the Final Years of the Peloponnesian War. Society (forthcoming).

Review of Leon Craig’s The Philosopher’s English King: Shakespeare’s Second Henriad as Political Philosophy. Published in Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy (forthcoming).

Review of On Sovereignty and Other Political Delusions by Joan Cocks and Freedom Beyond Sovereignty: Reconstructing Liberal Individualism by Sharon Krause. Published in Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy. Vol. 42.3 (Spring 2016).

Review of Barry Strauss’s The Death of Caesar: The Story of History’s Most Famous Assassination. Published in Society. Vol. 53. No. 4. (July-August 2016).

Review of Robert Howse’s Leo Strauss Man of Peace. Published in Society. Vol. 53No. 2 (March 2016), 226-229.

Review of Larry May’s War Crimes and Just War. Published in The Review of Metaphysics: a philosophical quarterly. Vol. 63, No. 4 (June 2010), 931-933.

Review of Marc Plattner’s Democracy Without Borders? Global Challenges to Liberal Democracy. Published in Society. Vol. 47 (March 2010), 164-166.

Review of Robert Faulkner’s The Case for Greatness: Honorable Ambition and Its Critics. Published in the May/June 2009 Society (Vol. 46 No. 3).

Review of Ethical Realism by Anatol Lieven and John Hulsman. Published in the September/October 2007 Society (Vol. 44 No. 6).

Review of Victor Davis Hanson’s A War Like No Other: How the Athenians and Spartans Fought the Peloponnesian War. Published in the July/August 2006 Society (Vol. 43 No. 5).

Presentations

Chair for panel entitled “Thucydides and Democratic Politics” at the Northeastern Political Science Association, Boston, MA, November 13th. 

“Natural Right in Thucydides’ History.” Guest lecturer at James Madison College of Michigan State University, Thursday, September 16th. 

“Periclean Athens and Thucydidean Moderation: Metrios and Sophrosune in the History.” Paper presented at the American Political Science Association, Washington, D.C., September 2nd – September 5th. 

Shakespeare and Politics Scholar for “Shakespeare & the Law: Henry V” sponsored by the Boston chapter of the Federalist Society. June 15th.

Grants and Awards

“Michael O’Shea Presidential Award for Excellence in Teaching” September 18th, 2015

Professional Service

Conference Co-Organizer, Love and Honor in Shakespeare, Assumption College, Oct. 2009

Academic Fellow for the Foundation for the Defense of Democracy, 2007-2008