Verlan Lewis, Ph.D.
Stirling Professor of Constitutional Studies Utah Valley University
Media
Biography
Areas of Expertise
Accomplishments
Choice Outstanding Academic Title
2020-01-01
Awarded for Ideas of Power (Cambridge University Press, 2019). Given to the top 10% of academic books reviewed by the Association of College and Research Libraries each year for excellent scholarship.
Education
Stanford University
Postdoc
Political Science
2017
University of Virginia
Ph.D.
Government
2015
Cambridge University
MPhil
Political Thought & Intellectual History
2010
Brigham Young University
B.A.
Political Science
2008
Media Appearances
Opinion: A spirit of amity and mutual deference
Deseret News online
2025-09-17
I believe that for the American experiment in self-government to succeed, we must return to the spirit of charity and moderation that characterized the political behavior of the delegates to the Constitutional Convention.
Understanding and Overcoming Political Polarization with Constitutional Expert Dr. Verlan Lewis
Southern Virginia University News online
2024-01-31
On Jan. 26, the Southern Virginia University community gathered to hear Dr. Verlan Lewis, Stirling Professor of Constitutional Studies and associate professor of political science at Utah Valley University, speak on his recent co-authored book, “The Myth of Left and Right,” and how to be peacemakers in a polarized political nation.
Is AOC the most conservative Democrat in Congress?
The Hill online
2019-06-28
One of the reasons we cannot use the “left-right” spectrum to measure ideological change over time is because the very meanings of “left” and “right” themselves are constantly transforming.
The Myth of Ideological Polarization
The Wall Street Journal online
2022-06-17
‘Left’ and ‘right’ are illusory categories. What we’re really experiencing is tribal hostility.
Courses
Political Ideologies
POLS 1020
Parties in American Political Development
CGCL 6440
Articles
Cape mission liberalism and the South African liberation struggle
Social Dynamics2022-12-06
Given the outsized role that Christian mission schools have had on South African political history, this article seeks to identify how the Cape mission liberal tradition, specifically, influenced twentieth-century South African political thought.
Aristocracy, Democracy, and Liberalism: Using the Tocquevillean Dichotomy to Understand Modern Liberalism
Perspectives on Political Science2021-07-22
While previous scholarship has created anachronistic categories to analyze the political thought of notable liberals like John Stuart Mill and Alexis de Tocqueville, this article improves our understanding of liberalism by using an analytic category supplied by the writers themselves.
The problem of Donald Trump and the Static Spectrum Fallacy
Party Politics2019-09-16
Donald Trump’s transformation of Republican Party ideology has helped reveal major problems in the political science discipline’s conceptualization and measurement of ideology.
Party Control of Government and American Party Ideology Development
Studies in American Political Development2018-09-18
Throughout U.S. history, the two major political parties have switched positions many times on a variety of issues, including how powerful the national government should be and how much it should regulate and guide the American economy.
The President and the Parties’ Ideologies: Party Ideas about Foreign Policy Since 1900
Presidential Studies Quarterly2016-09-27
Throughout U.S. history, the two major political parties have switched positions many times on a variety of issues, including whether the United States should intervene more or less in foreign affairs.
