James R. Stoner, Jr. is Hermann Moyse, Jr., Professor and director of the Eric Voegelin Institute at Louisiana State University (LSU), where he has taught since 1988. He specializes in political theory, English common law, and American constitutionalism. Professor Stoner graduated summa cum laude, with an AB from Middlebury College in 1977. He obtained both his MA (1980) and Ph.D. (1987) from Harvard University, studying under the conservative professor Harvey Mansfield. Stoner was appointed by then president George W. Bush in 2002 as member of the National Council for the Humanities, a post he held until 2006. He also chaired the drafting committee of the Princeton Principles, a 2006 policy paper on the importance of marriage and the public good.
Among his publications are Common-Law Liberty: Rethinking American Constitutionalism and Common Law and Liberal Theory: Coke, Hobbes, and the Origins of American Constitutionalism – both of which he authored, and Political Thought of the Civil War, which he co-edited. He has also co-edited three STI-supported volumes for the Witherspoon Institute, where he is senior fellow.