Dr. Stephen M. Krason
Chair of the Department of Political Science
Director of the Human Life Studies Minor Program
Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies
Dr. Stephen M. Krason is Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies, Director of the Political Science Program, and Chairman of the Department of Political Science (which includes the Human Life Studies, Humanities and Catholic Culture, Legal Studies, and Political Science Programs) at Franciscan University of Steubenville. He is also Associate Director of the Veritas Center for Ethics in Public Life at the University. He earned his J.D. and Political Science M.A. and Ph.D. at the State University of New York at Buffalo. He also holds an M.A. in Theology/Religious Education from Gannon University. In 1997, he was the recipient of the University’s “Campus Leadership and Teaching Award.” He joined the University’s faculty in 1986, after serving for three years as Eastern Director of the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. He is admitted to the bars of Massachusetts, Nebraska, the District of Columbia, and certain federal courts including the U.S. Supreme Court. He was co-founder (in 1992) and since that time has served as the President and Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Society of Catholic Social Scientists, and in that capacity is also Publisher of its scholarly journal, The Catholic Social Science Review.
He also serves as Director of the Society’s online/tutorial M.Th. program in Catholic Social Thought. He also serves as general editor of the “Catholicism and Society” book series of Franciscan University Press. He has authored Abortion: Politics, Morality, and the Constitution; Liberalism, Conservatism, and Catholicism; Preserving a Good Political Order and a Democratic Republic; The Public Order and the Sacred Order (whose revised edition Library Journal in 2009 called “an important contribution to Catholic social thought”); The Transformation of the American Democratic Republic (which was nominated by its publisher, Transaction, for the 2013 J. Willard Hurst Book Prize of the Law and Society Association), Catholicism and American Political Ideologies, and a political novel, American Cincinnatus. He has also edited or co-edited Parental Rights: The Contemporary Assault on Traditional Liberties; The Recovery of American Education: Reclaiming a Vision; Catholic Makers of America; We Hold These Truths and More: Further Catholic Reflections on the American Proposition; Defending the Family: A Sourcebook; the two-volume Encyclopedia of Catholic Social Thought, Social Science, and Social Policy; Child Abuse, Family Rights, and the Child Protective System: A Critical Analysis from Law, Ethics, and Catholic Social Teaching; The Crisis of Religious Liberty: Reflections from Law, History, and Catholic Social Thought; Challenging the Secular Culture: A Call to Christians; and Parental Rights in Peril. He also authored a short monograph entitled The International Pro-Abortion Rights Litigation Strategy: An Anti-Democratic Secret Plan to Force Legalized Abortion on the World’s Governments, as part of the Center for Family and Human Rights “White Paper Series.” He also has authored numerous articles, book chapters, and book reviews in such journals and publications as The Catholic Social Science Review, The Social Justice Review, The Journal of Catholic Legal Studies, Interpretation: A Journal of Political Philosophy, Ethics and Medics, The Review of Metaphysics, Catalyst, The Wanderer, and The Washington Times. He is also a contributor to both American Conservatism: An Encyclopedia and The New Catholic Encyclopedia (2nd edn. and 2012-13 Supplement). He writes a monthly (sometimes bi-monthly) column entitled “Neither Left nor Right, but Catholic,” that appears in Crisismagazine.com and The Wanderer, as well as at his blog site (skrason.wordpress.com). It especially comments on current public questions in light of Catholic social teaching. He is sometimes a guest on “The Drew Mariani Show” on Relevant Radio. He has been listed in Who’s Who in the Midwest. For several years, he was a consultant to the Pope John XXIII Medical-Moral Research and Education Center (now the National Catholic Bioethics Center), and has served as Coordinator of the University’s Human Life Studies Academic Minor Program. He helped draw up both the University’s Human Life Studies and Humanities and Catholic Culture Programs. He is on the Boards of Directors of the ParentalRights.org and its companion organization the Parental Rights Foundation, and also of the International Solidarity and Human Rights Institute. He also serves on the Boards of Advisors of the Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights and of the Catholic Education Resource Center. He has also served on the Board of Directors of the Fellowship of Catholic Scholars. He has drafted or co-drafted and served as counsel-of-record for amicus curiae briefs in Troxel v. Granville and Camreta v. Greene/Alford v. Greene, major parental rights cases before the U.S. Supreme Court. He has also spoken at continuing legal education programs for lawyers. He has received research grants from Franciscan University, the Earhart Foundation, the Wilbur Foundation, and the Russell Kirk Center for Cultural Renewal/Educational Reviewer. He was also a visiting fellow at the Witherspoon Institute in Princeton, New Jersey. He teaches or has taught courses in a number of fields in political science: American politics and government, political philosophy, American constitutional law, American political thought, and international politics. He also teaches the “Natural Law” and the “Politics, Economics, and the Social Encyclicals” courses. He has written and published in many subject areas, including: abortion and human life issues, Catholic social teaching, the principles of the American Founding and American political thought, American constitutional law, education, false child abuse allegations, free speech and censorship, liberalism and conservatism, church-state questions and religious liberty, international politics, and American Catholic political history. Choosing the Right College, the Intercollegiate Studies Institute’s noted college guide, referred to Dr. Krason as being “renowned as a conservative scholar of the U.S. founding and the Constitution.” Dr. Krason is also a member of the James Madison Society, a group of distinguished scholars affiliated with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.
- J.D. in Political Science – State University of New York at Buffalo
- M.A. in Political Science – State University of New York at Buffalo
- Ph.D. in Political Science – State University of New York at Buffalo
- M.A. in Theology/Religious Education – Gannon University
