Lucas Morel
Morel has taught at W&L since 1999. His teaching and research interests include American government, political theory, Abraham Lincoln, Ralph Ellison, and race and equality. He is a pre-law advisor and an accomplished writer.
Lucas Morel
Department Head, John K. Boardman, Jr. Professor of Politics
- Huntley Hall 121A
- P: 540-458-8161
- E: morell@wlu.edu
Professor Morel has taught at W&L since July 1999. He also teaches in the summer Master’s Program in American History and Government at Ashland University in Ohio; summer programs for the Claremont Institute for the Study of Statesmanship and Political Philosophy; and high school teacher workshops sponsored by the Ashbrook Center, the Gilder-Lehrman Institute, the Jack Miller Center, the Bill of Rights Institute, and the Liberty Fund.
In 2008-09, he was the Garwood Visiting Research Fellow at the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University.
Prof. Morel is a trustee of the Supreme Court Historical Society, former president of the Abraham Lincoln Institute, a consultant on Library of Congress exhibits on Lincoln and the Civil War, and was a member of the scholarly board of advisors for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial Commission. He currently serves on the U.S. Semiquincentennial Commission, which will plan activities to commemorate the 250th anniversary of the founding of the United States of America. He has written for the Los Angeles Times, Christian Science Monitor, and Richmond Times-Dispatch.
Education
- Ph.D., Political Science, The Claremont Graduate University 1994
- M.A., Politics, The Claremont Graduate School, 1991
- B.A., cum laude, Government, Claremont McKenna College, 1987
Research
- Abraham Lincoln
- Frederick Douglass
- Ralph Ellison
- Black American politics
Teaching
- Politics 100 – American National Government
- Politics 111 – Introduction to Political Philosophy
- Politics 250 – Race and Equality
- Politics 350 – Ralph Ellison and the American Dream
- Politics 360 – Lincoln’s Statesmanship
Selected Publications
- Lincoln and the American Founding (Southern Illinois University Press-Concise Lincoln Library Series; forthcoming, July 4th, 2020)
- Lincoln and Liberty: Wisdom for the Ages, editor (University Press of Kentucky, 2015)
- Ralph Ellison and the Raft of Hope: A Political Companion to “Invisible Man", editor (University Press of Kentucky, 2004)
- Lincoln’s Sacred Effort: Defining Religion’s Role in American Self-Government (Lexington Books, 2000)
- The New Territory: Ralph Ellison and the Twenty-First Century, co-editor (University Press of Mississippi, 2016)
Other
- Webinar: "Documents in Detail: MLK’s Letter from Birmingham City Jail," TeachingAmericanHistory.Org (February 2017)
- Podcast: “What to the Slave is the Fourth of July?” National Constitution Center, “We the People” Podcast (with David Blight) (July 2020)
- “Shakespeare and the Making of America,” National Constitution Center, Town Hall Video (panelist; interviewed by Jeffrey Rosen) (Nov. 2020)
- “America Wasn’t Founded on White Supremacy: A Rebuttal to the ‘1619 Project,’” online essay for The American Mind (October 17, 2019)
- Lucas Morel on Teaching Colson Whitehead’s “The Underground Railroad” (May 2017)