Michael Promisel is the Busch Family Visiting Fellow with the Center for Citizenship and Constitutional Government for the 2023-2024 academic year.
Promisel attended college in his home state at the University of Virginia, where he fell in love with the study of political philosophy. Describing how he came to appreciate this subject, Promisel stated that he completed a number of internships, and that he had had “a really phenomenal professor” who helped him discern his passion. Encouraged by this professor, Promisel studied abroad in Athens, Greece, where he decided to go to graduate school and pursue his passion further. At the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Promisel said that he learned how to “be an academic” from Professor Richard Avramenko, who was his advisor and now a former visiting fellow with the CCCG. From there, Promisel became a professor at Coastal Carolina University, where he taught for several years before moving to the Catholic University of America in Washington, DC. He will begin teaching at CUA next year after the conclusion of his Notre Dame fellowship.
Promisel pursued this year long fellowship at the CCCG in order to focus on his writing without the usual responsibilities of a teaching professor. He described this opportunity as “a great gift,” stating that “it's something that's very rare and treasured among professors.”
Promisel intends to use this opportunity to finish his book on prudence and virtue in political leadership. “By focusing on prudence,” he stated, “I'm really sort of harkening back to an alternative conception of political leadership that understands moral or ethical character at its center.” This is Promisel’s first book and “the culmination of many years of research.”
Promisel became interested in the virtue of prudence after completing a number of internships with various politicians and campaigns. “I realized that there was more to leadership and good political leadership than I saw in our contemporary world,” he said. Reflecting on how his book project relates to the current state of political leadership in America, Promisel explained that, in his view, “every book is written with an eye to the political circumstances that the author inhabits, and, for me, this book is written mostly out of dissatisfaction not only with the current practice of political leadership, but with the current theories about leadership that prevail in our times.” Noting that his book project looks to the ancient political philosopher Aristotle for guidance, he explained: “the theory of rule and leadership I am arguing for is a very old one, but we would do well to call to mind and take lessons from it for our own understanding of leadership today.”
Originally from Fairfax, Virginia, Promisel is the eldest of three boys. He is now married, and, coincidentally, the father of three sons. They have moved to South Bend, Indiana, for the duration of this fellowship. Promisel and his family have thoroughly enjoyed their time in South Bend’s “really rich and wonderful community.”
Article contributed by CCCG Writing Fellow Luca Fanucchi.