Robert A. Ballingall is Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Maine. His research interests lie in classical political philosophy and its fraught relationship to modern – especially liberal democratic – political thought.

Before coming to UMaine, Professor Ballingall was Postdoctoral Fellow in the Program on Constitutional Government at Harvard and Allan Bloom Memorial Postdoctoral Fellow for Research in Classical Political Thought at the University of Toronto, where he also took his PhD.

Professor Ballingall has published a book-length study of Plato’s Laws, which offers an original interpretation of the dialogue and explains its enduring relevance for understanding the civic virtues presupposed by constitutional government. His scholarly articles, chapters, and reviews have appeared or are forthcoming in Perspectives on Political Science, The European Legacy, History of Political Thought, Polis: The Journal for Ancient Greek Political Thought, Brill’s Companion to the Legacy for Greek Political Thought (eds. David Carter and Rachel Foxley), and Classical Rationalism & the Politics of Europe (ed. Ann Ward).