Jonathan Dahlsten

Jonathan Dahlsten is an Assistant Teaching Professor in the Cornerstone Institute on Civic Thought.  He received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Davis in 2025 and was a postdoctoral fellow at the School of Civic Leadership at UT Austin. He is a political theorist whose research explores the relationship between civic education, political formation, and the history of political thought. His current book project, The Formative Festival, recovers a neglected tradition of civic festivals as sites of public education and character formation in Plato, Rousseau, and Nietzsche. Jonathan’s work has appeared in Political Research Quarterly, and he has also written on political symbols, public affect, and civil religion in the United States.