SCALIA, Laura J. 1959–

PERSONAL: Born 1959. Education: New York University, B.A.; Yale University, M.A., M.Phil., Ph.D.

ADDRESSES: Office—University of Houston, Department of Political Science, 4800 Calhoun Rd., Houston, TX 77204.

CAREER: Educator and author. University of Houston, Houston, TX, currently assistant professor of political science.

WRITINGS:

America's Jeffersonian Experiment: Remaking State Constitutions, 1820–1850, Northern Illinois University Press (DeKalb, IL), 1999.

Contributor to Political Research Quarterly.

SIDELIGHTS: Laura J. Scalia, an educator and author in the field of political science, focuses primarily on political thought and American government, particularly democratic theory and American ideas of freedom and self-government during the nineteenth century. Her first book, America's Jeffersonian Experiment: Remaking State Constitutions, 1820–1850, compares seven state constitutions and ten constitutional conventions during the first half of the nineteenth century in the context of the studies by revisionist scholars J. G. A. Pocock, Gordon Wood, and Bernard Bailyn. Scalia investigates the notions of sovereignty and inalienable rights as they pertained to individual states, using the opposing beliefs of Thomas Jefferson and James Madison as a framework. Michael O'Brien wrote in a review for the Times Literary Supplement that Scalia "believes that scholars have underestimated the diversity of American political thought by concentrating too much on Washington, while scanting the States, which were by instinct more Jeffersonian and less Madisonian, more experimental and less cautious."

Scalia concentrates on the debates occurring during the constitutional conventions in an effort to examine the political thought of a generation slightly removed from the original founding fathers. The main question at hand is whether it is wise to allow the flexibility of frequent revision to state constitutions—a system Jefferson favored—or whether it is preferable to restrict such alterations—as Madison recommended. John Dinan commented in the Journal of American History that "this is certainly an important question and one that has attracted a good deal of recent attention from constitutional scholars, as well as constitution makers in emerging democracies," but he noted that "Scalia's principal conclusion … is likely to be carefully scrutinized. Some scholars are likely to reach different conclusions." However, in a review for Publius, Peter J. Galie stated that "the monograph fulfills its claim of enriching our 'understanding of the nature and purpose of constitutions' and contributes to the growing body of literature that is directing our attention to the historical significance and continuing importance of the state constitutions."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Journal of American History, March, 2001, John Dinan, review of America's Jeffersonian Experiment: Remaking State Constitutions, 1820–1850, p. 1480.

Political Research Quarterly, December, 1996, Laura J. Scalia, "The Many Faces of Locke in America's Early Nineteenth-Century Democratic Philosophy," p. 807.

Publius, fall, 1999, Peter J. Galie, review of America's Jeffersonian Experiment, p. 115.

Times Literary Supplement, October 15, 1999, Michael O'Brien, review of America's Jeffersonian Experiment, p. 37.