Christina Bambrick is the Filip Family Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of Notre Dame specializing in constitutional theory and development. Professor Bambrick began her studies at Scripps College, one of the Claremont Colleges, where she studied philosophy and legal studies. She went on to obtain a doctorate degree in political science from the University of Texas at Austin.
“Looking back, everything seems much clearer,” Professor Bambrick says about her lifelong “gravitation towards the social sciences.” During her time at Scripps, she found a particular interest in constitutional law after taking several great classes on comparative constitutionalism and American constitutional law. After she obtained her PhD from UT Austin, Professor Bambrick took a job teaching political science at Clemson University.
Although teaching at Clemson was “a truly great experience,” Professor Bambrick said that teaching political science at Notre Dame is her dream job. As a Catholic and the wife of an avid football fan, Professor Bambrick said that Notre Dame is her ideal fit.
At Notre Dame, Professor Bambrick primarily teaches undergraduate students. Thus far, she has taught a university seminar on political rights, a course on comparative constitutionalism, and a course on American constitutional law entitled “Constitutional Law: Powers and Institutions.” Next year, Professor Bambrick plans to teach a graduate course on comparative constitutionalism.
Outside of her teaching, Professor Bambrick has written multiple articles including "Horizontal Rights: A Republican Vein in Liberal Constitutionalism,” in Polity in 2020, and "'Neither Precisely National nor Precisely Federal': Governmental and Administrative Authority in Tocqueville's Democracy in America," in Publius: The Journal of Federalism in 2018.
Currently, Professor Bambrick is writing a book on the horizontal application of rights to non-state actors. This horizontal application builds individual rights and duties in tandem. Specifically, she focuses on comparing jurisprudence from the United States, India, Germany, South Africa, and the European Union.
Article contributed by CCCG Writing Fellow Luca Fanucchi.
Originally published by at constudies.nd.edu on May 03, 2023.