Chase Mendoza

Chase Mendoza is a Ph.D. candidate in Political Science at the University of Notre Dame. His primary research interest is in Spanish Scholasticism, especially the work of Bartolomé de las Casas and the school’s contributions to conceptualization of liberty, republicanism, international law, and human rights. He is particularly interested in the interpretive strategies deployed by Las Casas to defend the political communities of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. Chase is also interested in the emergence of utopian political thought in literature and politics in the early modern period as well as the history of Christian political thought. He has presented his work at the annual conferences of the American Political Science Association and the Midwest Political Science Association. He has also served as the editorial intern for The Review of Politics from 2025-2026 helmed by Dr. Ruth Abbey and was the graduate student coordinator for the University of Notre Dame’s Political Theory Colloquium under the leadership of Dr. Mary Keys. Currently, Chase is writing a dissertation on the republican political thought of Bartolomé de las Casas.