Mary M. Keys

Professor

Mary Keys headshot. A woman with shoulder-length brown hair, wearing glasses and a black collared shirt, smiling against a blurred green, leafy background.
Office
2172 Jenkins and Nanovic Halls
Notre Dame, IN 46556
Phone
574-631-6921
Email
mkeys1@nd.edu

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Biography

Mary M. Keys holds a BA from Boston College and a MA and PhD from the University of Toronto. Her research and teaching interests span a broad spectrum of political theory, with a special focus in Christianity, ethics, and political thought. She is the author of Pride, Politics, and Humility in Augustine's City of God (Cambridge) and Aquinas, Aristotle, and the Promise of the Common Good (Cambridge). Her work includes articles and chapters in the American Journal of Political Science, History of Political Thought, Perspectives on Political Science, The Oxford Handbook of Rhetoric and Political Theory, The Cambridge Handbook of Natural Law and Human Rights and The Cambridge Companion to Augustine's City of God. She has held various fellowships, including a NEH Fellowship supporting her ongoing research project on Humility, Modernity, and the Science of Politics, and she has been a visiting scholar at Harvard University and the University of Chicago.

Research Interests

History of Political Thought, Religion and Political Thought, Christian Political Thought, Ethics and Political Thought, Legal and Constitutional Theory

Affiliated Centers and Institutes

  • Nanovic Institute for European Studies
  • de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture
  • Medieval Institute

Awards/Honors/Grants

  • Visiting Fellow, Department of Politics and the James Madison Program, Princeton University, 2024-2025
  • Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching, University of Notre Dame, 2013
  • National Endowment for the Humanities Fellowship, 2006-2007
  • Visiting Scholar, Program in Constitutional Government, Department of Government, Harvard University, 2006-2007
  • Senior Research Fellow, The Martin Marty Center: The Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion at the University of Chicago, 2003-2004

Publications