People
The Quill Team
Dr Nicholas Cole is a Senior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. Aside from the Quill Project, which he directs, he studies the political thought of the eighteenth and early nineteenth century. His particular interests are the influence of classical political thought on America's first politicians, and the search for a new 'science of politics' in post-Independence America.
Quill Project Team at Pembroke College
Dr Alfie Abdul-Rahman is a Lecturer in Computer Science at the Department of Informatics, King's College London. Her research interests include information visualization, human-computer interaction, user-centered design of visualization applications, and user studies and evaluation.
Lauren Davis recently completed her Master of Studies at Oxford University. Lauren started with Quill as a Research Assistant in 2018, and rejoined the team some months later as the project's first Digital Curator. While studying for her undergraduate degree at the University of Alabama, Lauren was involved with the Mill Marginalia Research Project.
Elizabeth Green recently graduated from a History and English degree at Pembroke College, Oxford and has joined Quill as a trainee Digital Curator. In addition to the obvious charms of staying at Pembroke for another year, what attracted her to the Quill Project was its close focus on text and language, as well as the chance to gain an insight into the workings of a digital humanities project.
Dr Omer Gunes is a Junior Research Fellow at Pembroke College, University of Oxford. He holds a DPhil degree in Computer Science from Oxford University. His research interests include Natural Language Processing, Information Extraction, and Deep Learning.
Ruth Murray is the Quill Project Administrator. She graduated from The Queen’s College, Oxford a long time ago and has experience in a variety of administrative roles in Oxford University, most recently at the Changing Character of War Centre.
Grace Penn recently finished her Undergraduate Degree in English Language and Literature at the University of Oxford. She has now joined the Quill team as Trainee Digital Curator, which has allowed her to continue pursuing her interest in how the written word is formed and represented. She is particularly interested in how the project uses new technology to open a window onto texts that might otherwise seem dense or inaccessible.
Other Quill Team Members
Mr Scott Paul Scott Paul is the Executive Director of the Utah Valley University Center for Constitutional Studies. Scott came to UVU from Brigham Young University where he studied law. His research centered on domestic and global religious liberty issues. He worked with Cole Durham and Brett Scharffs on Law and Religion: National, International, and Comparative Perspectives (Aspen/Wolters Kluwer, 2010). Scott also examined the relationship between famed jurist Sir Edward Coke and his one-time law clerk Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island and early advocate for the liberty of conscience.
1787 Constitutional Convention (2016 edition)
Grace Mallon is a recent graduate of University College, University of Oxford, where she read History and where she is now studying for an DPhil in American History. She was the principal editor for the 2016 edition of the Quill Project's model of the records of the 1787 Constitutional Convention.
Arizona State Constitutional Convention 1910
Dr Sean Beienburg is the director of the Living Repository of the Arizona Constitution project. Sean's teaching and research interests include the Constitution and constitutional law, American political development and American political thought, federalism and state constitutionalism/politics, executive power (both presidential and gubernatorial), parties and interest groups, 19th and early 20th century political and constitutional history, and Prohibition.
He is the author of Prohibition, the Constitution, and States' Rights (published by the University of Chicago Press, 2019) and is finishing another book on states as constitutional interpreters and progressive federalists in the progressive and New Deal eras.
Dr Nicholas Jacobs is a Faculty Research Associate at Arizona State University and a Faculty Fellow in the Department of Government at Colby College. His research focuses on executive-branch policymaking and intergovernmental politics.
Brexit Project 2019
Emilia_Cieslak is reading Law at Keble College, Oxford. She has been working as a Research Assistant on the Brexit project.
Caitlin Haggerty
King's College London
Nikola Dragacevac is an Undergraduate Computer Science student at King's College London. His research interests include Data Visualization and Algorithm Design.
Utah State Constitutional Convention 1895
Erica Croft is junior at Utah Valley University majoring in Political Science with an emphasis in Political Philosophy and Public Policy and minors in Constitutional Studies. Erica has a specialty in political theory and plans to carry on to study law. After graduation, she hopes to write and publish political literature in Critical Theory and practice law protecting workers rights.
Ashton Earl is sophomore at Utah Valley University studying Economics and History and minoring in Constitutional Studies. He is from the thriving agricultural metropolis of Hermiston, Oregon. He aspires to attend law school, practice constitutional law, and convince his beautiful wife to keep him along the way.
Edward Goebel is a junior at Utah Valley University majoring in Political Science with a Global Politics Emphasis and a double minor in Constitutional Studies and National Security. He is a native of Utah and enjoys the mountains in winter. He served a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Washington State from 2016-2018 and is very grateful to live in a country where religious liberty is constitutionally protected. He is fascinated with history and how it continues to be made. Consequently, he hopes to do graduate studies in area studies or foreign policy and then work for the federal government doing analysis of near-peer power competition.
Antony Jackson is a sophomore at Utah Valley University majoring in Political Science with an emphasis in Public Law and minoring in Constitutional Studies. He is from the small town of Punalu'u, Hawai'i. He served an LDS Mission in the Dakotas from 2015 to 2017. He enjoys reading, watching football and rugby, enjoying time with family and learning all he can. After graduating from UVU, Antony wants to attend law school and become a Constitutional Lawyer and defend American Values and Liberty.
Mary Nelson Mary Nelson is junior at Utah Valley University majoring in Political Science with a minor in Constitutional Studies. She plans to obtain her juris doctor and work as a political analyst. She hopes to study the preservation of rights given in the First Amendment.
Matt Rands is a senior at Utah Valley University and majoring in Political Science with an emphasis in Political Philosophy and Public Policy along with minors in Constitutional Studies and Spanish. He served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in the Bolivia Santa Cruz Mission. Since 2012, Matthew has been enlisted as a parachute rigger for the Utah National Guard. He anticipates to commission as an Army Lieutenant after graduation of ROTC and become a JAG officer upon completion of Law school.
Christopher Vizcardo is senior at Utah Valley University, majoring in Political Science with an emphasis in Political Philosophy and Public Policy and minoring in Constitutional Studies. He was born in the Andean city of Huaraz, Peru. His family moved to Utah when he was a child where he has lived ever since. From 2014-16 he served an as LDS missionary in New England. He speaks both Spanish and English and is interested in learning about Latin-American history and culture. Chris hopes to go on to law school to continue his study of constitutional issues.
Former Quill Team Members
Olivia Griffiths is a recent graduate of Pembroke College, University of Oxford, where she read French and Italian (BA). She was a Research Assistant at Pembroke College
Dr Kieran Hazzard is a historian of British Radicalism and its combative relationship with the East India Company in the first half of the nineteenth century. His research seeks to redefine our understanding of empire in India during the early nineteenth century. Kieran joined Quill in 2018 as Research Assistant. He’s currently working on the US Constitutional Convention 1787.
Eileen Jakeway worked for the Quill Project as an intern while studying for her MSt in Modern Languages as an Ertegun Scholar in the Humanities. Her interest in Quill stems from a passion for using technology to make scholarship more relevant and accessible for wider audiences; as an American, this is more important to her now than ever.
Giverny McAndrew is a recent graduate of Fitzwilliam College, University of Cambridge, where she read Music and Law. She was a Research Assistant at Pembroke College.
Bill of Rights 1789
Sebastian Bates worked as a research assistant for the Quill Project during 2018. He read Jurisprudence at Keble College, University of Oxford, and developed his interest in constitutional law and public international law as an intern at Columbia Law School's Human Rights Institute, the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia. Before joining the Quill Project, he clerked for Justice Johan Froneman at the Constitutional Court of South Africa. After leaving the Quill Project he moved to Yale Law School to continue his studies.
Lusiana Castiglione worked as a Communications Officer and Editorial Assistant for Quill and took a leading role on the Bill of Rights 1789 project.
Nick Williford is an Attorney at Law in Tennessee. After completing his Master of Studies at Oxford University, he worked for a number of months as a Research Assistant with Quill, focussed on the Bill of Rights. He continues to act as a legal advisor to the project.
French National Conventions
Gauthier Boucly is a Masters student at the Sorbonne. He worked with Quill on the pilot of the French National Conventions project in summer 2018. This pilot project was organized in conjunction with the Maison Francaise d'Oxford. It is hoped that the work that the French interns were able to carry out will result in a more substantial piece of work on the 1789 'Rights of Man and the Citizen', a document profoundly influenced by the American Revolution , and which provides an important contrast to the American Bill of Rights.
Laurine Le Rolland-Raumer is a Masters student at the University of Rennes. She worked with Quill on the pilot of the French National Conventions project in summer 2018. This pilot project was organized in conjunction with the Maison Francaise d'Oxford. It is hoped that the work that the French interns were able to carry out will result in a more substantial piece of work on the 1789 'Rights of Man and the Citizen', a document profoundly influenced by the American Revolution , and which provides an important contrast to the American Bill of Rights.
Lucie Saez is a Masters student at the University of Rennes. She worked with Quill on the pilot of the French National Conventions project in summer 2018. This pilot project was organized in conjunction with the Maison Francaise d'Oxford. It is hoped that the work that the French interns were able to carry out will result in a more substantial piece of work on the 1789 'Rights of Man and the Citizen', a document profoundly influenced by the American Revolution , and which provides an important contrast to the American Bill of Rights.
Records of the 1787 Constitutional Convention (2016 Edition)
Kat Howarth read Jurisprudence at Pembroke College and worked as a Research Assistant on the Quill Project.
John Cummings worked on the Quill Project as a Wood Assistant of The Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University.
Lance Merrell worked on the Quill Project as a Wood Assistant of The Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University.
Matt Nolte worked on the Quill Project as a Wood Assistant of The Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University.
Colten Sponseller worked on the Quill Project as a Wood Assistant of The Center for Constitutional Studies at Utah Valley University.
Universal Declaration of Human Rights Project
Hanna Paasivirta works as an intern for the Quill Project while studying for an MPhil in Modern Languages. Her passion for all things at the intersection of texts and technology drives her as she researches new projects at Quill.
Utah State Constitutional Convention 1895
Samuel Corry worked for Quill while he was a junior at Utah Valley University, majoring in History-with an emphasis on Ancient Greek and Roman Studies-and minoring in Constitutional Studies. His interests in life include studying history, following politics, and learning and reading as much as he can. From 2013-15 Samuel served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints in Northern California. Samuel's hobbies include helping to run the Provo Great Books Club, which he co-founded with Professor Carl Scott at UVU, which focuses on reading the "Great Books" of western literature including but not limited to works by Plutarch, Livy, Dante, Virgil, Aristotle, Plato, Cicero and others. He also enjoys hiking and exploring Southern Utah where he grew up. Along with his degree in History, Samuel is studying the Russian Language, Judicial History, and particularly enjoys reading the history of the British Empire during the reign of Queen Victoria. He is currently studying to take the LSAT in hopes of attending law school.
Danielle Maddox majored in English at at UVU, with a minor in Constitutional Studies. Before attending UVU, she trained, licensed, and worked as a cosmetologist. Returning to academic education has fulfilled her constant need to be challenged. She also makes a regular effort to involve herself in her role as a citizen and understanding the laws that govern the country. She is preparing to study law after her undergraduate degree and has a particular interest in patent law. Danielle’s education at UVU and subsequent involvement with The Center for Constitutional Studies have given her the opportunity to share her passion for government and law. She took a leading role in the Salt Lake 1895 project.
Carl Scott taught history and politics at UVU and was the assistant director for Utah Valley University’s Center for Constitutional Studies where he was also involved in the Quill project until December 2019. Scott has taught Great Books liberal arts, political theory, and American politics at St. John’s College, Hampden-Sydney College, Skidmore College, Washington and Lee University, and Christopher Newport University. He has written on politics, constitutionalism, philosophy, film, and rock music for the National Review Online blog “Postmodern Conservative.” He is the co-editor of Totalitarianism on Screen: The Art and Politics of ‘The Lives of Others,’ published by The University of Kentucky Press, and the author of “The Five Conceptions of American Liberty,” an essay published by the journal National Affairs. His dissertation, completed as part of his doctoral degree in Political Science (Fordham University), compared Tocqueville’s and Plato’s accounts of democratic character.
Mark Wait worked as a Wood Teaching and Research Assistant in the Center for Constitutional Studies, and a member of the Constitutional Studies Club. He had the opportunity to travel to Oxford University as part of his work on the Quill Project. Mark plans to pursue a Ph.D. in social sciences. He would like to start his career as a professor and eventually move to a position in higher education administration.