J. Thomas Wren Professor Curriculum Vitae Richmond Research Institute Profile

An historian and a legal scholar, Dr. Wren brings a unique perspective to the study and teaching of leadership. He served as interim dean of the Jepson School for the 2006-07 academic year and previously served as Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He is on research leave for the 2007-08 academic year.

An expert on Virginia, he has written and lectured extensively on subjects including James Madison, the Virginia courts and the historical roots of the values in leadership.

Research interests include: the implementation of popular sovereignty in the American experience; the challenge of defining and implementing the common good; the roles of leaders and followers; leadership education; the intellectual history of leadership.

Dr. Wren has been a recipient of the Richmond Distinguished Educator Award and has given great service to his profession. At the university and national levels, he has contributed to the development of leadership studies as a significant arena for scholarly pursuit.

He has served an editor and a member of the editorial board of the Journal of Leadership Studies and has been an instrumental member of the Jepson faculty, chairing the scholarship committee and the program committee. He has served on the advisory board for a Leadership Development Conference and on the program committee for a Leadership Educators' Conference.

News

• Lead editor on key book projects
• Co-editor The Jepson Studies in Leadership
• Nominee for State Council of Higher Education Outstanding Faculty Award, 2003

Projects

• Task Force on Undergraduate Education (chair, Steering Committee; member, Curriculum Committee, 2003-2005)
• General Education Committee (chair, 2003-2005)
• "David J. Mays and the Challenges of Leadership in Twentieth-Century Virginia." A close analysis of a key spokesman for elite interests in mid-twentieth-century Virginia, with an eye toward elucidating and illuminating key challenges in the current public policy arena.

Publications

Books

• J. Thomas Wren, Republican Jurisprudence: Virginia Law and the New Order, 1776-1830 (submitted for review).
• J. Thomas Wren, Inventing Leadership: The Challenge of Democracy ( Edward Elgar, 2007). 
• Traditional Classics of Leadership. J. Thomas Wren, Douglas A. Hicks, and Terry L. Price, eds., Cheltenham, U.K: Edward Elgar, 2004; also to be published in paperback in 2006).
• Modern Classics of Leadership. J. Thomas Wren, Douglas A. Hicks, and Terry L. Price, eds., London: Edward Elgar, (2004).
• New Perspectives on Leadership. J. Thomas Wren, Douglas A. Hicks, and Terry L. Price, eds., London: Edward Elgar, (2004).
• Instructor’s Manual to Accompany: The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership through the Ages. J. Thomas Wren, ed., Richmond: University of Richmond, (2001).
• The Leader's Companion: Insights on Leadership Through the Ages. J. Thomas Wren, ed., New York: The Free Press, (1995). (currently in seventh printing)
• The Foundations of Leadership: A Reader. J. Thomas Wren, ed., Acton, Mass: Copley Publishing Group, (1993).

Articles and Chapters

• J. Thomas Wren, “The Common Law of England in Virginia from 1776 to 1830,” in W. Hamilton Bryson and Serge Dauchy, eds., Ratio Decidendi: Guiding Principles of Judicial Decisions (forthcoming 2006)
• Thomas Wren and Elizabeth Faier, “Contemplating Context,” in George Goethals and Georgia Sorenson, eds., A Quest for a General Theory of Leadership: A Multidisciplinary Experiment (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing) (forthcoming 2006)
• J. Thomas Wren, “A Quest for a Grand Theory of Leadership,” in George Goethals and Georgia Sorenson, eds., A Quest for a General Theory of Leadership: A Multidisciplinary Experiment (Cheltenham, U.K.: Edward Elgar Publishing) (forthcoming 2006)
• J. Thomas Wren, “Leadership and the Vox Populi,” in Richard Couto and Laurien Alexander, eds., Conversations on Leadership: Tributes and Tribulations for the Work of James MacGregor Burns (Yellow Springs, Oh.: Antioch University, 2005)
• "The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: James Madison, David J. Mays, and Leadership for the Common Good," abstracted in Proceedings of the International Leadership Association (College Park: University of Maryland, 2000)
• Review of Buckner F. Melton, Jr., The First Impeachment: The Constitution's Framers and the Case of Senator William Blount (Macon, Ga.: Mercer University Press, 1998), in William and Mary Quarterly. (2000) 455-457.
• Review of Paul Finkelman, ed., Slavery and the Law (Madison, Wis: Madison House Publishers, 1997), in The Journal of Southern History 65 (1999) 610-612.
• Review of Judith Kelleher Schafer, Slavery, the Civil Law, and the Supreme Court of Loisiana (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1994), in The Journal of Southern History 65 (1999) 610-612.

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