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Nationally respected scholar returns to Brewton-Parker

The novelist Thomas Wolfe was not always right: you can return home. Dr. H. Lee Cheek Jr., who served as a faculty member at Brewton-Parker College in the late 1990s, has returned to the Brewton-Parker faculty. He will serve as chair of the Social and Behavioral Sciences Division, and as professor of political science and philosophy.
“ Brewton-Parker has a special place in my heart,” Cheek said. “In a confused world, it is a great comfort to be part of an institution that combines faith and learning with such insight and excitement.” For the last five years, Dr. Cheek directed the political science program at Lee University in Cleveland, Tenn. He was also the elected chair of Lee University’s Faculty Senate.
Cheek, who is a leading authority on American political thought generally, and John C. Calhoun specifically, believes “Brewton-Parker is a wonderful institution, with a deep appreciation for its past, and much anticipation about the future. I look forward to being part of that future.”
Cheek received his bachelor's degree from Western Carolina University, his master of divinity degree from Duke University in Durham, N.C.; his master of public administration degree from Western Carolina University; and his doctorate from The Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C.
Cheek is also the founder and director of the Wesley Studies Society, an evangelical renewal group for clergy. In 2000, he was awarded Brewton-Parker College's Professor of the Year Award by the student body. He has served as a congressional aide and as a political consultant.
Cheek's books include Political Philosophy and Cultural Renewal (Transaction/Rutgers, 2001, with Kathy B. Cheek); Calhoun and Popular Rule, published by the University of Missouri Press (2001; paper edition, 2004), which was rated as an “academic best seller” by the American Association of University Presses; Calhoun: Selected Speeches and Writings (Regnery, 2003); and Order and Legitimacy (Transaction/Rutgers, 2004).
Cheek has also published numerous journal articles in publications like the Journal of Politics, Methodist History, International Social Science Review, and is a regular commentator on American politics.
Cheek’s current research includes completing an intellectual biography of Francis Graham Wilson and a study of the American Founding. In May 2002, Cheek was given Lee University’s Excellence in Scholarship award, and in May of 2004, he received Lee's Excellence in Advising award.
Cheek currently serves on the editorial board of Humanitas and The University Bookman, and has served as a Fellow of the Wilbur Foundation, the Center for Judicial Studies, and the Center for International Media Studies.
“ Dr. Lee Cheek is a faculty leader who has already accomplished great things in his career,” said Dr. David R. Smith, Brewton-Parker’s president. “He is a committed man of faith, who stays at the cutting edge of scholarship in his field, and who grows every academic program with which he has been affiliated. I am delighted to see his rising star again hitched to Brewton-Parker College.”
Cheek lives in Vidalia, with his wife, Kathy B. Cheek, a teacher of dance.

-BPC-