Jane E. Calvert
- Ph.D., University of Chicago, 2003
- M.A., University of Chicago, 1996
- B.A., Earlham College, 1993
Professor Calvert’s research has focused on Quaker political thought and founding father John Dickinson. Her monograph, Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson, is the first of a trilogy of works on John Dickinson. It describes a hitherto unrecognized strain of Anglo-American political thought and action that explains the apparently contradictory stance that Dickinson took during the Revolution as an advocate of rights and liberty, but not independence or revolution. This study is the first analysis of Quaker constitutional theory; the first exploration of the origins of civil disobedience in Quaker political thought and action; and the first comprehensive exposition of Dickinson's political thought.
The second work in the Dickinson trilogy is the first modern, scholarly edition of his complete political works. Professor Calvert is Director and Chief Editor of the John Dickinson Writings Project (JDP). Supported by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the National Historic Publications and Records Commission, as well as private foundations and individuals, the JDP will produce an estimated 11-volume edition of The Complete Writings and Selected Correspondence of John Dickinson, to be published by the University of Delaware Press/Rutgers University Press. The edition will be published in both print and open-access digital editions. To read more, visit the JDP Website: http://www.uky.edu/DickinsonWritingsProject.
The third work of the trilogy, also in progress, is the first full and accurate biography of Dickinson, to pub published by Oxford University Press. Supported by the State of Delaware and a Public Scholar grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, this work will be directed towards both popular and scholarly audiences.
Professor Calvert has also produced work on Thomas Paine and the Second Amendment.
Selected Grants and Fellowships
- Scholarly Editions Grant, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2010-13, 2022-25
- Public Scholar grant, National Endowment for the Humanities, 2020.
- State of Delaware, 2019-21.
- National Historic Publications and Records Commission, 2018, 2020-21, 2021-22.
- The William Nelson Cromwell Foundation, 2016-22.
- The Earhart Foundation, 2013–15.
- The Bradly Foundation, 2013–15.
- Society for Colonial Wars in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, 2013-14.
- Franklin Research Grant, American Philosophical Society, 2010.
- SHEAR/Library Company of Philadelphia Fellowship, 2009.
- Library Fellowship, The David Library of the American Revolution, 2007.
- Association for Documentary Editing Travel Award, 2006.
- Robert L. Middlekauff Fellowship, The Huntington Library, 2006.
- Library Residence Research Fellowship, American Philosophical Society, 2006.
- Monticello College Foundation Fellowship, The Newberry Library, 2005.
- Peterson Fellowship, American Antiquarian Society, 2005 (declined).
- NEH “We, the People” Summer Stipend, 2005.
- Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Fellowship
- Library Company of Philadelphia/Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 2002.
Courses:
- HIS 108: United States to 1876
- HON 251: Origins of Dissent
- HIS 301: History Methods Workshop
- HIS 350/HON301: U.S. Founders
- HIS 460: Colonial American
- HIS 461: The American Revolution, 1763–1789
- HIS 499: Senior Seminar
She is also a member of the faculty of Lewis Honors College.
Because the History Department no longer has an Early American Program, Dr. Calvert is not accepting graduate students.
- “The Friendly Jurisprudence and Early Feminism of John Dickinson,” in Great Christian Jurists in American History ed. Daniel L. Dreisbach and Mark David Hall (New York: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2019).
- “An Expansive Conception of Rights: The Abolitionism of John Dickinson,” in When in the Course of Human Events: 1776 in America and Beyond ed. William R. Jordan (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2018), 21–54.
- “Myth-Making and Myth-Breaking in the Historiography on John Dickinson,” The Journal of the Early Republic vol. 34, no. 3 (2014): 467–80.
- “Thomas Paine, Quakerism, and the Limits of Religious Liberty during the American Revolution,” in Selected Writings of Thomas Paine. ed. Shapiro and Calvert. Rethinking the Western Tradition Series (New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014), 602–29.
- Selected Writings of Thomas Paine. Co-editor with Ian Shapiro. Rethinking the Western Tradition Series. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2014.
- “John Dickinson’s Quaker Contributions to the Creation of the American Republic,” in Faith and the Founders of the American Republic, ed. Mark David Hall and Daniel L. Dreisbach. (Oxford University Press, 2014), 277–304.
- “Letter to Farmers in Pennsylvania: John Dickinson Writes to the Paxton Boys,” Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography vol. 136, no. 4 (2012): 475–77.
- “‘The Character of an Author’: Attribution and Misattribution of the Writings of John Dickinson,” The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America vol. 104, no. 3 (2010): 341–46.
- Brief of Historians of Early American Constitutional, Legal, and Pennsylvania History as Amici Curiæ in Support of Respondent City of Chicago, with Nathan Kozuskanich, Paul Finkelman, and Thomas D. Hamm, submitted to the United States Supreme Court, January 2010.
- Quaker Constitutionalism and the Political Thought of John Dickinson (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2009).
- "Liberty Without Tumult: Understanding the Politics of John Dickinson," Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 132, no. 3 (2007): 233-62.
- "America's Forgotten Founder: John Dickinson and the the American Revolution," History Compass, 5/3 (2007): 1001-11.
- “The Quaker Theory of Civil Constitution,” History of Political Thought vol. 27, no. 4 (2006): 586-619.
- “Political Obligation and Civil Dissent in Quaker Political Thought,” Quaker Religious Thought nos. 106/107 (2006): 68-7