Phone: 301.405.4169
Office: 1151 Tydings Hall
Email: calford@umd.edu

Curriculum Vitae

Classical political theory and psychoanalytic approaches to politics are my first loves. If pressed to describe what I do in a couple of words, I would call it by the old fashioned name of moral psychology. I'm interested in the psychological roots of morality, but I'm very careful not to reduce morality to psychology, or to imagine that psychology can form the basis of morality. Research in this area has also led me to investigate issues within the realm of international human rights.

Currently I am fascinated by the experiences of trauma and forgiveness.  Originally I became interested in trauma through my study of Holocaust survivors, but I have become concerned with less extreme cases of trauma as well.  Forgiveness, I had originally thought, might help people overcome trauma.  After a couple of years of studying forgiveness I'm not so sure of that.  I remain convinced that in some (not all) circumstances forgiveness is a virtue.  Generally, forgiveness is given too freely. "Trauma and Forgiveness: Consequences and Communities" is in press with Cambridge University Press.

I have been interviewed a couple of hundred times by the national media on whistleblowing, and corporate ethics generally. My remarks and interviews have appeared in The New York Times, NBC, NPR, Nightly Business Report, Mother Jones, as well as dozens of other newspapers, magazines, radio and television stations.

Fields of Study

Classical political theory, political psychology, psychoanalysis and politics.

Classes

I regularly teach classical political theory to undergraduates, and classical, modern, and contemporary political theory to graduate students.

Other Professional Activities

Executive Director of the Association for Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society, past president of the political psychology section of the American Political Science Association, Co-Editor, Psychoanalysis and Society Book Series, published by Cornell University Press. I sit on the editorial boards of half a dozen professional journals.

I have received three Fulbright Fellowships, including two Senior Fulbright Research Fellowships, the first to Germany, the second to Korea.

I am a Distinguished Scholar-Teacher at the University of Maryland.

I received the BSOS Teaching Excellence Award in 2003.

I received the Chancellor Kirwan Undergraduate Teacher of the Year Award.