Dr. Carol Swain

Dr. Carol M. Swain is an award-winning political scientist, a former professor of political science and professor of law at Vanderbilt University, and a lifetime member of the James Madison Society, an international community of scholars affiliated with the James Madison Program in American Ideals and Institutions at Princeton University. Before joining Vanderbilt in 1999, Dr. Swain was a tenured associate professor of politics and public policy at Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs. Dr. Swain is passionate about empowering others to raise their voices in the public square.

She is an author, public speaker, and political commentator. Dr. Swain is the author or editor of eight books with a ninth forthcoming in 2018. Her first book, Black Faces, Black Interests: The Representation of African Americans in Congress (Harvard University Press, 1993, 1995), won the Woodrow Wilson prize for the best book published in the U. S. on government, politics or international affairs in 1994, and was cited by U.S. Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy in Johnson v. DeGrandy, 512 U.S. 997 (1994) and by Justice Sandra Day O’ Connor in Georgia v. Ashcroft, 539 U.S. (2003).

In addition, Cambridge University Press nominated her book, The New White Nationalism in America: Its Challenge to Integration (2002), for a Pulitzer Prize. Other books include Debating Immigration: Second Edition, (Cambridge University Press, forthcoming August 2018), Abduction: How Liberalism Steals the Hearts and Minds of Our Children (Christian Faith Publishing, 2016, co-author Steve Feazel), Be the People: A Call to Reclaim America’s Faith and Promise (Thomas Nelson Press, 2011), Debating Immigration (Cambridge University Press, 2007); Contemporary Voices of White Nationalism (Cambridge University Press, 2003, co-author Russ Nieli), and Race Versus Class: The New Affirmative Action Debate (University Press of America, 1996).

Dr. Swain’s opinion pieces have been published in CNN Online, The Financial Times, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Times, and USA Today. She has appeared on ABC Headline News, BBC Radio, NPR, INT News, CNN’s AC360, Fox News’ Hannity, Fox and Friends, Lou Dobbs Tonight, Judge Jeanine, Michael Smerconish, The PBS News Hour, and The Washington Journal, and ABC’s Headline News. She had a major role in Hillary’s America: The Secret History of the Democratic Party and has had three Prager University videos go viral. Dr. Swain’s commentary on current social and political issues can be heard nationally on Bott Radio and American Family Radio’s Two Minutes to Think About it with Dr. Carol M. Swain. In July 2018, she launched a new podcast series titled “Common sense Conversations with Dr. Carol Swain.”

Dr. Swain has served on the Tennessee Advisory Committee to the U.S. Civil Rights Commission and the National Endowment for the Humanities. She is a foundation member of the Virginia Chapter of Phi Beta Kappa.

She received a B.A. from Roanoke College, M.A. from Virginia Polytechnic & State University, Ph.D. from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and M.S.L. from Yale. She lives in Tennessee.