Dr. Steele Brand is Professor of History and directs the Politics, Philosophy, & History Program at Cairn University. He teaches courses in history and political thought, spanning from the ancient Near East to the early modern period. He also taught military history classes at the University of Texas-Austin and is a former U.S. Army tactical intelligence officer. Brand received his Ph.D. from Baylor University and his M.A.Th. from Southwestern Seminary.

Brand’s publications focus on republicanism, citizen armies, and statesmanship. His first book, Killing for the Republic: Citizen-Soldiers and the Roman Way of War, was published by Johns Hopkins University Press (2019). He has published articles in journals such as Humanitas and Religions. Interviews and popular versions of his work have appeared in The Washington Post, USA Today, The Hill, Fox News, National Review, and Time, among others. He is currently completing a manuscript on the conception and early exemplars of late antique statesmanship.

His teaching explores how the public life of the spirit binds people together within a polity. His classes also emphasize how these polities or collections of polities (civilizations) intersect in the great diplomatic and military events of history. And because the lives of specific individuals so often reflect and define this broader narrative, he uses anecdotes, primary source readings, and film to illuminate how certain men and women—often unexpectedly—directed the course of their people’s story.

As a program developer, Brand managed a veterans’ reintegration program in Manassas, VA and directed a historical training program among other leadership roles as a U.S. Army officer. In higher education, Brand created and directed the Undergraduate Fellows Program for the Clements Center for National Security, the history curriculum for The King’s College, and the Politics, Philosophy, and History Program at Cairn University.