Prioritizing Faith: A Conversation with Dr. Ashlyn Hand

CPH is excited to announce Season 5 of The Past, the Promise, The Presidency. This season will feature brief interviews with historians about their newest books, ranging in topic from religious freedom to technology theft; from the Atlantic Ocean to the Mississippi River; from global diplomacy to Texas football.

This week's conversation features CPH Assistant Director Ashlyn Hand, who will be giving a book talk on Thursday, September 18th, at 6 pm in SMU's McCord Auditorium (Dallas Hall 306). Dr. Hand is the author of Prioritizing Faith: International Religious Freedom and U.S. Policy Choices (1993-2017), which compares the varied approaches to promoting freedom of conscience abroad during the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations. Prioritizing Faith shows how evolving bureaucratic dynamics, agenda-setting processes, and strategic shifts at the presidential level interact and change U.S. policy. Dr. Hand is interviewed by CPH Associate Director Brian Franklin and CPH student research assistant Kennedy Moore. 

Ashlyn Hand joined SMU's Center for Presidential History in the fall of 2022. She received her Ph.D. from the LBJ School of Public Affairs at the University of Texas at Austin in 2021, where she was a graduate fellow at the Clements Center for National Security. Prior to joining the team at CPH, she was a fellow with the America in the World Consortium, completing a pre-doctoral fellowship at Johns Hopkins SAIS (2020-2021) and a postdoctoral fellowship at Duke University (2021-2022). Ashlyn’s work has been published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, the Journal of Church and State and Foreign Policy.

Ashlyn is the Assistant Director for Advancement and Partnerships at the Center for Presidential History and is the Program Director for the Article II Society. She is a Lecturer in Political Science, teaching classes on American politics and U.S. foreign policy.

Brian Franklin is the Associate Director of the SMU Center for Presidential History and an adjunct Lecturer in the Clements Department of History and the University Honors Program. Dr. Franklin’s research focuses on the religious, political, and regional history of the United States in the 18th and 19th centuries. His current manuscript America’s Missions explores the role of Protestant mission societies in shaping the early American republic. He teaches courses on Texas History and American History.

Kennedy Moore is a junior at SMU, and is double majoring in public policy and music with a minor in public policy and international affairs. Kennedy is a President's Scholar, Pre-law Scholar, and Meadows Scholar. At SMU, Kennedy is involved in Hegi Board Fellows, Meadows Chorale, the Tower Center's premier undergraduate research journal The Dialogue, and works at SMU's Center for Presidential History. Kennedy is interested in educational equity and national defense. She aspires to work for a federal agency to research and create policies to protect our education system and recenter citizens' voices in policy.