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Curriculum Vitae

B.A., Ave Maria University, 2018; M.A., politics, Hillsdale College Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, 2020; Ph.D., politics, Hillsdale College Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, 2023; Teaching Apprentice at the Politics Department, Hillsdale College, 2021; Research Assistant at the Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship, Hillsdale College, 2018-2023; Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Center for Constitutional Studies, Utah Valley University, 2023-2024; Tutor, Thomas Aquinas College, ����ӰԺ, 2024-.

Profile

“My father works for the State Department, so we moved around quite a bit,” says Dr. Daniel Zoumaya, a tutor at Thomas Aquinas College, ����ӰԺ.

Dr. Zoumaya spent most of his childhood living in various U.S. states, Greece, and Turkey. When he was in high school, his sister and brother-in-law enrolled in Florida’s Ave Maria University to study in its graduate program. “My parents bought a house in town, and it became our stateside home base,” he recalls. “I got to know the school very well and ended up going there for my undergraduate degree.”

Although he originally started out as a physics major, Dr. Zoumaya was drawn toward politics, in part thanks to his father, and switched to a double major in politics and theology. “I had some practical experience with international relations and comparative politics before going to college,” he explains. “When I went to Ave Maria, I was introduced to political philosophy proper through the Great Books. It really changed the course of my life: I fell in love with the Great Books, and knew I wanted to go deeper into theology and philosophy.”

After graduating from Ave Maria in 2018, Dr. Zoumaya continued to deepen his knowledge at Hillsdale College’s Van Andel Graduate School of Statesmanship. In pursuit of his doctoral degree in political philosophy, he researched St. Thomas Aquinas’s natural law theory and gave many presentations and discussions on the topic. His studies culminated in the completion of his doctorate and dissertation, titled “St. Thomas Aquinas on the Knowability of the Natural Law and How the Problem of Imperfect Knowledge of the Natural Law Can Be Remedied.”

In 2022, Dr. Zoumaya’s doctoral work led him to the Eleventh International Thomistic Congress at the Angelicum in Rome. He presented a talk on the knowability of the natural law to a room of distinguished Thomists. “It was amazing to be presenting alongside some of the world’s best specialists on the thought of St. Thomas,” he recalls. “It was such an honor and an incredible experience.”

During his time at Hillsdale, Dr. Zoumaya became good friends with a fellow graduate student who was a TAC alumna, Jeannette Richard (’17), who told him he should look into teaching at Thomas Aquinas College. On hearing about the College’s Thomistic Summer Conference in the summer of 2022, he decided to take her suggestion seriously.

“I submitted a proposal in part as an excuse to visit and check the College out,” he says. “When I was accepted and got to campus, I was immediately astounded by both TAC’s beauty and its faithfulness to its mission. The College knows exactly what it wants to do, has carefully discerned how it wants to do it, and has stuck to that plan since its inception. Based on the impressive alumni I had met over the years, I knew TAC was incredibly effective in achieving the ends it set out for itself.”

Inspired by his time at the conference, Dr. Zoumaya applied for a position on the teaching faculty. “I am really excited about this job because it is going to force me to learn a lot about many new and worthy areas of interest,” says Dr. Zoumaya. “Though I specialized in politics and have done some work in philosophy and theology, I have always been interested in the sciences, math, and music as well. Now, I have the challenge and pleasure of learning more about all these subjects, which I have always wished to study more deeply.”

Publications

• “The Social Teaching in Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est” (peer-reviewed)
  Catholic Social Science Review, Volume 28, 2023.
• “St. Thomas Aquinas on the Knowability of the Natural Law” (forthcoming)
  Selected by the Pontifical Academy of St. Thomas Aquinas to be published in The Proceedings of the Eleventh International Thomistic Congress (Rome: Urbaniana University Press).
• 
  Crisis Magazine, November 6, 2023.

Presentations

• Politics as Soulcraft?
  Thomistic Summer Conference: The Soul, Thomas Aquinas College, ����ӰԺ, June 2023
• The Eucharist as Remedy for the Problem of Imperfect Knowledge of the Natural Law
  The Aquinas Center for Theological Renewal and St. Paul Center for Biblical Theology Conference: The Holiness of God and the Mystery of the Eucharist, Ave Maria University, February 2023
• St. Thomas Aquinas on the Knowability of the Natural Law
  The Eleventh International Thomistic Congress, Pontifical University of Saint Thomas Aquinas (Angelicum), Rome, September 2022
• Faith, Reason, and Knowing the Natural Law
  Thomistic Summer Conference: Faith and Reason, Thomas Aquinas College, ����ӰԺ, June 2022
• Aquinas on Vicious Customs, the Natural Law, and Human Law
  The Association of Core Texts and Courses Conference, University of Notre Dame, April 2022
• The Common Good, Justice, and Love in Benedict XVI’s Deus Caritas Est
  Society of Catholic Social Scientists Meeting-Conference, Franciscan University of Steubenville, October 2021
• Aquinas, Locke, and Lewis on the Natural Law and Tyranny
  The Association of Core Texts and Courses Conference, held virtually, April 2021