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Center for Public Service Armington 427 publicservice@upike.edu (606) 218-4493
“Oasis of Excellence” – American Council of Trustees and Alumni
Jeffery Tyler Syck, Ph.D.Director(606) 218-4493
Jeffery Tyler Syck is an Assistant Professor of Political Science and the founding director of the Center for Public Service at the University of Pikeville.
A scholar of American political thought, Professor Syck’s broader research focuses on the moral and civic foundations of American democracy with particular attention to the classical republican tradition and the Jacksonian era. He is the author and editor of the forthcoming book A Republic of Virtue: The Political Essays of John Quincy Adams. In addition, he has authored over fifty articles, essays, reviews and opinion editorials that have appeared in a variety of well regarded public facing venues, including Law & Liberty, Persuasion, Pietas, The Dispatch and the Kentucky Lantern. Professor Syck also serves as a contributing editor at Providence: A Journal of Christianity & American Foreign Policy. In 2024, the Ciceronian Society honored his research on Daniel Patrick Moynihan with the William G. Batchelder III award for the study of place, and he has held fellowships with the Jack Miller Center, Liberty Fund and the University of Virginia’s Karsh Institute for Democracy.
Professor Syck received a PhD and MA in government from the University of Virginia. He is a native of Pike County Kentucky.
David D. Corey, Ph. D.Baylor UniversityProfessor of Political Science
John G. Grove, Ph.D.Law & LibertyEditor-in-Chief
ChairMassachusetts Gaming Commission
Sumer Bingham MusickReligion
Theresa DawahareEducation
Jeremy DempseyCommunication
Brittany GoettingSocial Science
Marissa GreerVice President of Academic Affairs
Michelle JohnstonBusiness
Rob MusickStudent Services
Paul PotterReligion
Our syllabus begins in Ancient Athens, the first democracy known to man, and stretches throughEarly Modern England, the Founding, and modern America. Our goal is not to master thinkers orideas, but rather to introduce students to fundamental questions present across time and place.American political culture is our ultimate focus, but we believe that in examining that story one hasmuch to gain from the traditions which gave rise to it.