Division Dean, Social & Behavioral Sciences and Global Studies
Associate Professor & Chair, Department of History
Director, Integrated Studies BA/BS/BAAS
Director, Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE)
Thomas C. Behr Ph.D. has been teaching History for over 40 years at several colleges and universities in upstate New York, and since 2000, in greater Houston. His teaching areas include Western Civilization, Honors/Great Books, History of Ideas in Context (e.g., History of Liberal Education, History of Communism and Capitalism), and Historiography generally. Behr’s research and publications include the internationally acclaimed Social Justice and Subsidiarity: Luigi Taparelli and the Origins of Modern Catholic Social Thought, as well as several other related book chapters, articles, and translations.
Behr’s study on the 19th-century context of CST is used in several university courses, and scholars have described his historical method as a “model of clarity.” Behr continues to work on making Taparelli’s writings available to anglophone scholars and is much anticipated. Since joining the University of St. Thomas, Behr has served in various capacities as Director of the MA in Liberal Arts, Director of the unique Integrated Studies degree program (the so-called ‘triple-minor major’), and Chair of the Department of History. Behr’s considerable study abroad experience (in England, Scotland, France, Germany and Italy) and the Practicum requirement of the Integrated Studies program itself reflect his philosophical purpose, which is aimed at helping students – with the Core and other disciplines together – get a well-rounded education for life.