John C Pinheiro

John C. Pinheiro, PhD, is Director of Research and Publications at the Acton Institute, where he leads the research department of fellows and affiliate scholars. He speaks nationally and internationally on topics such as the American founding and Catholic Social Teaching.

Prior to joining Acton, he was professor of history at Aquinas College in Grand Rapids, Michigan, from 2004-2022. At Aquinas Dr. Pinheiro founded the college's popular Semester-in-Rome and Catholic Studies programs, chaired the history and philosophy departments, served on the college’s strategic leadership team, and directed general education. Previous to Aquinas, Dr. Pinheiro was assistant editor of the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia. In 2005 he and his fellow editors presented Volume 12 to President George W. Bush in the Oval Office and was a group recipient of the National Humanities Medal with the Papers of George Washington project.

Dr. Pinheiro holds a PhD in history from the University of Tennessee, degrees in history and religious studies from California State University, and he studied Italian at Universitá per Stranieri di Perugia. He was an elected member of the Lilly Fellows Program National Network Board from 2014-2018 and currently serves on the Advisory Board for the Ferris State University Economics Program, the editorial boards of the Journal of Markets and Morality and the Martin Center's journal, From the Academy. He is an affiliate scholar of the Jack Miller Center for Teaching America’s Founding Principles & History and consulting editor on James K. Polk for the University of Virginia's Miller Center of Public Affairs.

His publications include academic and popular articles on the early American republic, American religious history, and the Catholic Church in outlets such as the Journal of the Early Republic, Fides et Historia, Law & Liberty, Public Discourse, Civitas Outlook, Imaginative Conservative, University Bookman, National Review and Educatio Catholica. He has appeared on National Public Radio, CSPAN, Ave Maria Radio, the Fox News Radio Network, Mars Hill Audio, "Talking History" on Newstalk-Dublin, and Radio Free Korea. Dr. Pinheiro's books include the award-winning Missionaries of Republicanism: A Religious History of the Mexican-American War (Oxford, 2014), Manifest Ambition: James K. Polk and Civil-Military Relations during the Mexican War (Praeger, 2007), and The American Experiment in Ordered Liberty (Acton, 2019). His newest book is The Christian Roots of American Liberty: A Reader (Acton, 2026). His current book project, for Post Hill Press, will explore the role of place and tradition in the American Founding.