Scott Breuninger, Ph.D.-Dean
804-828-1803
breuningersc@vcu.edu
Scott Breuninger joined the Honors College during the summer of 2020. As Dean, Dr. Breuninger serves as the senior academic and administrative leader of the Honors College and is responsible for overseeing the college’s strategic, operational, and financial directions.
Scott hails from suburban Philadelphia and received his B.A. with Honors from Bucknell University, before earning his M.A. and Ph.D. in European Intellectual History at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. His research focuses on the social, moral and economic dimensions of the Enlightenment, particularly how this movement was expressed in Ireland. This work has resulted in a book (Recovering Bishop Berkeley: Virtue and Society in the Anglo-Irish Context), a co-edited collection (The Bonds of Society: Sociability and Cosmopolitanism on the Fringes of the Enlightenment) and numerous articles and chapters exploring aspects of the Enlightenment in Irish and Atlantic history during the eighteenth-century.
Prior to arriving at VCU, Scott was a Professor in the History Department at the University of South Dakota, where he also served as the Director of the University Honors Program for nine years. He has taught a wide range of courses in British, Irish, and Intellectual history, as well as classes specifically designed for Honors students. While at USD, he was the recipient of the College of Arts and Sciences Schwartz Distinguished Faculty Award and the Cutler Award for Research and Teaching.
