George J. Graham Jr.

George Jackson Graham Jr. (1938 – November 30, 2006) was a political theorist who trained generations of political scientists at Vanderbilt University. He taught at Vanderbilt for more than 40 years. He served as chair of the political science department from 1988–1992, and served as an associate dean in the arts and sciences college from 1986–1988, and from 1997-2000.

George J. Graham Jr., was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1938 and graduated from Wilbur Wright High School in 1956. He received his B.A. from Wabash College in 1960 and his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1965. He was a member of the faculty of the political science faculty at Vanderbilt from 1963 until his death on November 30, 2006. He taught courses in political theory, for undergraduates, and in political theory, philosophy of social science, and democratic theory for graduate students. Graduate students were always his focus. Graham was a central figure in the Vanderbilt graduate program for many years; by the late 1980s-early 1990s, he was arguably the closest faculty member to the graduate students. In that era, he was adviser, and/or friend, to a number of graduate students who went on to successful careers.

In 1995-96, he was awarded a Fulbright and spent the year as Distinguished John Marshall Chair at the Budapest University of Economic Sciences (now Corvinus University of Budapest), in Hungary. He was also a recipient of a Guggenheim fellowship. Throughout his career he was active in a number of National Endowment for the Humanities-funded programs, including conferences on narrative and Greek culture.

Graham co-edited two books: The Post-Behavioral Era: Perspectives on Political Science (1972, co-editor George W. Carey), and Founding Principles of American Government: Two Hundred Years of Democracy on Trial (1977, co-editor Scarlett G. Graham).