My Arts Undergraduate Research Internship (ARIA) research project: Adam Smith and the Separation of Powers, examined Adam Smith’s historical account of the separation of powers and its relationship with earlier articulations by Montesquieu and later formulations in the Federalist Papers by Publius. I worked with my supervisor, Professor Jacob Levy, to gather sources on the topic and incorporate them into a draft for an upcoming piece.
My interest in this topic grew out of my experience in political theory. After enjoying the introductory course in my first year, I completed the four-semester sequence in the history of political thought. As a Charles Taylor Student Fellow in the Research Group on Constitutional Studies, I deepened my interest in political theory and saw this project as an opportunity to engage with constitutional thought at a more advanced level. When my proposal was accepted, my goal for the summer was to develop a stronger grounding in constitutional theory and to emerge from the project with greater confidence in my understanding of American political history. At the end of my internship, I was very satisfied with the work I was able to engage in.
The major highlight of my internship was intensive reading and close textual analysis. I began with Montesquieu’s The Spirit of the Laws and Adam Smith’s The Wealth of Nations and Lectures on Jurisprudence, then moved on to the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers. Over the first three weeks, I worked with Professor Levy to map the intellectual history on the concept and ensure I had a clear grasp of each thinker’s constitutional framework. A particular highlight was comparing Smith’s Lectures on Rhetoric and Belles Lettres (1762–63) with The Wealth of Nations (1776) to trace similarities in language and argument. This exercise not only revealed Smith’s evolving constitutional thought but also sharpened my ability to identify conceptual continuities across different works.
While the reading was deeply rewarding, the Federalist debates presented a challenge: the density of arguments and volume of details made it easy to lose track of specific points. I experimented with different note-taking strategies and eventually found that writing notes by hand while reading helped me retain and synthesize information far more effectively. This method became a key part of my workflow for the remainder of the project.
The research process reinforced my interest in pursuing a law degree after graduation, but it also expanded my thinking about how that path might intersect with constitutional theory and practice. The project allowed me to engage with foundational questions about the rule of law, institutional design, and the protection of liberty, questions that remain relevant to legal work today.
Finally, I am deeply grateful for the financial support provided through the Arts Internship Office. The Mr. Mark W. Gallop Arts Undergraduate Research Internship Award allowed me to dedicate myself fully to my research without financial pressure. This made it possible to be fully present in my work and to perform at my best.
This summer, I conducted deep research into a specific field of political theory that I would not have been able to do in a class environment. My ARIA experience will absolutely shape the rest of my undergraduate journey and my future education and career. I am very grateful for the supervision by Professor Levy and the support of the Research Group on Constitutional Studies. Thank you again to Mr. Mark W. Gallop for facilitating this incredible program.
