BIO

Allen Mendenhall currently serves as Senior Advisor for the Capital Markets Initiative at The Heritage Foundation in Washington, D.C., where he develops strategy and leads outreach and coalition efforts on ESG and capital markets. He was previously Associate Dean and Grady Rosier Professor at Troy University’s Sorrell College of Business, where he directed the Manuel H. Johnson Center for Political Economy. He serves as a Visiting Fellow at the Madden Center for Value Creation at Florida Atlantic University.

Mendenhall is the author of several books, including Literature and Liberty: Essays in Libertarian Literary Criticism (2014), Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr., Pragmatism, and the Jurisprudence of Agon: Aesthetic Dissent and the Common Law (2017), Of Bees and Boys: Lines from a Southern Lawyer (2017), The Southern Philosopher: Collected Essays of John William Corrington (2017), Writers on Writing: Conversations with Allen Mendenhall (2019), The Three Ps of Liberty: Pragmatism, Pluralism, and Polycentricity (2020), Shouting Softly: Essays on Law, Literature, and Culture (2021), the novel A Glooming Peace This Morning (2023), and (edited with Marcus Witcher and Kevin Hughes) Controversies Among Conservatives: Conversations on Conservatism, Vol. II (2024).

He hosts a television program, “Success Stories,” broadcast across Alabama, and contributes the radio segment “Word to the Wise” to Troy Public Radio (stations WTSU 89.9, WRWA 88.7, and WTJB 91.7). In addition, he writes a weekly column for 1819 News, a bold and innovative conservative news outlet based in Alabama.

Academically, Mendenhall holds a B.A. in English from Furman University; an M.A. in English and a J.D. from West Virginia University (J.D. from WVU College of Law); an LL.M. in Transnational Law from Temple University’s Beasley School of Law; and a Ph.D. in English from Auburn University.

From 2016 to 2020, he was Associate Dean and Founding Executive Director of the Blackstone & Burke Center for Law & Liberty at Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law in Montgomery, Alabama. He edited Southern Literary Review for over a decade (2011–2022), and has held numerous roles such as visiting scholar (2020) and trustee (2023) at the American Institute for Economic Research (AIER). He was an adjunct legal associate at the Cato Institute (2009); a Mises Canada Emerging Scholar (2014); an elected member of the Mont Pelerin Society (2024); an associate of the Abbeville Institute (2011–present); a Humane Studies Fellow with the Institute for Humane Studies (2011–2012); staff attorney for Chief Justice Roy S. Moore on the Alabama Supreme Court (2013–2016); Assistant Attorney General for the State of Alabama (2016); an AmPhil Fundraising Fellow with the Center for Civil Society (2023–2024); and serves on the Advisory Council of the Law & Liberty Circle at Universidad Francisco Marroquín (2024–present). He has also been involved with the Philadelphia Society (member since 2012, trustee 2018–2022), the Ludwig von Mises Institute (associate since 2017), and the Heartland Institute (policy adviser since 2016). Further, he served as president of the Alabama Association of Scholars (2017–2020), president of the Montgomery Lawyers Chapter of the Federalist Society (2013–present), and Chairman of the Board of Managers of the Alabama Center for Law & Liberty (2022–2024). In recognition of his contributions, he received the Freedom and Opportunity Academic Prize from The Heritage Foundation in 2023, and was named a Club for Growth Foundation Fellow and a Lincoln Fellow with the Claremont Institute in 2024. He was also appointed by Alabama Governor Kay Ivey to the 2025–26 State Textbook Committee of the Alabama Department of Education.

Mendenhall has taught across a diverse array of settings including university English departments, business schools, humanities departments, law schools, a Japanese juku (private school), and a penitentiary. He serves or has served on boards such as the Alabama Public Television Foundation Authority (2019–present), the Young Professionals Board of the Alabama Humanities Foundation (2015–2016), the Society for Law and Culture (Russell Kirk Center division), Trinity Christian School (2017–2020), Ivy Classical Academy (2025–present), and the Philadelphia Society (2018–2022). He also contributed to the advisory council for the Ludwig von Mises Institute’s Master of Arts degree and Certificate Program in Austrian Economics (2021–2023). Earlier in his career, while practicing law in Atlanta, he represented nonprofits and handled cases involving real property, contracts, collections, foreclosures, restrictive covenants, and real estate transactions. Mendenhall is a graduate of Leadership Lee County (Alabama), the Alabama State Bar Leadership Forum (Class 14), and the Atlas Leadership Academy of the Atlas Network.

He is the author of hundreds of publications spanning fiction, poetry, academic journals, law reviews, and popular outlets such as Newsweek, The Wall Street Journal, City Journal, Fox Business, The Daily Caller, The American Conservative, The American Spectator, The Daily Signal, Chronicles, Fox News, National Review, The Hill, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Federalist, Law & Liberty, Modern Age, Public Discourse, The American Mind, The Epoch Times, Writer's Digest, The University Bookman, and more. He has spoken at institutions including Harvard, Brown, Georgetown University Law Center, Francisco Marroquín University, Furman, GMU, University of British Columbia, UNLV, Auburn, WVU, as well as the Alabama State Capitol and Supreme Court, among others.

His commentary has been cited in media outlets such as Fox Business, Fox News, Forbes, The Washington Post, The Washington Times, Le Monde, and U.S. News & World Report, and in publications from organizations such as the Ludwig von Mises Institute, Mercatus Center, FEE, AIER, Atlas Society, Heartland Institute, Abbeville Institute, NAS, and others. He frequently appears on radio and television—including Fox News, Newsmax, Alabama Public Television, Al-Jazeera, C-SPAN, NewsNation’s “No Spin News,” Bannon’s “War Room,” and BBC World News.