Richard J. Bishirjian

Richard J. Bishirjian, Ph.D., is an American academic entrepreneur, and political figure known for his work in the fields of education and political philosophy. Bishirjian is the founder of the Yorktown University, and aims to promote the study of the humanities in higher education. He has served as a professor and has been involved in various educational initiatives, particularly focusing on conservative education and the integration of classical education principles.
Bishirjian has written extensively on topics related to education, culture, and politics, advocating for a return to classical educational methods as a means to foster civic virtue and informed citizenship. His writings have been published in Modern Age, Review of Politics, Chronicles of Culture, Anamnesis, The Political Science Reviewer, and the American Spectator.
== Education and Career ==
Dr. Richard J. Bishirjian was graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in August 1964 where he was a debater in the William Pitt Debate Union and active in the Young Republicans and the Society for Conservative Studies. He served as co-chairman of the Pennsylvania Youth for Goldwater campaign in 1964 and entered the graduate program in Government at the University of Notre Dame in January 1965. At Notre Dame he studied with Gerhart Niemeyer, Stanley Parry, Eric Voegelin, Ralph McInerny and Henri Deku. He earned a Ph.D. in Government and International Studies in 1971. At Notre Dame he was a “Teaching Assistant” to Gerhart Niemeyer and taught in the Department of Politics at the University of Dallas (1969-72) and the Government Department at the College of New Rochelle (1978-1983). While in New Rochelle he worked part time at Arlington House Publishers as an acquisition editor. In 1981 he joined the Reagan Administration Office of the President-elect and became Acting Associate Director for Cultural Affairs at USICA. Upon leaving USICA, he served on the staff of the United States Senate|U.S. Senate as an advisor to Alfonse D’Amato. He founded World New Institute whose discussions with conservative scholars was funded with a grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities. In 1987 began development work in Eastern Europe for Prince Nicolas Lobkowicz, then-president of Katholische Universitat Eichstǟtt, a Catholic state university in Bavaria, Germany. In association with Peter Mrocyzk, the last Director of the Polish Service for Radio Free Europe, he raised development financing for Polish Projects from 1989-1995. In December 1999 he founded the for-profit Internet-based Yorktown University and by 2008 had attained national accreditation from the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC) ultimately attaining accreditation for eleven degree and certificate programs before DETC accreditation was withdrawn in 2012. He published a history of Yorktown University in 2017. At Yorktown University he taught political philosophy including the History of Political Theory, Modern Ideology and a course based on Russell Kirk’s Roots of American Order and worked with thirty-plus faculty to design courses for distance learning. In 2020 Dr. Bishirjian published a first novel that has been praised by Kevin Derby at Florida Daily
== Personal Life ==
He was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1942, the son of Jack Albert Bishirjian (1916-1991), a first generation American of Armenian descent and Esther Helen Olen (1916-2007), a first Generation American of German descent. His father served in the U.S. Marine Corps in the 3rd Marine Division in the Pacific Theater on Iwo Jima and Saipan in World War II. He attended First Trinity Evangelical Lutheran Church parish school grades 1-8 in Pittsburgh and was graduated from North Miami Senior High School|North Miami High School (Florida) in 1960. He is the father of two and grandfather of three. His first marriage ended in divorce and he has been happily married to his second wife for 35 years.
== Webcasts ==
Why American Higher Education is Failing, Heartland Institute, March 8, 2017.
The Future of Education, Law and Economics Center, George Mason University, October 16, 2015.
Federalization of Higher Education, National Association of Scholar's April 30, 2012.
Federal Takeover of Higher Education, Family Research Council, May 11, 2011.
Politics and For-Profit Education, Cato Institute, February 1, 2011.
Profiting from Ivory Towers, Cato Institute, November 30, 2010.
Anti-American Bias of American Higher Education, Family Research Council, Washington, DC, December 5, 2017.
The Artful Recluse: "Reclusiveness" as a response to loss of China to Mongol invasion in 17th century China. Institute of World Politics, Washington, DC. June 13, 2019.
== Selected Publications ==
Essays
“Prelude to Civil War: Francis Graham Wilson on Spain,” Modern Age, Spring 2019, pp. 36-41.
"Dreams versus Reality," Chronicles of Culture, July 13, 2015.
"Grammy Anarchy," Chronicles of Culture, February 11, 2015.
MOOCs versus HCOCS," National Association of Scholars, July 16, 2014.
"Leo Strauss and the American Political Religion," Modern Age, Fall 2014, pp. 7-18.
"Preparing the Scapegoats for Slaughter," The Martin Center, July 30, 2010.
"Hegel and Classical Philosophy," in Modern Age, Vol. 35, No. 2 (Winter, 1992), pp. 126 134.
Reviews
Harry Jaffa, Walter Berns and American Conservatism by Steve Hayward, The Imaginative Conservative, Nov 5, 2017.
•	“The Death of Conservatism” by Sam Tanenhaus in Modern Age, Vol. 52, No.3, Summer, 2010, pp. 243-245.
Books
• A Public Philosophy Reader, ed, with an introductory essay (New Rochelle: Arlington House Publishers, 1978).
•The Development of Political Theory: A Critical Analysis (Dallas: The Society for the Study of Traditional Culture, 1978).
•The Nature of Public Philosophy (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1982).
• The Conservative Rebellion, St. Augustine's Press, 2015.
•The Coming Death and Future Resurrection of American Higher Education, St. Augustine's Press, 2017.
•CODA, En Route Books, August 2020.
•Ennobling Encounters, En Route Books, August 2021.
Category:1942 births
Category:Indian businesspeople
Category:Indian writers