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Matthew Daniels
College of Arts and Sciences
College of Arts and Sciences
Distinguished University Professor of Law, Political Science and Human Rights
medaniels@andersonuniversity.edu
Rice Building
Academic Background
Matthew Daniels was raised by a single mother in the section of Spanish Harlem with the highest rate of violent crime in New York City. He received a full scholarship to Dartmouth College where he graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1985. He later received a Public Interest Law Scholarship to the University of Pennsylvania Law School, where he obtained both his law degree and a Master’s in Public Administration. He was subsequently awarded a doctoral fellowship in American Politics at Brandeis University.
BA in English, Dartmouth College
Masters in Government Administration, University of Pennsylvania
JD, University of Pennsylvania Law School
PhD, American Politics, Brandeis University
Fast Facts
I believe it is essential that we educate, train and equip a new generation of Christian leaders to advance a biblically-based worldview in every area of society in order to protect our society – and by extension our world – from being destroyed by forces of spiritual darkness. Throughout Western history and especially in our modern era, issues of law and fundamental rights remain critical social and cultural leverage points. Accordingly, the training of a new generation of biblically literate, theologically grounded and well-educated Christian leaders is especially important. Given our highly secular post-Christian cultural context, I have a particular interest in helping the future Christian leaders employ common grace strategies, arguments and narratives that can reach people of goodwill in our culture in order to help lead our society away from darkness and towards the light of the Gospel. I also hope to develop an academic home for our MLK Educational Initiative where we can train up a new generation of Christian leaders – representing the Body of Christ in all of its diversity – to shine a light for the unifying, transcendent truths enshrined in our nation’s founding documents that can help to heal our divided and increasingly violent nation. This effort cannot be undertaken at a school that does not share a deep institutional commitment to the Gospel and to the redemptive mission of the Church in our fallen world.
The language of rights is the moral lingua franca of our era. Digital media is the communications medium of our era. So an ability to understand and effectively engage in rights issues in the Digital Age equips students for leadership in fields such as law, government, education, business leadership, law enforcement and national security.
Dr. Daniels successfully launched an online video portal in partnership with venture capital specialist Sequoia Capital, the lead backer of YouTube and Google. A major Templeton Foundation grant supported the founding of Good of All, an international public education movement dedicated to promoting universal human rights in the Digital Age. Building from an initial base in South Korea and London, Good of All has launched a half dozen academic centers on three continents and has reached over 50 million people online in English, Spanish, and Arabic, using a pioneering “edutainment” methodology of student-created content developed in partnership with the founder of Disney Interactive. An interdisciplinary research study by the University of Nottingham funded by the British government affirmed the effectiveness of Dr. Daniels’ approach, which has subsequently been endorsed by a number of national security experts, including two former Chairmen of the Joint Chiefs, the former Commander of NATO, the Attorney General of Great Britain & Wales, and the CEO of the Association of the Chiefs of Police of the Great Britain and Wales.
Dr. Daniels is the author of Human Liberty 2.0 (Simon & Schuster), which showcases the inspiring stories of teens and adults channeling the power of digital social media to advance the cause of human dignity and universal rights in our world. Dr. Daniels’s pioneering work on the application of the universal rights principles at the core of Dr. King’s work to the forces of hatred, division, and violence in the Digital Age have led to the creation of K-12 curricula published by McGraw Hill Education and Share the Dream church curricula published by Harper Collins Christian that have recruited support from a wide array of human and civil rights experts, from Ambassador Andrew Young, to the current Mayor of Atlanta, to leading news media, sports, and entertainment personalities.
Dr. Daniels created the Andrew Young HBCU Scholarship Program in partnership with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund: https://tinyurl.com/5dyhhrwc . Both our curricula and scholarship program have been endorsed by a wide range of African-American leaders such as the Mayor of Atlanta (https://vimeo.com/770260860) as timely efforts to raise up a new generation of Dr. Kings and Ambassador Youngs who can lead our nation down a better path to a more just future.
Dr. Daniels launched a campaign with several dozen NBA players adding their voices to the chorus of support for teaching Dr. King’s Gospel-based principles as an antidote to the forces of division and violence: https://vimeo.com/902344799/456dfae1ea?share=copy.
The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) recently announced the launch of a statewide Hope Tour focused on the statewide distribution of Dr. Daniels’ K-12 curricula. The goal of this tour is to foster meaningful dialogue and inspire action to unite schools, classrooms, and communities against the forces of division and hatred in our society.
Civil leader and former United States Ambassador to the United Nations Andrew Young has endorsed Dr. Daniels’ summer program at Anderson University that will bring together students from Historically Black Colleges and Universities with Christian colleges to study and practice the principles of civility, public service and human rights espoused by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
The program is part of the Andrew Young Educational Network, which seeks to connect Christian colleges with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs.)
EDUCATIONAL PORTALS
•MLK Educational Initiative: www.mlkcurriculum.org
•Human Rights Network: www.mlkcurriculum.com
•Universal Rights Academy: www.universalrights.org
EDUCATIONAL PUBLICATIONS
•Civil Rights: A Global Perspective (McGraw-Hill): www.mheonline.com/samplecivilrights
•Human Liberty 2.0 (Simon & Schuster): https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/human-liberty-20-matthew-daniels-jd-phd/1131665648
•Share the Dream (Harper Collins & UMI): www.sharedream.org
•Catholic Heroes of Civil & Human Rights: www.catholicheroes.com
The leadership of AU has created an educational institution with rich, deep and fertile spiritual soil where the ideals rooted in transcendent truth that are the cure for the rising tide of violence in our world can flourish. But most importantly, AU attracts students whose faith, character and desire to have a redemptive impact on our society is deeply encouraging. These two factors in combination are what makes AU a truly great educational institution.
Law, politics, public policy and the intersection of these fields with human rights and digital media.
- Shining an educational light in the darkness, New York Amsterdam News
- Teaching Dr. King as an Antidote to Violence, Washington Informer
- Why Afghanistan should matter to us all, The Hill
- Harnessing the power of digital media against a rising tide of oppression, The Hill
- Harnessing the power of digital media against a rising tide of oppression, USA Today
- Drawing on the wisdom of two Martins in troubled times, The Post & Courier
- Overcoming hatred and violence through education, The Post & Courier
- Amplifying Next Generation Voices for Human Rights in the Global South, Bot Populi
- Dr. King’s principles an enduring remedy to rising violence, The Hill
- Why we must teach Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s principles to a new generation, The Tennessean
- Africa’s gathering storm, The Hill
- Produced by Hollywood, directed by China, The Washington Examiner
- The tragic cycle of genocide denial has returned: This time, Nigeria, The Hill
- Hong Kong’s struggle against China’s new Iron Curtain, The Washington Examiner
- The People Are the Press, Real Clear Policy
- Flash drives are bringing freedom to North Korea, a few gigabytes at a time, The Washington Examiner
- How citizen journalists take to the front lines in the fight against Africa’s ISIS, The Washington Times
- A Big Win for Big Brother in Hanoi, The Hill
- The Humanization of Human Rights, Real Clear Policy
- Dehumanization Nations, Real Clear World
- Lighting a candle for humanity online, Deseret News
- Iran’s regime is terribly afraid of dancing on Instagram, The Washington Examiner
- Global Conscience in the Digital Age, The Hill
- The Cutting Edge of Brutality Against Women, The American Spectator
- How to end violence in the Middle East? The answer is religious tolerance, The Hill
- Iran’s women can change their country’s regime through social media, The Washington Times
- Promoting freedom by breaking down information barriers, Orange County Register
- Carwashing in the Arabian Desert, Huffington Post
- Winning Without War, Huffington Post
- The Human Rights Holocaust of North Korea, The Washington Times
- Don’t Take North Korea as a Laughing Matter, The Korea Times
- Keeping Calm and Carrying on in the Digital Age, Huffington Post
- Digital Doublespeak on Privacy, Huffington Post
- Trump and Torture, Huffington Post
- Winning the War of Ideas Online, Huffington Post
- Data Overdosing and National Insecurity, Huffington Post
- Greater respect for privacy deters leaks of personal information, The Korea Times
- Soft Power: The Vaccine Against Oppression, Breaking Defense
