Philip A. Goduti, Jr.

Adjunct Assistant Professor of History, Quinnipiac University
Philip Goduti, Jr. earned his BA in history from Quinnipiac University in 1997 with a minor in English. He went on to earn a Master of Arts in History from Providence College in 1998 meeting his wife Alyssa. Goduti moved to Hamden, CT to work at Quinnipiac University full time as a Residence Hall Director. It was during that time he started teaching history for the university, eventually going on to earn another Master of Arts in history at the University of Connecticut in 2005. His master’s thesis, directed by Dr. Frank Costigliola, was entitled “To Khrushchev, With Love: Kennedy’s Soviet Policy, 1961” and would eventually serve for the first six chapters of his book Kennedy’s Kitchen Cabinet and the Pursuit of Peace: The Shaping of American Foreign Policy, 1961-1963, published by McFarland and Co., Inc. in 2009.

Goduti continues to teach at Quinnipiac University and also teaches history full-time at Somers High School where he was the 2017 Somers Public Schools Teacher of the Year and the 2020 Daughters of the American Revolution Connecticut Outstanding Teacher of American History.

Goduti's second book, Robert F. Kennedy and the Shaping of Civil Rights, 1960-1964, was published in 2013 by McFarland and Co., Inc. He has also contributed to American National Biography Online, which is published by Oxford University Press. His most recent book, RFK and MLK: Visions of Hope, 1963-1968, was published in 2017 by McFarland and Co., Inc.

Goduti recently finished his Ph.D. in history from the University of Connecticut. Under the direction of Dr. Frank Costigliola, his dissertation, titled "'The Durability of a Kennedy': How Emotional Communities Contributed to John F. Kennedy's Core Beliefs, 1930-1963," examines the evolution of John F. Kennedy's core beliefs as he inhabited four emotional communities throughout his life that included his family, education at Choate and Harvard, the Navy, and his time in public office. It investigates how those core beliefs helped shape Kennedy's foreign policy decisions while President of the United States.