Jason Sorens (born 1976) is a Senior Research faculty member for the

American Institute for Economic Research The American Institute for Economic Research (AIER) is a libertarian think tank located in Great Barrington, Massachusetts. It was founded in 1933 by Edward C. Harwood, an economist and investment advisor. It is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit. History ...

also known as, AIER. Previously, Sorens served as director of the Center for Ethics in Society at

St. Anselm College Saint Anselm College is a private Benedictine liberal arts college in Goffstown, New Hampshire. Founded in 1889, it is the third-oldest Catholic college in New England. Named for Saint Anselm of Canterbury (Archbishop of Canterbury from 1093 to 1 ...

and prior to his work with St. Anselm, Sorens was a lecturer in the department of government at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College (; ) is a private research university in Hanover, New Hampshire. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, it is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the American Revolution. Although founded to educate Native A ...

. He has been an affiliated scholar with the Mercatus Center at

George Mason University George Mason University (George Mason, Mason, or GMU) is a public research university in Fairfax County, Virginia with an independent City of Fairfax, Virginia postal address in the Washington, D.C. Metropolitan Area. The university was origin ...

since 2008. His primary research interests include

fiscal federalism As a subfield of public economics, fiscal federalism is concerned with "understanding which functions and instruments are best centralized and which are best placed in the sphere of decentralized levels of government" (Oates, 1999). In other words, ...

, public policy in federal systems,

secession Secession is the withdrawal of a group from a larger entity, especially a political entity, but also from any organization, union or military alliance. Some of the most famous and significant secessions have been: the former Soviet republics le ...

ism, and ethnic politics. Sorens received his B.A. in economics and philosophy, with honors, from

Washington and Lee University , mottoeng = "Not Unmindful of the Future" , established = , type = Private liberal arts university , academic_affiliations = , endowment = $2.092 billion (2021) , president = William C. Dudley , provost = Lena Hill , city = Lexingto ...

and his PhD in political science from

Yale University Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wo ...

. He is the founder of the

Free State Project The Free State Project (FSP) is an American political migration movement founded in 2001 to recruit at least 20,000 libertarians to move to a single low-population state (New Hampshire was selected in 2003) in order to make the state a stronghold ...

and president of Ethics & Economics Education of New England, an effort to boost ethical and economic literacy in

New England New England is a region comprising six states in the Northeastern United States: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, and Vermont. It is bordered by the state of New York to the west and by the Canadian provinces ...

through programs for high schoolers, opinion leaders, and the general public.

Personal life

Sorens currently lives in Amherst, New Hampshire with his wife Olga and their children.

Free State Project

In July 2001, Sorens published an essay titled "Announcement: The Free State Project", in which he proposed the idea of a political migration, with 20,000

libertarians Libertarianism (from french: libertaire, "libertarian"; from la, libertas, "freedom") is a political philosophy that upholds liberty as a core value. Libertarians seek to maximize autonomy and political freedom, and Minarchism, minimize the ...

to move to a single low-population state (

New Hampshire New Hampshire is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the northeastern United States. It is bordered by Massachusetts to the south, Vermont to the west, Maine and the Gulf of Maine to the east, and the Canadian province of Quebec t ...

, selected in 2003) to make the state a stronghold for libertarian ideas. As of November 26, 2021, over 20,000 people had signed this statement of intent—completing the original goal—with 5,223 people listed as "movers" to New Hampshire on the FSP website, saying they had already moved to New Hampshire as part of the 20,000+-participant trigger.

Published works

Sorens' work has been published in ''International Studies Quarterly'', ''Comparative Political Studies'', ''Journal of Peace Research'', ''State Politics and Policy Quarterly'', and other academic journals, and his book ''Secessionism: Identity, Interest, and Strategy'' was published by McGill-Queen's University Press in 2012.

References

External links

Biography at Saint Anselm College

Biography at Mercatus Center

Free State Project

Ethics & Economics Education of New England

''Secessionism: Identity, Interest, and Strategy'' by Jason Sorens

YouTube: A brief history of the Free State Project with FSP founder Jason Sorens
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sorens, Jason Living people People from Houston Yale University alumni American libertarians Libertarian economists American political activists Dartmouth College faculty Activists from Texas 1976 births

Personal life

Free State Project

Published works

See also

References

External links