Ján Tomastík, born in Slovakia, is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Masaryk University, Czech Republic. His dissertation in the field of political philosophy will be a defense of the following thesis: Political authority has a real but limited (subsidiary) role in fostering a good moral environment. Ján's essay on this topic, "Moral Ecology and Politics," was recognized in the CREATE Prize 2021 and published by Angelicum University Press in Human Flourishing: Reflections from Catholic Tradition in Central Europe. While a Visiting Student Research Collaborator at the James Madison Program, he will work on article drafts he recently presented at the Veritas Conference at Providence College ("Public Reasons without Liberalism") and at Christian Philosophy and its Challenges in Krakow, Poland ("Political Perfectionism as a Matter of Justice").

Ján earned both his BA and MA (Political Science) at Masaryk University. He completed two semester-long study visits at University of Vienna and University of Ljubljana, and studied liberal arts at the Collegium of Anton Neuwirth in Slovakia. He was awarded the Veritas Scholarship with ADF International in Vienna, where he worked for a year, and then spent two years as an advisor at the Ministry of Labour, Social Affairs and Family of the Slovak Republic.