[2] His nomination led to charges of partisanship from both the left and right, with some questioning his resistance to using race-based affirmative action in the selection of reviewers, others opposing the appointment of a political scientist to a position generally reserved for archivists or professional historians.
[5] Soon after returning to the NEH, Agresto was elected to serve as President of St. John's College in Santa Fe, New Mexico, a position he held for 11 years.
[citation needed] Between August 2003 and June 2004 he was asked to serve as a Coalition Provisional Authority Senior Advisor to the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research in Baghdad, Iraq,[6] charged with helping to rebuild all 21 of that country's universities and technical colleges.
[9] In addition, works by Agresto include various contributed book chapters as well as articles published in journals over the years in the fields of politics, culture, religion, and education.
Many of his essays and op-eds have been carried by The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Commentary Magazine, and The Chronicle of Higher Education.