Frederick M. Dolan's interests include the relationship of modern political theory to the philosophical and religious traditions and their critics, the nature of modernity, American political theory and ideology, hermeneutics, and aesthetics.

His teaching at CCA has included courses on political philosophy, aesthetics and politics, Nietzsche, Heidegger, philosophies of beauty, and philosophies of technology. During 2010-11, he taught "Criticism Between Theory and Poetry" (on Nietzsche, Heidegger, James Joyce, and Wallace Stevens) and "Heidegger for Artists." In 2011-12, he taught an undergraduate seminar on Marx and Nietzsche and a graduate seminar on aesthetics. He also directs the Working Group on the Concept of Art for the Graduate Program in Fine Arts and regularly offers the Strategies seminar for Visual and Critical Studies, as well as lecturing in the Ethics and Representations tracks of Foundations in Critical Studies.

Dolan is also Professor Emeritus of Rhetoric at the University of California, Berkeley, and a founder of The Orion Seminar.