Teaching Civic Engagement: From Student to Active Citizen provides an exploration of key theoretical discussions, innovative ideas, and best practices in educating citizens in the 21st century. Edited by Alison Rios Millett McCartney, Elizabeth A. Bennion, and Dick Simpson, this book addresses theoretical debates over the place of civic engagement education in political science. It offers pedagogical examples in several subfields, including evidence of their effectiveness and models of appropriate assessment.
Written by political scientists from a range of institution types and subfields, Teaching Civic Engagement makes the case that civic and political engagement should be a central part of our mission as a discipline.
Mahalley D. Allen (PhD, University of Kansas) is associate professor of political science at California State University, Chico. Her research and teaching interests include judicial politics, constitutional law, and public policy. Allen has published articles in numerous journals, including American Review of Politics, Harvard International Journal of Press and Politics, Policy Studies Journal, Political Research Quarterly, and State Politics and Policy Quarterly.
Richard Battistoni (PhD, Rutgers University) is professor and chair of political science and professor of public and community service studies at Providence College. From 1994 to 2000, he served as the founding director of the Feinstein Institute for Public Service at Providence College, the first degree-granting program that combines community service with the curriculum. Battistoni also has developed and directed service-learning efforts at Rutgers and Baylor Universities. His extensive publications on civic engagement include Education for Democracy (with Benjamin Barber), Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum: A Resource Book for Faculty in all Disciplines, and Experiencing Citizenship: Concepts and Models for Service Learning in Political Science (with William Hudson).
Elizabeth Beaumont (PhD, Stanford University) is assistant professor of political science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities. Her research focuses on political theory, public law, and political socialization, particularly democratic theory and political engagement and constitutional theory and development. Beaumont was a research scholar at the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching, where she coauthored two books based upon her Carnegie research: Educating for Democracy: Preparing Undergraduates for Responsible Political Engagement and Educating Citizens: Preparing America’s Undergraduates for Lives of Moral and Civic Responsibility. Her newest book, The Civic Constitution (Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2013) focuses on the role of civic ideals, discourses, and struggles during several crucial eras of constitutional formation and change.
Elizabeth A. Bennion (PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison) is an award-winning professor in the Department of Political Science at Indiana University, South Bend. She teaches courses in American politics, with an emphasis on political behavior and engagement. Bennion’s favorite research strategy is to use randomized field experiments to test the effectiveness of real-world interventions in promoting civic engagement. As campus director of the American Democracy Project, she organizes and moderates frequent candidate debates and issue forums, in addition to hosting a weekly live-televised political news show. She has presented and published numerous articles on civic engagement pedagogy.
Michael Brintnall (PhD, Massachusetts Institute of Technology) is executive director of the American Political Science Association. He formerly directed the National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration and held several other positions, including vice president for academic affairs at Mount Vernon College and director of the Economic Development Program Evaluation Office at the US Department of Housing and Urban Development. Brintnall also held faculty appointments in political science at Brown University and Mount Vernon College. Research and public policy interests include urban public policy and development, nonprofit organizations and new models of public governance, and international roles of scholarly associations in civil society and development. He is a founding member of the InterAmerican Network for Public Administration Education.
Sivan Chaban (MA, University for Peace) graduated from Towson University’s Honors College with a BA in international relations after completing a thesis paper on the involvement of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees with Kurdish refugees during the First Gulf War. Chaban also participated in the University for Peace’s Model United Nations Conference, at which she won the award for Best Strategist on the Human Rights Council as the delegate of the Russian Federation. Her current research focuses on the ways in which international law and a human rights-based approach can effectively address and eventually prevent the AIDS crisis among displaced populations in Africa.
Anita Chadha (PhD, Auburn University) is associate professor at the University of Houston, Downtown. Her teaching interests include American government, political participation and democracy, public policy, public administration, and organizational theory. Chadha’s research agenda focuses on the use of technology in the classroom, patterns of voting (overreporting of voting), legislative term limits, and the functions and workloads of state legislative fiscal offices. Her articles have appeared in American Politics Quarterly, Journal of Public Affairs and Issues, Public Opinion Quarterly, and State and Local Government Review.
Teodora C. DeLorenzo ( JD, New College of California) is professor of political science at California State University, Chico. Her research and teaching interests include legal research and writing, clinical and internship experiences, and civil rights and liberties. In 2012, DeLorenzo coauthored “Civic Engagement in the Community: Undergraduate Clinical Legal Education,” published in the Journal of Political Science Education.
Susan Dicklitch (PhD, University of Toronto) is professor of government, associate dean of the college, and director of the Ware Institute for Civic Engagement at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Her work focuses on human rights, political asylum, democratic transitions and civil society in Africa. Dicklitch has served as an expert witness in more than eighty political asylum cases in US Immigration Court. She is the author of The Elusive Promise of NGOs in Africa: Lessons from Uganda, and several scholarly articles on human rights and civic engagement pedagogy.
Paul E. Frank (PhD, Boston University) has spent much of his life engaged in politics. He served as an assistant to former presidential candidate Michael Dukakis and ran as a candidate in the 2004 election for Roseville City Council. Frank also has worked in the California State Assembly and Senate, on several local campaigns, and for a nonprofit health care organization as a government relations representative. He currently sits on several local boards and commissions. Frank has been teaching American government, international relations, and California politics at Sacramento City College since 1996.
Bobbi Gentry (PhD, City University of New York Graduate Center) is assistant professor and chair of political science at Millikin University, where she teaches courses in American politics, media and politics, and American politics and film. Research interests include youth participation in both the civic arena and elections and pedagogical questions about encouraging student engagement through writing. Gentry has presented her work at several conferences, including the APSA’s Teaching and Learning Conference.
Jean Wahl Harris (PhD, State University of New York, Binghamton) currently serves as professor and chair of the Political Science Department and a faculty associate of the Women’s Studies Program at the University of Scranton. Her research interests include women as political actors, the gendered effect of public policies, and civic engagement. Harris was the recipient of the University of Scranton’s John L. Earl III award for service to the university, faculty, and community. She is coauthor of American Democracy Now.
Brian M. Harward (PhD, University of Georgia) is associate professor of political science and director of the Center for Political Participation at Allegheny College. He teaches constitutional law, judicial process, and philosophy of law, among other courses in American politics. Harward’s research interests include campaigns and elections, poverty law, participation in the US Senate, congressional oversight, and executive power. Along with books and articles published about these subjects, including the forthcoming Presidential Campaigns Decoded (ABC-CLIO, 2013), Harward also has published several articles related to teaching and liberal education, including “The Disorienting Dilemma: The Senior Capstone as a Transformative Experience” in Liberal Education.
Shannon Jenkins (PhD, Loyola University, Chicago) is associate professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts, Dartmouth, specializing in US state politics, women and politics, and public policy. Her research focuses upon decision making in state legislatures, particularly the role of political organizations and gender in shaping outputs in these institutions, and the impact of specific pedagogical practices on student learning outcomes in political science courses. Jenkins’s research has appeared in the Journal of Political Science Education, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, PS: Political Science & Politics, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, and Social Science Quarterly.
Michelle Lorenzini (PhD, Washington University) is assistant professor of political science at Saint Louis University. Her research interests include the politics of financial development in East and Southeast Asia, trade dependence and the socialization of trade risk, and the scholarship of teaching and learning related to civic engagement. She teaches courses in international and comparative political economy. Lorenzini is director of the Atlas Program, which seeks to increase awareness of global issues to promote discussion and action.
Elizabeth Matto (PhD, George Washington University) is assistant research professor at the Eagleton Institute of Politics at Rutgers University and director of the Institute’s Youth Political Participation Program (YPPP). She leads research as well as educational and public service efforts designed to celebrate and support the political learning of high school and college students and civic action among young adults— including those holding and running for office. Matto’s current research project is “The Classroom-Kitchen Table Connection: The Effects of Political Discussion on Youth Knowledge and Efficacy.”
Russell Mayer (PhD, University of Michigan) is associate professor of political science and vice provost at Merrimack College. His scholarship aims to understand the reasons why young people participate in politics and promote teaching pedagogies that foster greater civic engagement among students. Mayer’s work also focuses on the methods of assessing the impact of these pedagogies. He has published several articles that consider alternative approaches to promoting civic engagement in such journals as the Journal of Political Science Education.
Alison Rios Millett McCartney (PhD, University of Virginia) is associate professor of political science at Towson University and former director of the International Studies program. Her research and teaching interests include German politics and foreign policy, Polish politics and foreign policy, the European Union, civic engagement, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. In addition to publishing several articles, her forthcoming book, A New Germany in a New Europe, will be published by Lexington Books. She has received several awards for her civic engagement work, including the Maryland-DC Campus Compact Service-Learning Scholarship Award and the University System of Maryland Regents Award for Mentoring.
Michael K. McDonald is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland, College Park. His current research focuses on the impact of strengthening intellectual property rights on social outcomes in the developing world. Additional research and teaching interests include international political economy, American trade and foreign policy, international and economic development, international public health, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. McDonald presented papers on civic engagement and service-learning at the 2011 and 2012 APSA Teaching and Learning Conferences.
Mary McHugh (MA, Boston College) is director of the Stevens Service Learning Center and an adjunct faculty member in the Political Science Department at Merrimack College. She teaches a variety of classes on US politics and American political institutions. Research interests include examining how experiential learning affects and enhances students learning. McHugh is a regular presenter at the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference.
Patrick F. McKinlay (PhD, University of Notre Dame) is a professor in the Political Science Department at Morningside College. His teaching and research interests include European history, political thought, US politics, international relations, citizenship, and political economy. He has presented his work at the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference, in addition to other national and regional conferences.
Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan (PhD, Rutgers University) is associate professor of political science and the founding director of the Center for Civic Engagement at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, where she teaches courses in American politics and public law. Her latest book, Congressional Participation as Amicus Curiae before the US Supreme Court, explores how members of Congress attempt to influence Supreme Court decision making in specific cases. She has worked for the US Supreme Court, the US Senate Judiciary Committee, the US Department of Justice, and the White House, in addition to managing statewide operations for several presidential campaigns. McLauchlan was awarded her university’s highest teaching award, the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, and was a Fulbright Scholar to Moldova in 2010 and 2012.
Timothy Meinke (PhD, University of Maryland, College Park) is currently chair of the Political Science and International Relations Departments at Lynchburg College and was a member of the committee that designed that college’s civic engagement minor in 2005–2006. Research interests include welfare politics, promoting civic engagement among undergraduates, and using studies of genocide to understand evil and politics. He has presented papers on the relationship between power and policy at the American Political Science Association annual conferences and the 2008 Midwestern Political Science Association and is currently working on answering questions about politics during the US. Civil War. Meinke is a past chair of the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference.
David W. Nickerson (PhD, Yale University) is associate professor of political science at the University of Notre Dame. Nickerson’s research uses experiments to study how organizations mobilize individuals to register, vote, volunteer, and donate. He has published numerous articles in journals such as American Journal of Political Science, American Political Science Review, Political Research Quarterly, and Public Opinion Quarterly. Nickerson was a post-doc research fellow at both Yale and Princeton Universities.
Betty O’Shaughnessy (PhD, University of Illinois, Chicago) is presently adjunct professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago and also teaches political science and US history at Loyola Academy. She is coauthor of The Struggle for Power and Influence in Cities and States, with Dick Simpson and James Nowlan
Diana Owen (PhD, University of Wisconsin, Madison) is associate professor of political science and director of American Studies at Georgetown University, where she also cofounded the Communication, Culture, and Technology graduate program. She is the author of Media Messages in American Presidential Elections, New Media and American Politics (with Richard Davis) and American Government and Politics in the Information Age (with David Paletz and Timothy Cook), and editor of The Internet and Politics: Citizens, Voters, and Activists (with Sarah Oates and Rachel Gibson) and Making a Difference: The Internet and Elections in Comparative Perspective (with Richard Davis, Stephen Ward, and David Taras). Her current research projects focus on the intersection of civic education and political engagement with digital media in American politics and elections.
Sally A. Parker ( JD, University of Pacific, McGeorge School of Law) is assistant professor of political science at California State University, Chico. Her research and teaching interests include legal studies, administrative law, and civic engagement. Parker began teaching in 2006 after practicing as a civil litigation attorney focused on workers’ rights.
Anthony Perry (PhD, Wayne State University, Detroit) is associate dean of Social Science at Henry Ford Community College, where he also teaches political science. Perry introduced the Student Political Issues Convention to Henry Ford Community College in 2004. He developed and facilitated a similar student convention (previously known as the Urban Agenda) with the late Professor Otto Feinstein at Wayne State University. Perry is directing a newly created Democracy Institute at Henry Ford Community College to promote public service, political engagement, and political and public policy knowledge among college students and the greater community.
Arthur Sanders (PhD, Harvard University) is the Ellis and Nelle Levitt Distinguished Professor of Politics and associate provost for curriculum and assessment at Drake University, where he has been a member of the faculty since 1990. His research focuses on citizen politics in the United States, including examinations of public opinion, the impact of mass media, and campaign finance. In 2007, Sanders published his most recent book, Losing Control: Presidential Elections and the Decline of Democracy.
Mary Scheuer Senter (PhD, University of Michigan) is professor of sociology and director of the Center for Applied Research and Rural Studies (CARRS) at Central Michigan University. Through CARRS, she has been involved with more than 100 projects for community organizations, governmental units, and campus offices. Her current work focuses on diversity issues within higher education. She is a member of the American Sociological Association’s Department Resource Group and is working with Roberta Spalter-Roth, director of the ASA’s Department of Research and Development, on a longitudinal study of sociology majors graduating in 2012.
Daniel M. Shea (PhD, State University of New York, Albany) is professor of government and director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement at Colby College. His research and teaching interests include campaigns and elections, civility in politics, the dynamics of the party system, the politics of media, and grassroots political activism. Shea has written numerous articles and authored or edited 19 books, including Can We Talk? The Rise of Rude, Nasty, Stubborn Politics, and Let’s Vote! The Essentials of the American Electoral Process in 2012.
Dick Simpson (PhD, Indiana University) is professor at the University of Illinois, Chicago (UIC) and former head of the Department of Political Science. Simpson is a specialist in city politics, elections, African politics, and teaching political engagement. He is the author of numerous books and more than 100 professional journal articles, documentary films, and newspaper op-ed columns. Simpson has won many teaching awards, including the UIC Silver Circle and UIC Excellence in Teaching Award and was cochair of the committee that created the APSA Excellence in Teaching Award.
Cherie Strachan (PhD, University at Albany) is director of the Women and Gender Studies Program and professor of political science at Central Michigan University. She is the author of High-Tech Grassroots: The Professionalization of Local Elections, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. Her recent publications focus on the role of civility in a democratic society and college-level civic education interventions intended to enhance students’ civic skills and identities. Strachan’s applied research, which focuses on facilitating student-led deliberative discussions sessions and enhancing campus civil society, has resulted in an affiliation with the Kettering Foundation.
Dari E. Sylvester (PhD, Stony Brook University) is associate professor in the Department of Political Science and director of Research at the Jacoby Center for Public Service and Civic Leadership, University of the Pacific. Sylvester has earned numerous teaching-oriented awards, including the 2008 Hoefer Prize for Leadership in Experiential Learning for outstanding achievements in both teaching and scholarship and the 2010 American Political Science Association’s Sosa-Riddell Award for the Mentoring of Undergraduate Latino/a Students. Her published works in the scholarship of teaching and learning include a 2010 article in the Journal for Civic Commitment and a chapter in the 2011 text Democratic Dilemmas of Teaching Service- Learning: Curricular Strategies for Success (edited by Christine M. Cress and David M. Donahue).
Renée Bukovchik VanVechten (PhD, University of California, Irvine) is associate professor at the University of Redlands. Van Vechten’s research and teaching interests include American politics, with particular focus on legislative processes in California and at the national level, and the scholarship of teaching and learning. In 2008 she received the Rowman and Littlefield Award for Innovative Teaching in Political Science for a simulation she developed to teach congressional processes and the Innovative Teaching award at the University of Redlands. She is author of California Politics: A Primer, 2nd Edition and a forthcoming book published by CQ Press, The Logic of California Politics.