John Ishiyama, University of North Texas

John Ishiyama is University Distinguished Research Professor at the University of North Texas and was previously at Truman State University. He was editor in chief of the APSR (2012–16) and was the founding editor of the Journal of Political Science Education. He is currently PI and director of the National Science Foundation Research Experience for Undergraduates (NSF-REU) site on Civil Conflict Management and Peace Science.

Statement of views: We live in very challenging times, not only for our country and the world, but also for our discipline. The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc across the globe, especially on education. This is felt most acutely by our students (primary and secondary students, undergraduates and graduate students) and our faculty colleagues. Suddenly we need to move courses and seminars online (in the middle of the semester) and students are sent home to study in isolation. Faculty colleagues are separated from one another, making it difficult to interact as colleagues. Academic conferences have been canceled, depriving scholars of the ability to interact with others and exchange ideas, a critical part of what we do. This virus affects all of us and it bears noting that it does not discriminate between subfields, epistemologies, or institutional types. We all need to remember that we are facing this challenge together.

These times will cause us to rethink most everything about our discipline—how we run our conferences, how we interact as colleagues, how we influence policy makers, how we publish and make our research consumable by a broader public, and, for me a very important issue, how we teach. The teaching of political science is more important now than ever before—because we teach skills that produce leaders. Our students know (or should know) how to diagnose and analyze a problem; how to come up with plans, based on evidence, to solve problems; how to mobilize support for their initiatives and actions; and how to use ethical insights to guide the use of power to achieve desired ends. These skills are needed now at all levels of society, not just in government, but also in the private sector, the nonprofit sector, and in civil society. Thus, the teaching of political science is needed now more than ever.

But how do we do this virtually and online? How do we promote the skills that are central to our discipline? How do we promote civic and political engagement in the age of virtual education? How do we promote tolerance and respect for diversity while online, where face to face interactions may be limited? Although there are many challenges, I believe there are also many opportunities to thoroughly rethink what we do as educators and scholars in the coming years.

There certainly will be many challenges, beyond teaching, that will need to be addressed by the APSA leadership in the near future. I emphasize teaching, because I have spent so much of my career focused on political science education, but there surely will be many other challenges as well. I cannot promise that we will successfully meet every challenge, but I can promise that I will do all that I can as president-elect and president to help the APSA leadership navigate these difficult times, as we serve all of our members to the best of our abilities.

Michelle D. Deardorff, University of Tennessee, Chattanooga

Michelle D. Deardorff is the Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Government and Department Head of Political Science and Public Service at the University of Tennessee at Chatta nooga. Prior to 2013, she was a tenured facul ty member at Jackson State University, a historic black university in Mississippi, and from 1991–2003, she taught at Millikin University, a small private institution in Illinois. She earned her BA from Taylor University (IN) and her MA and PhD from Miami University, Ohio.

Statement of views: I have been a member of APSA since 1989 when I was a graduate student; over the last 30 years, I have observed how the organization and our discipline have become more receptive of diversity in methodology, scholarly perspectives, institutional focus, and in political scientists themselves. Consequently, we ask different research questions, address new and continuing societal needs, and are more open to the truly broad nature of the academy, as well as the contributions of practitioners. These changes have benefited us but generate new cleavages regarding mission, resources, accountability, priorities, and purpose. Higher education is evolving, and the role of our disciplinary organizations is transforming as well. In our new political climate transformed by polarization and now a public health crisis, the findings and implications of our research are increasingly valuable and there is a newly-conscious public who may be more interested in understanding our contributions. As a member of the Council, I will help APSA continue pursuing new avenues of meeting the needs of political scientists who are teaching our next generation of citizens, leaders, and academics and to consider how we can best engage the general public and decision makers with the findings of our research.

Mala Htun, University of New Mexico

Mala Htun is professor of political science at the University of New Mexico, deputy director and co-principal investigator of ADVANCE at UNM, and Special Advisor for Inclusion and Climate in the School of Engineering. She works on women’s rights, social inequalities, and strategies to promote inclusion and diversity. Htun is the author of three books, most recently The Logics of Gender Justice: State Action on Women’s Rights around the World, coauthored with Laurel Weldon (Cambridge University Press, 2018), and articles published in Perspectives on Politics, American Political Science Review, Politics & Gender, and others. She holds a PhD in political science from Harvard and a AB in international relations from Stanford. She was an assistant and then associate professor at the New School for Social Research from 2000–2011.

Statement of views: I am honored to be nominated to serve as vice president of APSA. During my term, political scientists, institutions of higher education, scientific and scholarly professions, and the communities where we live and work around the world will be recovering from the multiple shocks of the COVID-19 pandemic. My goal will be to help APSA improve the excellence and integrity of the political science profession and political science research in the context of post-COVID-19 restoration. Since the pandemic threatens to exacerbate inequalities among us, we must craft a way forward that is explicitly inclusive. I propose that APSA work to: 1) diagnose the effects of the pandemic on the jobs, livelihoods, teaching, productivity, and career trajectories of political scientists and on the conditions and impact of diverse forms of political science research and political science education; 2) analyze best practices and propose strategies for departments, journals, reviewers, funders, and other decision makers and institutions to recover and thrive; and 3) monitor and evaluate the implementation of recovery strategies in a transparent and public manner.

John Sides, Vanderbilt University

John Sides is professor of political science at Vanderbilt University. He studies political behavior in American and comparative politics. He helped found and serves as publisher of The Monkey Cage, a site about political science and politics at the Washington Post. He previously served as a member of the APSA Council and a member of three APSA presidential task forces. He received his BA from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill and his MA and PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He previously taught at the University of Texas, Austin and George Washington University.

Statement of views: As a member of the Council, I would advocate for an association that not only works to serve the interests of its diverse membership, but also seeks to become a more public-facing organization. A robust engagement with citizens, journalists, policy makers, politicians, and others outside the academy helps to ensure that the contributions of political science research and teaching are more broadly known and appreciated. Public engagement also helps orient some of the work of the discipline around research questions tied closely to contemporary politics, thereby maintaining and even increasing the relevance of our work.

David Lublin, American University

David Lublin is professor of government at American University. His research spans American and comparative politics with a common thread being the impact of electoral institutions on the inclusion of racial and ethnic minorities. David is the author of The Paradox of Representation: Racial Gerrymandering and Minority Interests in Congress (Princeton, 1997), The Republican South: Democratization and Partisan Change (Princeton, 2004), and Minority Rules: Electoral Systems, Decentralization and Ethnoregional Parties (Oxford, 2014) as well as articles in numerous journals. David earned his BA from Yale and his AM and PhD from Harvard.

Statement of views: The ongoing medical and economic crisis places real financial pressure on many colleagues and APSA even as it shows the critical importance of government and political institutions. I would be honored to have the opportunity to work to support one another and APSA’s mission during our recovery from it. As my research and political involvement indicate, I feel strongly about the need for inclusion not just of people from different backgrounds and experiences, but also with respect for the vitality that various methodological approaches and colleagues at different types of institutions bring to our discipline. My own work is at times descriptive, qualitative, and quantitative. I have taught at a large public university as well as my current private institution. My hope is that APSA will value teaching and research of all types as we move forward together.

Menna Demessie, Congressional Black Caucus Foundation

Menna Demessie is the Vice President of Policy Analysis and Research at the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, Inc. She leads the foundation’s research and policy initiatives that affect African Americans and the global black community in areas including education, criminal justice, economic opportunity, voting and environmental sustainability. Dr. Demessie has spearheaded several partnerships with the White House, the US Congress, and other nonprofit stakeholders to advance strategic efforts to influence and inform public policy. She is the founder and co-managing editor of the foundation’s Journal of the Center for Policy Analysis and Research, a multidisciplinary, peer-reviewed journal on public policy issues in the United States and abroad. She received her joint PhD in public policy and political science from the University of Michigan in 2010 and received the APSA Congressional Fellowship, where she worked for Congresswoman Barbara Lee on federal unemployment benefits legislation, antipoverty initiatives, and foreign affairs.

Statement of views: Having served two terms on the Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy Alumni Board combined with my decade long work on Capitol Hill, I bring a diversity, equity, and inclusion approach to understanding how APSA can maximize its global reach with cutting edge research and support for different career paths in the field. Moreover, the demand for robust political science research in the practical world of public policy calls upon political scientists to leverage their expertise both inside and outside academia. Therefore, I will support APSA’s modernization efforts to remain relevant and adaptable to the demands of the discipline, while also ensuring institutional commitment to support faculty and researchers with interest to advance the discipline in this regard.

Terry L. Gilmour, Midland College

Terry Gilmour is professor of political science at Midland College. She received her PhD in political science from Texas Tech University. Currently, she serves as chair of the Political Science Education section of APSA where she has been active since 2008. She has also served on the executive board of the Southwest Political Science Association. She received the Teaching Excellence Award, the highest award given by the college and has been selected by students as Teacher of the Year three times.

Statement of views: I am honored to receive this nomination for APSA Council. Throughout my academic career, my focus has been on teaching and helping my students understand the importance of civic responsibility. With students receiving their education in a variety of delivery methods—from dual credit to online to traditional classes—it is more important than ever to work together to prepare them and help them succeed. As a community college professor, I know that for a vast majority of students, this will be their introduction to the field of political science and I take that responsibility very seriously. If I do not get them interested in the field at my level, they may never take another political science course. I appreciate the support from APSA for community college faculty as we extend the discussion about the field of political science from the high schools to the community colleges to the colleges and universities. I believe that my experience will bring a unique perspective to the overall conversation.

Catherine Guisan, University of Minnesota, Twin Cities

Catherine Guisan is visiting associate professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, where she received her PhD in 2000. She has also taught in the Honors Programs (University Colleges) of the Universities of Utrecht and Amsterdam (Netherlands), at Sciences Po (Grenoble, France) and in the graduate program of European University, Saint Petersburg, Russia, as a Fulbright Fellow. Catherine Guisan served as the first chair of the APSA Service Committee on the Status of Contingent Faculty, 2016–2019.

Statement of views: I would be honored to serve on the APSA Council. APSA is an organization which I have grown to know and appreciate increasingly through my three-year term as chair of a service committee. As an adjunct faculty who spent her first 20 adult years, working with NGOs in Europe, Asia, and North America, and as a foreign-born American-trained scholar, I will contribute a multifaceted perspective to the council’s deliberations. If elected, I will pursue three goals. First, I will prod the APSA Council to develop and adopt guidelines regarding the treatment of contingent faculty by departments of political science. I teach on a campus where unionization of tenure and tenure-track faculty with adjunct faculty has been declared unconstitutional by court order, and I know from personal experience how important and useful such guidelines could be. They should not be imperative, but would help set a minimum standard for departments where a lone contingent faculty negotiates salary and other forms of compensation. Secondly, I would contribute to the ongoing internationalization of APSA and its programs, thanks to the professional networks I have developed in several European countries. Finally, I would help promote a form of public engagement which bears on international, and especially transatlantic, relations.

Nancy J. Hirschmann, University of Pennsylvania

Photo: Joel Elliott/National Humanities Center

Nancy J. Hirschmann is Stanley I. Sheerr Term Professor in the Social Sciences in the Department of Political Science at The University of Pennsylvania. A political theorist who has held a number of fellowships, she has published books and articles on a variety of topics ranging from the idea of freedom to welfare reform to Islamic veiling and gender roles. She has held administrative positions at Penn and Cornell University, and has taught at Swarthmore and Gettysburg Colleges.

Statement of views: I am honored to have been nominated to stand for council. I have long believed that a focus on politics requires a wide variety of methods, approaches, and substantive interests, as well as scholars who come from a great diversity of backgrounds. APSA is and should be an organization that reflects the diversity of its members. I will work to support the APSA’s efforts to provide a welcoming space to foster an inclusive community of scholars, providing important resources for faculty that can facilitate collaboration across and within fields of specialization. I am particularly interested in further helping the association provide resources for diversifying the “pipeline” and mentoring junior faculty and graduate students, as well as women, racial and ethnic minorities, disabled scholars, LGBTQ+ scholars and other groups who are at times disadvantaged within the profession. In these difficult times of crisis, political scientists have unique contributions to make to the public conversation, and I will work to support new ways for the APSA to help members reach new constituencies while also reducing our carbon footprint.

Nahomi Ichino, Emory University

Nahomi Ichino is an associate professor in the Department of Political Science at Emory University. She previously was a faculty member in the Department of Government at Harvard University and the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan. She holds a PhD in political science from Stanford University and a BA in political science from Yale University and is a former Havard Academy Scholar.

Statement of views: I would be honored to serve on the APSA Council. If elected, I would like to work with fellow council members and APSA staff to support political scientists at many different types of institutions in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the structural changes in higher education that will follow; encourage efforts to advance scholars from under-represented groups in the undergraduate, graduate, post-doctoral, and faculty ranks; and to assist APSA’s international outreach in strengthening a scholarly community of rigorous research around the world.

Tamara Metz, Reed College

Tamara Metz is associate professor of political science and humanities, chair of the Political Science Department and director of the Center for Teaching and Learning at Reed College. She has served APSA as the treasurer of Foundations of Political Theory, and a member of the Distinguished Teaching Award Committee. For WPSA she served as the chair of the Women’s Caucus and as a board member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession, WPSA. She is the author of Untying the Knot: Marriage, the State and the Case for Their Divorce (Princeton University Press, 2010), co-editor of Justice, Politics, and the Family (Paradigm Press, 2014) and has published work in various edited volumes and journals.

Statement of views: I am honored to be nominated to the council. Areas toward which I hope to steer the council’s energies include: (1) Fostering diverse, equitable engagement by scholars from across subfields, institutional contexts, seniority, and social categories. APSA is only as valuable and vibrant as it is inclusive; (2) The climate crisis. As an organization dedicated to the study of how human beings live together, APSA should be leading the way in refiguring how we operate in light of the climate crisis. Considerations of equity must be at the fore of these efforts; (3) The grad school-adjunct crisis. APSA cannot solve the meta-political-economic-social problems fueling the reality that more than half of all faculty appointments are part-time and often woefully under-compensated, but the organization has a crucial role to play in addressing this matter “at home,” in the discipline; (4) Undergraduate teaching and learning. All of the above have important implications for our work as teachers. As the director of a center for teaching and learning at a small liberal arts college, I hope to steer APSA’s energies in directions that support our work as teachers as much as scholars.

Ido Oren, University of Florida

Ido Oren is associate professor of political science at the University of Florida. His intellectual and research interests range from International Relations theory, international security affairs, and US foreign policy, through the history and sociology of social science, to interpretive methods of political research. He is former vice president of the International Studies Association (ISA), and former president of the ISA’s southern region. Oren earned a BA in Middle Eastern and African Studies from Tel-Aviv University, an MA in political science from New York University, and a PhD in political science from the University of Chicago.

Statement of views: I have been a member of the association for some 30 years and I am honored to be nominated to serve on the council. Within the association, my main home in recent years has been in the space of conference-related groups. I am sensitive to the needs of these groups and, should I be elected, I will endeavor to represent their perspective to the best of my abilities. I will also endeavor to ensure that intellectual diversity and methodological pluralism continue to permeate the discipline.

Jillian Schwedler, Hunter College

Jillian Schwedler is professor of political science at Hunter College and the Graduate Center. She is Nonresident Senior Fellow at the Crown Center for the Middle East at Brandeis University and co-founder and co-director of the Sidi Bou Said School of Critical Protest Studies. She was an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Middle East Studies Association of North America and the Project on Middle East Political Science, and she has served on the editorial committees of Middle East Law and Governance, International Journal of Middle East Studies, and Middle East Report. She received her PhD in politics from New York University in 2000.

Statement of views: I am honored to be nominated to serve on the APSA Council. Because I have taught at three public universities, I am acutely aware of the challenges of public institutions at a time of constant cuts in state budgets. These cuts force faculty to struggle with slashed or non-existent research budgets, underfunded libraries, and heavy workloads, while students often work full-time and struggle to complete coursework without a personal computer or the funds to purchase books. APSA is not only the professional association of well-funded prestige schools, but of the far larger number of public and less-well-resourced schools that educate the vast majority of students. Because I have taught at both R-1 universities as well as an urban public university, I can give voice to the concerns of public schools in general and the challenges and needs of the political science faculty who work there. If elected to the APSA Council, I would also work to advance greater equality of opportunity and resources within the profession along the lines of gender, sexual identity, race, and ethnicity, as well as diverse methodological and epistemological commitments.