JSU professor named chair of national committee on teaching and learning

Spencer McClenty
601-979-1457
spencer.l.mcclenty@jsums.edu
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Jackson State University professor of Political Science Michelle D. Deardorff, has been appointed by the American Political Science Association (APSA) to chair the Committee on Teaching and Learning for a term of four years.

Michelle Deardorff

The American Political Science Association, founded in 1903, is the leading professional organization for the study of political science and serves more than 15,000 members in over 80 countries.

“I was very surprised when I was contacted by APSA about this opportunity,” said Deardorff, who received a B. A. in political science and history from Taylor University in Indiana and an M.A. and Ph.D. in political science from Miami University in Ohio. “In my discipline, appointments to the APSA council and to the standing committees almost always goes to faculty at the largest institutions, who are in high-profile Ph.D.-granting departments, and hardly ever to those at HBCUs. I never expected to have this opportunity during my career.”

The APSA Committee on Teaching and Learning addresses issues of course and curriculum preparation and assessment in higher education, the professional development of college and graduate teaching and strategies of teaching and learning for the diversity of students and program missions. The committee also advises the APSA council on the practices and policy for the annual Teaching and Learning Conference.

“During my term in office, I hope to continue to institutionalize the significance of teaching of all kinds and at all levels and develop long-lasting relationships between the organized research sections of the discipline and the teaching communities,” said Deardorff, a member of the JSU Political Science Department since 2003. “I also want to promote the importance of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning for professional development and pressure APSA to take a leadership role on programmatic assessment, and I plan to ensure that our first APSA endowed award for Distinguished Contributions to Teaching is fully funded.”

Deardorff is a former chair of the ASPA’s organized section on Political Science Education, a member of the editorial board of the peer-reviewed Journal of Political Science Education and a member of the Distinguished Teaching Award Leadership committee.