My philosophy has always been
that as a political scientist
and as a faculty member, my
two main responsibilities
are to educate our students,
but also to continue my research
agenda as a scholar.
And the research that I
do informs my teaching,
but sometimes my teaching
helps to inform my scholarship.
Whether it's my presidency class
or my women in politics class,
there have been times when
I've been lecturing and hearing
students talk and
they'll ask me questions,
and all of a sudden the
light bulb in my head
will go on and think
that's a question I
think I should really look
at in my own research.
I have a brand new
presidency text coming out.
It's called Presidents and
the American Presidency,
based on some of the
research that I have done.
I've done extensive research
in presidential libraries
across the country.
And so I rely on archival data
to show what really happens
in the presidency day to day.
In the preface of the
book, I make a point
of thanking all of the
students who have ever
taken my presidency class.
I've been teaching at the
university level for about 15,
16 years.
So much has changed
in medium politics.
I think scholars just
starting to contemplate
what all this new
technology means
for what we know
as voters and how
we participate in the process.
It matters whether you're
just looking at one candidate
speaking, or you looking
at a split screen
when they're speaking,
because if you
see the reactions
from the other person,
is that changing what you're
hearing in the debate.
If you're watching
it online and you
see blog comments
or Twitter comments,
is that changing what you're
taking from the debate?
And I think we know
the answer is yes.
So that's one of the
themes that I'm really
starting to focus
on, particularly
in my medium politics
class, but also
how it relates to how
we elect a president.
We have our majors doing
a lot of different things
when they graduate.
Some take the path
where they really
want to get involved in politics
or the governing process.
We have a lot of other students
who obviously go to law school.
Actually we have
a lot of students
who are business
majors and either
a double major in political
science or a minor.
One student I'm thinking
of in particular
ended up double majoring in
film and political science,
because he's in the
documentary program.
I always make the argument
of why political science is
the best major on campus.
It has so many important links
to all the other real world
implications of what we do.
I think it's just that linchpin
to global competitiveness
and this understanding
and knowledge
of the world in which we live.
