Michelle Deardorff
The votes are in, and the people of the political science community have spoken.
Michelle Deardorff, an Adolph S. Ochs professor of government and head of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Department of Political Science and Public Service, has been chosen as one of the 2020-2021 vice presidents of the American Political Science Association (APSA), the leading professional organization of political science scholars and students in the United States.
APSA is governed by 31 elected officers and council members responsible for the vision and plans of the 12,000-member association. Headquartered in Washington, D.C., the organization has had numerous high-profile officers since its inception in 1903, including a future U.S. president (Woodrow Wilson) and several Nobel Peace Prize winners.
“This is a continuation of the work I have been doing with APSA since I joined as a graduate student in 1989,” Deardorff said. “I have served on committees and I’ve chaired committees. I have been a member of the council. It has been a very good experience and it has worked well with some of the other work I’ve done, such as civil rights education.”
Deardorff performs program reviews of other political science departments as part of her APSA work, which intertwines with her teaching at UTC.
“Because I’m visible in my discipline, people know who I am and trust the quality of my work because I’m not an unknown factor,” she said. “I see all these cool things other people are doing—or not-so-cool things—and it forces me to constantly see new ways other people are navigating the same intellectual world I am.”
It’s an interesting period in American history for members of the political science community, considering political and racial tensions, not to mention the upcoming national election and a global pandemic. Deardorff said what’s exciting about teaching at this time is that other people see it as important as she always has.
“I am a political scientist in 2020. We all know what that entails,” she said. “I don’t have to spend time engaging the public as to why this matters, which I’ve spent a lot of time doing in the past. I don’t have to spend classroom time convincing my students why this is important. I think we all understand how essential this is. And I have a department and colleagues who are as passionate and committed to this work as I am, and that is a joy.”
