The APSA Teaching Library Editorial Advisory Board works in collaboration with APSA Teaching & Learning staff to inform all aspects of the digital library’s operations. Meeting throughout the year our team of political science scholar educators and librarians set platform objectives and themes, as well as help identify, curate, and, when appropriate, review content. Please use the button below to quickly view advisory board members and staff. Scroll through this page to read board and staff bios.
Advisory Board & Staff Profiles
Jennet Kirkpatrick is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University.
Professor Kirkpatrick's work focuses on resistance and political theory. She is the author of The Virtues of Exit and Uncivil Disobedience. She has published articles in Political Theory, The Review of Politics, Dissent, Theoria, Politics, Groups, and Identities, Contemporary Political Theory, American Political Thought, and Perspectives on Politics. Prior to joining Educate's Advisory Board Professor Kirkpatrick served on former APSA President Rogers Smith Task Force on New Partnerships. In her role as the Task Force on New Partnerships Teaching subcommittee chair, Professor Kirkpatrick has been playing an active role in Educate's design and launch since the beginning. The Rogers Smith Task Force on New Partnerships Teaching subcommittee also oversaw the Centennial Center for Political Science and Public Affairs' Pedagogical Partnership Grant Initiative design and implementation.
Jennet Kirkpatrick (Chair)
Cammy Shay
Cammy Shay is a Professor of Government and the Faculty Division Chair at Houston Community College.
Professor Shay teaches American Politics, Texas Politics, Latinx Politics, and Intro. to Political Science courses. An expert in civic education, pedagogy and the science of teaching and learning, Professor Shay has spent a her four decade career advancing political science education. She is the winner of the 2021 APSA Community College Faculty Award, served as a member of the APSA President Rogers Smith's Task Force on New Partnerships (2018-19), was a co-organizer of the 2019 special conference Rethinking the Political Science Undergraduate Major, and a regular presence at our teaching & learning conferences. She earned her PhD in Political Science from Rice University.
Andrea Benjamin is an associate professor of The Clara Luper Department of African & African American Studies at The University of Oklahoma.
Her research interests include Race and Politics, Local Elections and Voting behavior, and Public Opinion. Her first book, Racial Coalition Building in Local Elections: Elite Cues and Cross-Ethnic Voting, explores the potential for Black and Latino Coalitions. She is also the co-author of “Set in Stone? Predicting Confederate Monument Removal,” recently published in PS: Political Science and Politics. Professor Benjamin loves research and writing, but is most passionate about bringing research to the classroom. Andrea Benjamin earned her Ph.D. from the University of Michigan.
Andrea Benjamin
Bruce Pencek
Bruce Pencek is a College Librarian for Social Science & History at Virginia Tech University.
As college librarian for social science and history, Bruce Pencek is the information concierge for students and faculty in the school of public and international affairs and the departments of political science; history; science, technology and society; military (and veterans) studies; and the interdisciplinary ASPECT graduate program. He earned his PhD in government from Cornell in 1988, and taught for several years in institutions as varied as the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, and Middlebury College. He came to Virginia Tech in spring 2001 after earning his M.S. degree in library and information science from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1998 and served as president of its faculty senate in 2011-12. Dr. Pencek was named the 2010 recipient of the Association of College and Research Libraries (ACRL) Law and Political Science Section (LPSS) Marta Lange/CQ Press Award. The award honors an academic or law librarian who has made distinguished contributions to bibliography and information service in law or political science.
Rachael Cobb is Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science & Legal Studies at Suffolk University.
Rachael V. Cobb specializes in U.S. elections, election administration, electoral politics, civic engagement, and political participation. In 2006, Professor Cobb received a grant from the United States Election Assistance Commission to establish the University Pollworkers Project, a nonpartisan program designed to recruit college students as poll workers as a response to reports of an estimated shortage of 500,000 poll workers nationwide. Since 2006, more than 500 students from the Greater Boston area have received training and worked as poll workers. In 2008, Professor Cobb served as co-principal investigator on the Boston Area Colleges Exit Poll, in collaboration with D. James Greiner (Harvard Law School) and Kevin Quinn (Harvard Government Department). Her work as appeared in the Quarterly Journal of Political Science and Studies in American Political Development. Professor Cobb serves on the board of MassVOTE and the Boston Election Advisory Committee. She received her Ph.D. from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and her AB from Bryn Mawr College.
Rachael Cobb
Marcus Allen
Marcus D. Allen is Professor of Political Science and Urban Studies and Program Director for United Men of Color at the Guttman Community College, City University of New York.
Christina Sciabarra is Assistant Professor and Faculty Chair of Political Science at Bellevue College.
Professor Sciabarra research focuses on building peace after civil wars in the Middle East, particularly Iraq and the Levant region. She has preserved as the Director of the Center for Career Connections/the Women’s Center in the RISE Learning Institute at BC. I graduated from the US Naval Academy with a B.S. in History and completed a B.A. in Russian and Political Science from the University of Arizona and a Master’s in International Diplomacy from Norwich University. I earned my doctorate from the University of Arizona. She has conducted field work in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Northern Ireland focused on understanding concepts of peace in post-conflict states. I am a United Nations Alliance of Civilizations Fellow and work with an international non-profit focused on youth social entrepreneurship. As a veteran of the war in Iraq, I am committed to peace through dialogue, art, and education above all else.
