Dorothy James

A former Provost and Dean of the Faculty at Connecticut College, Dorothy James is one of the country's most highly regarded political scientists on the Presidency and on policy studies. She brings her expertise in American politics and political thought to courses such as Political Parties, Campaigns and Elections, Constitutional Law: Civil Liberties, National Security vs. Individual Freedom, American Political Thought and seminars on Presidential Politics and Judicial Behavior. She retired from teaching in 2017.

Professor James has published extensively on American politics and policy analysis, including her books: The Contemporary Presidency; Poverty, Politics and Change; Outside, Looking in: Critiques of American Policies and Institutions, Left and Right; andAnalyzing Poverty Policy. She has also published numerous articles in scholarly journals and chapters in books.

Professor James received a grant for a Pearl River Delta Faculty Development Seminar funded by the Fulbright-Hays Group Projects Abroad Program, organized by the ASIANetwork and Hong-Kong Center. She spent four weeks studying the impact of recent major economic growth in the Pearl River Delta, China, in summer 2005.

Professor James received the Policy Studies Organization 1998 award as the "Outstanding Woman in the Field of Policy Studies," and that organization's 1997 award for "One of the Best Policy Studies Books Published Since 1975." In 2001 James received the Student Government Association (SGA) Award for Teaching Excellence.

James began teaching at Hunter College, CUNY, served as chair of the political science department at Virginia Tech, then served as Dean of the School of Government and Public Administration at The American University in Washington, D.C., before coming to Connecticut College as Provost and Dean of the Faculty in 1989.

She is past president of the Policy Studies Organization and has served on numerous governing boards of professional associations and journals, including The American Political Science Association, The American Society for Public Administration, the Puerto Rican Legal and Education Defense Fund, and the Everett Dirksen-Adlai Stevenson Institute of International Policy Studies at the University of Illinois.

View the government department and international relations website.

Majoring in Government.