So, on the off chance anyone looks at the bios at the bottom of these posts, there are some new words in mine. Well, one word written twice: “retired.” As of today, August 1, 2024, I am officially retired from Troy University after 26 years at the institution.
I started there pretty much straight out of graduate school (after a year and a half of cobbling together a full-time gig out of a bunch of part-time ones) as an Assistant Professor of Political Science (alongside my co-blogger and now long-term friend, James Joyner). While James exited over two decades ago, I remained. I was promoted to Associate Professor in August of 2004 and to Professor in August of 2010. I became chair of the Department of Political Science in December of 2012 and later Dean of the College of Arts and Science on March 15, 2016 (beware the Ides of March, indeed).
For anyone who cares, my full c.v. can be viewed here (although granted, it now needs some updating).
The bottom line is that it was time to step down as dean, for a number of reasons, and my choices were returning to the faculty or formally retiring from the institution. Retirement was the more attractive option. To be clear, I was blessed with the freedom to make all of these choices on my own. I decided it was time to stop being dean and I decided that an exit from the university was the best option for me. I wish the institution well and leave behind some valued colleagues.
What’s next? The great answer is that I am not entirely sure. I know I want to write more, and I have some ideas about what that might mean. While I am not shutting the door on other professional opportunities I feel excited about new chapters without having to worry about what the next job will be.
What does this mean for my participation here at OTB? Likely it means more output (but, we shall see!). It means that I no longer have to have it in the back of my head that I represent a university as an administrator. That may mean there are some topics that I have semi-avoided (like some aspects of Alabama politics) that I will feel less constrained about (not that it really has had all that much of an impact on my writing). I have some thoughts about higher education and higher education administration that I plan to explore in writing, although whether I do so here or elsewhere remains to be seen.
Mostly, I am in the process of moving into a new mindset. I enjoyed my time as dean but had grown weary of being the Guy Who Solves Problems all day, every day. I think I was actually quite good at it if I can be immodest for a moment. But, man, it takes a toll. I also think that I was increasingly not a good fit in terms of what I wanted to accomplish and what reasonable pathways existed for me to do so. I will leave that at that, however.
In terms of my broader academic career, I am pleased with what I was able to accomplish, especially at a regional comprehensive university with a heavy teaching load and not a ton of resources. I was able to write and publish my book on Colombian electoral reform, Voting Amid Violence: Electoral Democracy in Colombia, which was a major professional goal, even if its audience was a tad limited, shall we say.
I am especially proud of A Different Democracy: American Government in a Thirty-One-Country Perspective. It was extremely gratifying to work with Matthew Shugart, Arend Lijphart, and Bernie Grofman on that book. All three of them are major scholars in the field of electoral studies and comparative institutions. Matthew is also a personal friend that I first met when he was in grad school and I was an undergraduate (whom I have known for over 35 years!). It was been a privilege to work on other projects with Matthew and was pleased when he asked me to contribute to the Oxford Handbook of Electoral Systems where he and I co-authored a chapter on Colombia and I solo-authored the US chapter. All of that work has helped me have a (very small) voice in the discussions over electoral and institutional reform in the United States, which has been gratifying.
I also can look back, especially thanks to social media, and see students I taught over the years succeeding in their various careers. It is truly gratifying to see.
So, I hit this transition point feeling pretty good about where I have been. But the cool thing is that I now stand with the horizon in front of me, and the freedom to choose what path I next shall take. And that is a blessing, indeed!
(This had gotten longer and more self-indulgent than intended, but hey, the words have been spilled, so here they are!).
