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|John Moeller| |Jim Rhodes| |Michael Engelhardt| |Becky Bowman| |Paul Gardner| |Pamela Cook| |Chelle Meyer|

Pictured above L-R: Paul Gardner, Jim Rhodes, Chelle Meyer, Michael Engelhardt,
Becky Bowman, John Moeller and Pamela Cook,

John Moeller (moellerj@luther.edu)

John Moeller came to Luther College in 1981, after teaching at Texas Tech, Livingston University (Alabama) and Pan-American University (Texas). Moeller earned a B.A. from Lawrence University and an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science from Duke University. He teaches courses in law (Constitutional Law, Introduction to Law, Civil Rights and Liberties), political theory (Political Thought, American Political Thought) and environmental politics. He has also taught a number of interdisciplinary courses (Caesars’ Coin, Moral Dilemmas in Literature, Social and Political Issues in Film and Fiction, Science and Politics of Global Warming). He is especially interested in making connections between political theory and political practice and often combines social science writings with imaginative literature in his classes.

Moeller has served as chair of the Political Science Department and Director of the Environmental Studies Program and currently oversees Luther’s participation in the Lutheran College Washington Semester Consortium. In 2006 he was appointed for a five-year term as director of the newly endowed Center for Ethics and Public Life. The goal of the Center is to place discussion of and concern for public issues at the heart of what Luther College students do. The Center will do that by developing a range of activities, including a public lecture series, residencies, reading and discussion groups, and summer programming for new students entering Luther.

Moeller’s research and writing has focused on the role of the Supreme Court in the American political system, political themes in the popular Western, the ideas of Alexander Bickel, and the jurisprudence of Justice John M. Harlan II.

Jim Rhodes (rhodesji@luther.edu)

Jim Rhodes joined the Luther faculty in the fall of 1968 after completing graduate course work at the University of Michigan, completing the dissertation in 1973. He had earlier earned an M.A. in English from the University of Arkansas.

Rhodes has served as chair of Political Science and the Director of Luther’s International Studies program. He follows contemporary world affairs to update his academic and teaching fields of international relations (The Politics of War and Peace and International Relations) and comparative politics (Comparative Political Analysis, Politics of Africa, Asia, and Latin America). His main area of research started out in Latin American politics but has broadened over the years to be global. Rhodes regularly contributes reviews to CHOICE, the American Library Association’s publication for college and research libraries and that has lately included a large number of books on China. He believes scholarship belongs not just in libraries but in the public square to assist leaders and citizens in developing and judging public policies. Rhodes hopes students from his courses have gained a perspective that will enable them both to be aware of contemporary international events and to judge them critically.

Michael Engelhardt (engelhmi@luther.edu)

Mike Engelhardt arrived at Luther in 1988 after earning a B.A. from Hope College in 1979, an M.A. from University of Wisconsin-Madison in 1980 and a Ph.D. from the same institution in 1984.

Engelhardt’s research interests are in the area of American Foreign Policy, with a special interest in military policy and nuclear nonproliferation. He is the author of several published articles in these areas as well as a co-author of a textbook on American Politics. Engelhardt teaches courses in American Politics, Congress and the Presidency, Political Parties and Interest Groups, Politics and the Media and has recently developed a new course on the Politics of the Middle East. He also coaches the Luther Mock Trial team and is the faculty sponsor of Luther College Republicans.

Becky Bowman (bowmre01@luther.edu)

Originally from small-town Iowa, Becky Bowman came to Luther in the fall of 2008. She received her BA from Yale University, and her MA from George Washington University before serving as a Peace Corps volunteer for two years in Turkmenistan. She received her JD from the University of Iowa and is currently finishing her PhD. Before coming to Luther, she taught a few courses at Cornell College. This year, Bowman is teaching Global Politics, Latin American Politics, and Paideia. Her research interests include higher education policy in Central Asia.

Paul Gardner (gardnerp@luther.edu)

Paul Gardner came to Luther College in 1985 after teaching at Illinois State University. Gardner earned a B.A. in Sociology from St. Ambrose University, and an M.A. from Iowa State University and a Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky in Political Science.

Gardner’s course responsibilities include Politics and Religion, Terrorism and Democracy, Introduction to the Politics of Social Policy and American Politics. Two trips to Northern Ireland in addition to the 9/11/01 attacks on America encouraged an interest in terrorism that resulted in the development of the Terrorism and Democracy course. Gardner has taught in several interdisciplinary courses including Luther’s Paideia program for first year students.

He is currently chair of Political Science. Gardner has also directed Luther’s Nottingham Program and serves as the faculty sponsor of the Luther Democrats. During the fall of 2004, Gardner was a guest lecturer on terrorism and American foreign policy at Andrzeja Frycza Modrzewskiego College in Krakow, Poland. His most recent scholarly publication is “Ronald Reagan and the Universality of Democracy.” Gardner’s essays have also appeared in the Chicago Tribune and Christian Science Monitor.

Pamela Y. Cook (cookpa01@luther.edu)

Pamela is a native of Milledgeville, Georgia and received a B.A. in political science from Spelman College and a J.D. from Emory University School of Law. Pamela has served on the faculty at Beloit College and as Director of Minority Affairs at Georgia College. In these positions, she has taught courses in political science,  women's and gender studies, and interdisciplinary studies, as well as, worked on diversity initiatives. As the Consortium for a Strong Minority Presence Dissertation Fellow and Visiting Instructor in Political Science at Luther, Pamela will be completing work on her dissertation at the University of Chicago. For her dissertation, Pamela conducted the Chicago African American Community Activism Study to test a model of womanist consciousness in the political participation of African American women.  A chapter explicating this herstyle model of political activism will appear in the forthcoming volume, The African American Political Woman:  A Reader.

Professionally, Pamela has also served as secretary of the American Political Science Association’s Organized Section on Race, Ethnicity, & Politics, as well as, the secretary of the Women’s Caucus of the Midwest Political Science Association. In addition to serving on the Women of Color Committee for the Women’s Caucus of the American Political Science Association, Pamela is an active member of the Womanist Approaches to Religion and Society Group of the American Academy of Religion.  At the University of  Chicago, she has served in several leadership roles and recently completed  a term as resident fellow at the Center for Gender Studies. Her teaching, research, and activist interests include race and gender politics, womanist pedagogy, and the recruitment and retention of scholars of color in the academy.

Pamela was licensed as a minister at Flagg Chapel Baptist Church in Milledgeville, but has spent the past several years participating in the Ministers in Training class at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. At Trinity, she has been active in the domestic violence ministry, the usher ministry, and the doctoral student support ministry. Pamela’s activism has also included working with other women to form F.I.R.E. (Female storytellers Igniting Revolution to End violence), a grassroots anti-violence group, that has presented a national workshop on its model of social change and is collecting women’s stories of surviving and ending violence to be published as part of its Take Back The News project.

Chelle Meyer (meyerche@luther.edu)

Chelle Meyer earned her B.A. from Luther College and has been working with the Political Science Department as well as the Sociology/Anthropology/Social Work, History & Africana Studies Departments as the Administrative Assistant for the past 14 years. She supervises 6-10 student assistants and enjoys working on the 3rd floor of Koren Hall. Chelle has volunteered for multiple community organizations such as the Decorah Community Schools' Shareholders Group, Conestoga Girl Scout Council and Winneshiek County Habitat for Humanity.