Council 2003–2005

Joanna Vecchiarelli Scott, Eastern Michigan University

Joanna Vecchiarelli Scott has been professor of political science at Eastern Michigan University since January, 1990. She arrived at EMU as department head, recruited in a national search, and served in that capacity until May, 1995. Previously, she taught at California State University, Long Beach, where she served for three years on the General Education Governing Committee and was elected “Outstanding Teacher” in the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences. She served on the APSA Nominating Committee from 2000–2002 and on the Professional Ethics Committee. She is currently chair of the Leo Strauss Dissertation Award Committee. Scott is a member of the Western and Midwest regions, served on the Board of the Midwest, and is active in the national and Midwest regional Women's Caucus for Political Science. Her B.A. is from Barnard College, where she graduated cum laude with Honors in Government, her M.A. is from Columbia University where she was awarded a Presidential Fellowship, and her Ph.D. is from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, UK. Scott is a political theorist and Europeanist interested in the cross-fertilization of European and American political culture in the 20^th century, with a particular focus on Hannah Arendt and her generation of philosophers, social theorists, writers, and artists. She is also engaged in research on contemporary reinterpretations of medieval political theories of identity and power, from the Cold War to the post-Modern eras.

Scott published Hannah Arendt: Love and Saint Augustine (with Judith C. Stark, 1996, University of Chicago Press) and is completing a second study on Arendt which explores her emergence as an American political theorist and cultural critic in New York City in the middle decades of the 20^th century. Scott's other publications include book chapters, book reviews, and articles in political science journals such as The Journal of Politics, Polity, PS, and The American Political Science Review, as well as in the multidisciplinary venues, Augustinian Studies, New German Critique, and the Hannah Arendt Newsletter. Scott's research has been funded by five NEH Summer Seminars and Institutes for College Teachers, an NEH Research Fellowship for College Teachers, and a Gilder Lehrman Research Fellowship for 2003–2004 to support archival research at Columbia University and the New York Public Library. In July, 1996, her article on Arendt and the 1960 Presidential election, “Hannah Arendt: Campaign Pundit,” appeared in the New York Times as an Op-Ed.

The American journalist Randolph Bourne observed in 1916. “The whole point of an education is to know a revolution when you see one.” Scott sees this comment as central to today's debates on methodological pluralism and representation in the American political science community. She is pleased to have participated on Nominating Committees which have recruited two outstanding women presidents and councils committed to open dialogue and constructive change. Having been both a faculty member and administrator, and fully committed to voicing the interests of women and scholars of color, public universities, and normative political theory in the profession, Scott will continue to speak and write about the disciplinary experience. Her past publications on this theme include, “Death by Inattention: The Strange Fate of Faculty Governance” (Academe, Nov.-Dec., 1997) and “The Strange Death of Faculty Governance” (PS: Political Science and Politics, Dec., 1996). Scott can be reached at jscott@emich.edu.