James Quirk Senior Professorial Lecturer SPA | Government
- Bio
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Jim Quirk teaches a wide range of courses in American and comparative politics.
He has served on the AU faculty senate, as a CTRL Scholarship of Teaching & Learning (SoTL) Faculty Fellow for 2023-2025, and a Civic Dialogue faculty fellow for 2024-2025.
Prof Quirk has developed and taught AU Core courses for Complex Problems, Habits of Mind, and W2 (writing and information literacy). He has been a faculty advisor for the SPA and University student-led organizations.
He has published in U.S. and international journals on online learning, comparative nation-building, globalization, and American foreign policy. He is a Fellow with the Institute for Policy Research and has taught at Loyola University Maryland, The Catholic University of America, and the Varna [Bulgaria] Univ. of Economics.
He lectures on American federalism at the U.S. Congressional Office for International Leadership. Among his favorite work outside the classroom is experience in Russia, the Balkans, Mexico, Israel/Palestine, and the Kurdistan Region of Iraq; naval engineering support for The Bishop Group; Middle East Dialogue at Catholic University; ICANN MEAC SWG; and working with AU's Center for Teaching, Research and Learning.
He received the 2022 SPA Award for Outstanding Community Engagement.
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Teaching
Spring 2025
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GOVT-110 Politics in the U.S.
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GOVT-210 Pol Power & Am Pub Policy
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GOVT-210 Pol Power & Am Pub Policy
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GOVT-322 American Political Parties
Summer 2025
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GOVT-210 Pol Power & Am Pub Policy
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GOVT-235 Political Conflict
Fall 2025
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GOVT-130 Comparative Politics
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GOVT-194 Comm Service Learning Project: Comparative Politics
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GOVT-210 Pol Power & Am Pub Policy
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GOVT-210 Pol Power & Am Pub Policy
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GOVT-322 American Political Parties
Scholarly, Creative & Professional Activities
Institute for Policy Research, Fellow, since 2019
Open World Leadership Center, U.S. Congress. Lead discussions with young professionals from Russia, Ukraine, the Balkans, and Eurasia, 2013-2024
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Selected papers and presentations:
Interactions and Contexts for Independent Powers’ Foreign Policy, session chair, Midwest Political Science Assn, 2025
The Political Economy of Autocracy, discussant, Midwest Political Science Assn, 2025
Dukakis Center, American College of Thessaloniki, fully-funded travel grant, 2025, Lectures, discussions, and research in Greece and Bulgaria
The Year Half the World Voted: Political Analysis of the 2024 Elections, webinar panelist, Dukakis Center, American College in Thessaloniki, 2024
Lessons from Teaching Politics Using Open Educational Resources (OER), Midwest Political Science Assn, 2024
Traumatized Nationalism and Its Effects on Democracy, APSA Virtual Research Meeting, 2024
Teaching Excellence in the Core, panelist, AU Core Conversations, 2023
Comparative Political Economy: The Political Economy of Firms, discussant, Midwest Political Science Assn, 2023
Giga-Net Consultation, Member, UN Global Digital Compact, 2022
What Students Are Teaching the Rest of Us about the New Normal, Educause Review, 2022
New Explanations for the End of Regimes: Warnings for Democracies, Midwest Political Science Assn, 2022
Nation-Building is Dead – Long Live Nation-Building, Orion Policy Institute, 2021
New Dynamics of Populism: Domestic and International Challenges, L'Ouverture Institute for Diplomacy & Global Affairs, Port-au-Prince, Haiti, 2021
Bridges and Gaps: Europe and the Foreign Policy of New Presidents, 27th International Conference of Europeanists, 2021
Executive Politics in an International Context, discussant and session chair, Midwest Political Science Assn, 2021
"Future of Education in Times of Uncertainty" - plenary at Management in the 21st Century conference, Herzen State Pedagogical University, St Petersburg, Russia, (2020)
Pandemic Education: What Incoming First-Year Students Want, APSA Educate (2020)
Going Online Midsemester, Educause Review (2020)
Online Learning and the Mobile Student, Educause Review (2016)
ICANN MEAC SWG, ICANN - Middle East and Adjacent Countries Strategy Working Group, 2016-2020
OSCE Elections Missions, Russia 2018, Bosnia 2014, Albania 2011, Croatia 2000, Bosnia 1997
AFRP Cultural Exchange Program to Israel and Palestine, 2017
Angell and Mahan: Technology, Globalization, and International Security Today, Mediterranean Quarterly (26:2, June 2015)
U.S. Embassy Speakers Series: Serbia 2015, Presentations in Belgrade, Novi Sad, and Nis
Iraqi Kurdistan Religious Freedom Project and Delegation, Erbil and Washington D.C., The Catholic University of America, 2011-2013