Penn State Harrisburg Faculty Details
Brief Biography
Matthew C. Woessner (Ph.D., Ohio State, 2001) Associate Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Penn State Harrisburg, pursues teaching and research interests in American politics. His specializations include political behavior and research methodology. His most recent article, recently presented at the American Enterprise Institute, is titled "Left Pipeline: Why Conservatives Don’t Get Doctorates." The research explores competing theories for why ideological conservatives are less likely to pursue a Ph.D. than are their liberal counterparts. The final version of the manuscript will appear in the forthcoming book, Reforming the Politically Correct University. Dr. Woessner coauthored two recent articles on politics in the classroom. The first, titled "My Professor is a Partisan Hack: How Perceptions of a Professor‘s Political Views Affect Student Course Evaluations", appeared in the July 2006 edition of the journal, PS: Political Science and Politics. The second article, "Conflict in the Classroom: Considering the Effects of Partisan Difference on Political Education" will appear in a forthcoming issue of The Journal of Political Science Education. Dr. Woessner’s research has also appeared in Presidential Studies Quarterly, the journal Politics and Policy, The Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice and The International Journal of Police Science & Management. His work on politics in academia has been profiled by the Chronicle of Higher Education, the Christian Science Monitor and the Wall Street Journal. Dr. Woessner currently serves as the president of the faculty Senate as well as the advisor to the Penn State Harrisburg College Democrats and College Republicans. His wife and research collaborator, Dr. April Kelly–Woessner, is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Elizabethtown College.
Education
- Ph.D., Political Science, The Ohio State University, 2001
Major: American Politics (sub fields: mass political behavior and political psychology)
Minor: Research Methodology (sub fields: econometrics and survey research) - M.A., Political Science, The Ohio State University, 1999
- B.A. (summa cum laude), Political Science, University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), 1995
Professional Experience
- Associate Professor of Public Policy, Penn State Harrisburg, 2008-Present
- Assistant Professor of Public Policy, Penn State Harrisburg, 2001-2008
- Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Economics and International Studies, The Ohio State University, 1999-2000
- Consultant, Political Research Lab, Department of Political Science, The Ohio State University, 1997-1999
Areas of Interest
- American Politics: public opinion, polling, voting, elections, American legal systems and constitutional law
- Quantitative Political Methodology: survey and experimental research methodology
- Political History: American legal history, Western political development
Publications
- Kelly–Woessner, April and Matthew Woessner. 2008. "Conflict in the Classroom: Considering the Effects of Partisan Difference on Political Education." Journal of Political Science Education. Volume 4. Number 3.
- Woessner, Matthew and April Kelly–Woessner 2008. "Why Conservative Don’t Get Doctorates" in Reforming the Politically Correct University, Ed Robert Maranto, et al. Published by the American Enterprise Institute.
- Ruiz, Jim and Matthew Woessner. 2006. "Profiling, Cajun Style: Exposing Racial and Demographic Profiling in Louisiana’s War on Drugs." International Journal of Police Science & Management, Volume 8, Number 3, p176–197.
- Kelly–Woessner, April and Matthew Woessner. 2006. "My Professor is a Partisan Hack: How Perceptions of a Professor’s Political Views Affect Student Course Evaluations." PS: Political Science and Politics. Volume 39. Number 3. Pages 495-501.
- Woessner, Matthew and April Kelly–Woessner. 2006. "Politics in the Classroom" FrontPageMagazine.com, http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=22808, June 8, 2006
- Woessner, Matthew and April Kelly–Woessner. 2006. "Reparations and Race Relations in America: An Experimental test of Group Conflict Theory." Politics and Policy. Volume 34, Number 1
Teaching Interests
- American Politics: American Government, Judicial Politics, Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, Political Psychology, and Democratic and Political History
- Methodology: Statistics and Research Methods, Data Analysis and Presentation, Statistical Sampling and Survey Research, Public Policy Research Methods
Curriculum Vita
College News
Research to investigate victimization in Latino community
A Penn State Harrisburg faculty member has been awarded a $680,000 federal grant to help eliminate a research gap profiling victimization in the Latino community.
Assistant Professor of Social Science Chiara Sabina received the two-year grant from the National Institute of Justice to focus on the national level of dating violence and victimization among Latino adolescents which she a terms “mush more understudied” group than others in that community.
‘Little Shop of Horrors’ comes to campus Nov. 12 to 15
Little Shop of Horrors, with its man-eating plant Audrey II and toe-tapping music, comes to Penn State Harrisburg’s Olmsted Auditorium for a four-day run November 12 through 15.
Presented by the college’s Capital Players with a cast and crew of 24 undergraduate and graduate students, Little Shop of Horrors takes to the stage at 8 p.m. November 12, 13, and 14 with a 2 p.m. matinee November 15.
Web site profiles American emigration to Liberia
Building on years of research and two published books, a Penn State Harrisburg faculty member has created a web site dedicated to profiling the historic African American emigration to Liberia.
Associate Professor of Communications and Humanities C. Patrick Burrowes unveiled his interactive web site entitled “Like a Motherless Child: African American Emigrants to Liberia, 1820-1904” as part of a presentation to faculty, staff, and students recently in the Gallery Lounge. Taken from the title of the well-known spiritual, “Like a motherless child expresses the overriding feeling of dispossession and alienation felt by the emigrants,” Burrowes says. Many of them former slaves, “they had no mother and they had no homeland,” he adds.