Alumni Hall of Fame
Susan Welch
Susan Welch was born in Galesburg, Illinois and received her B.A. in History at UIUC, along with an M.A. and a Ph.D. in Political Science. Dr. Welch left Illinois to accept a position as assistant professor of Political Science at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. By 1977 she was chairperson of the Department and in 1980 she was given an endowed chair, the Carl A. Happold Professor of Political Science. In 1991 she was named the Dean of the College of Liberal Arts at the Pennsylvania State University.
Since she left Illinois Dr. Welch has established a reputation as one of the leading political scientists of her generation. She has published extensively in a variety of specialties within the study of American politics, including racial and ethnic politics, women and politics, political representation, state and local politics, political corruption and political behavior. Her research has been funded by six National Science Foundation grants, a National Institute of Justice grant, a National Institutes of Mental Health grant, and a variety of others. She has authored or edited more than a dozen books, some of which have been published by some of the leading presses in the nation (Cambridge University Press, University of Chicago Press, University of Michigan Press, etc.). She has also published more than 125 scholarly articles, publishing regularly in some of the leading journals in the discipline (American Political Science Review, American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science).
Dean Welch’s scholarship and administrative acumen has been recognized in a variety of ways. In 1992 she was named President of the Midwest Political Science Association, the second largest association in the discipline. In addition, she served as Secretary of the American Political Science Association in 1995-96 and Treasurer in 1983-85. She was President of the APSA’s Women and Politics Research Group in 1989-90 and of its Urban Politics Research Group in 1997-98. Welch was the editor of the American Politics Quarterly from 1987 to 1992 and served on the editorial boards of nine other scholarly journals.