James M. Glaser
- Email: Contact Form
- Phone: 408-554-4533
- Location: Walsh Administration Building, Floor 1 Campus Map
Education: Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley, 1991; M.A., University of California, Berkeley, 1985; B.A., Stanford University, 1983
James M. Glaser, Professor of Political Science, is Provost and Executive Vice President at Santa Clara. He came to Santa Clara in 2024 from Tufts University, where he was on the faculty for 33 years, and served in a number of different leadership positions, most recently as Dean of the School of Arts and Sciences (2014-2024).
A student of American politics and political behavior, he is the author (with Tufts colleagues Jeffrey M. Berry and Deborah J. Schildkraut) of Everyday Politics: Liberals, Conservatives, and Their Routine Political Lives (forthcoming fall 2025, University of Chicago Press). In the project, they study Americans’ views of several manifestations of “everyday democracy,” which they define as the attitudes, behaviors, and processes that people experience in daily life and their routine considerations of politics and community. Examples include engaging in dialogue with political opponents and giving politicians license to compromise. Ordinary political moments like these constitute much of politics, and they can lay the foundation that shapes if, when, and how crisis moments unfold. They pay particular attention to the role of ideology in shaping how Americans emulate daily democratic ideals, considering questions such as: How do liberals and conservatives support different aspects of democratic practice, and are there ideological asymmetries between the two groups? If and when asymmetries emerge, what factors might explain them? They then consider what their findings mean for the health of American democracy broadly.
Professor Glaser's first two books, The Hand of the Past in Contemporary Southern Politics and Race, Campaign Politics, and the Realignment in the South, both published by Yale University Press, each received the Southern Political Science Association's V.O. Key Prize awarded to the year's best book on Southern politics. And both books were named by Choice as one of the year's Outstanding Academic Titles. He also is the author, with Timothy J. Ryan, of Changing Minds, if Not Hearts: Political Remedies to Racial Issues, published in 2013 by University of Pennsylvania Press. Professor Glaser has published articles in such periodicals as American Journal of Political Science, The Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Political Science Quarterly, Political Behavior, Public Opinion Quarterly, and Electoral Studies.
An award winning teacher and advisor, Professor Glaser includes the following courses in his repertoire: Introduction to American Politics; Campaigns and Elections; Politics of the American South; Race and Class in American Politics; Leadership, Negotiation, and Compromise. He is proud to be part of the Santa Clara community and the vibrant political science department.