Associate Professor, Political Science

Biography   

Professor Graham Dodds is an expert on United States politics and law.  He holds degrees from Penn, Columbia, and UC-Irvine and has worked as a Research Fellow at the Brookings Institution and as a Legislative Assistant for a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.

Research

Much of Professor Dodds’s research concerns American political development, especially the U.S. presidency.  His book Take Up Your Pen examines the evolution of unilateral presidential directives such as executive orders.  (To purchase the book, click here.)  He has published dozens of journal articles and book chapters on the presidency, the press, political culture, constitutionalism, political theory, and the use of governmental apologies for political reconciliation, among other topics.  He is currently working on a book about the constitutional theory of The Unitary Presidency (under contract with Routledge) as well as a book manuscript on the U.S. president’s use of mass pardons or amnesties, provisionally entitled Talk the Walk: Presidential Pardons and the Rhetoric of Reconciliation. 

Teaching

Professor Dodds is an award-winning teacher and often conducts workshops for other professors on how to be a better teacher.  At the graduate level, he teaches a seminar on political leadership and decision-making.  At the undergraduate level, he teaches a survey of western political theory, an introduction to U.S. politics, and advanced seminars on a wide variety of topics in U.S. politics and law.  He taught previously at Penn and the Institut d'études politiques in Grenoble, France. 

Media

Professor Dodds has been interviewed by journalists in major news outlets several hundred times.  To arrange an interview, please contact Concordia’s Media Relations office.