Graham G. Dodds, PhD

Professor Dodds is an expert on the politics of the United States. In political science, he holds a PhD and an MA from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA from Columbia University; he also has an MA in philosophy from the University of California, Irvine. Originally from Philadelphia, he has worked in Washington, DC as a research fellow at the Brookings Institution and as a legislative assistant for a member of the House of Representatives.

Much of Professor Dodds’s research concerns American political development and the U.S. presidency.  He is the author of three books on those subjects: Mass Pardons in America explores the use of amnesties after rebellions, The Unitary Presidency analyzes the controversial constitutional theory of the unitary executive, and Take Up Your Pen examines the evolution of executive orders and other unilateral presidential directives.  He also studies the use of governmental apologies for political reconciliation, and he has published dozens of journal articles and chapters in edited volumes on various aspects of American politics, US-Canada relations, comparative politics, and political theory.  He has presented his work at academic conferences over 70 times.  

Professor Dodds is an award-winning teacher and has conducted teaching workshops for other instructors. At the graduate level, he teaches a seminar on political leadership and decision-making. At the undergraduate level, he has taught a survey of western political theory and an introduction to political science, he often teaches mid-level courses on American politics and the U.S. presidency, and he teaches seminars on American political thought, American political development, the U.S. Congress, law and society, and causality in political science. He has also taught at Penn and the Institut d'études politiques (Sciences Po) in Grenoble, France.

Professor Dodds has been interviewed nearly six hundred times by journalists in major news outlets (print, TV, online, and radio).  To request an interview, please contact Concordia’s Media Relations office.