Professor Named Missouri Professor of the Year

KIRKSVILLE, Mo. - John Ishiyama, professor of political science and director of the Ronald E. McNair program at Truman State University, has been named the 2004 Missouri Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education. This national recognition program, established in 1981, rewards outstanding professors for their dedication to teaching, commitment to students and innovative instructional methods.

Ishiyama joined the faculty at Truman in 1990. He received his bachelor’s degree from Bowling Green State University and his master’s from the University of Michigan and his doctorate from Michigan State University.

He was awarded the Governor’s Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2003 and was selected as one of the 2003 class of Carnegie Scholars (awarded by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching). On the Truman campus he has been selected to receive the Walker and Doris Allen Fellowship of Faculty Excellence, which carries a $10,000 stipend, as well as the William O’Donnell Lee Advising Award. He has been a nominee and finalist numerous times for Truman’s student sponsored Educator of the Year award. His teaching interests include comparative political development, democratization and political parties, and political methodology. He is the author or editor of three books, 64 refereed journal articles, four book chapters, 14 book reviews, and numerous other publications. He is also a Research Fellow at the University of Kansas Center for Russian and East European Studies, a position he has held since 1999.

He is a member of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies, the American Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, the International Studies Association, and the Council on Undergraduate Research. He is also President of the Undergraduate Education Section of the American Political Science Association. Ishiyama has been named editor in chief for the new journal titled Journal of Political Science Education. He is co-book review editor for the journal International Politics and is on the editorial board of the journals Party Politics and Controversia.

This year there are winners in 45 states and the District of Columbia and four national winners. Ishiyama was selected from nearly 300 faculty members nominated by colleges and universities throughout the country. Ishiyama is the fifth Truman professor to win this statewide award.