Professor Nelsen reappointed as SCETV Commission chairman

Dr. Brent Nelsen

South Carolina Gov. Nikki Haley has reappointed Furman University political science professor Brent Nelsen to serve as chairman of the South Carolina Educational Television Commission.

Nelsen has served as chairman since 2011, and his new, six-year term will expire in July 2020.

ETV is South Carolina’s statewide network with 11 television stations, eight radio stations and a closed-circuit educational telecommunications system in more than 2,000 schools, colleges, businesses and government agencies.

Nelsen, who has taught at Furman since 1990, also serves as a member of the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  President Barack Obama nominated him for the position, which requires U.S. Senate confirmation.  He began that three-year term in 2013.

Nelsen teaches courses at Furman on the politics of Europe and the European Union, as well as a course on the politics of the international economic system.  He served as chair of Furman’s Political Science Department from 2003 to 2009.  He has been president of the South Carolina Political Science Association, and is a member of the American Political Science Association.

Nelsen’s books include The State Offshore: Petroleum, Politics, and State Intervention on the British and Norwegian Continental Shelves and Norway and the European Community: The Political Economy of Integration. He also teamed with former Furman student Alexander Stubb, who is Minister for European Affairs and Foreign Trade of Finland, to publish a textbook, The European Union: Readings on the Theory and Practice of European Integration.  A new book co-authored with Furman political science professor Jim Guth—Religion and the Struggle for Europe—will be published by Georgetown University Press.

A native of Wisconsin, Nelsen is a graduate of Wheaton College and holds M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

For more information, contact Furman’s News and Media Relations office at 864-294-3107.