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Guth receives SCICU teaching award


Last updated February 17, 2016

By News administrator

Dr. Jim Guth

GREENVILLE, S.C.—Furman University political science professor Jim Guth has been awarded a 2013 Excellence in Teaching Award from the South Carolina Independent Colleges & Universities (SCICU) organization.

SCICU annually recognizes one faculty member from each of its 20 member schools with the teaching awards. Recipients were honored April 16 at a special dinner, and each was awarded a $3,000 professional development grant

Guth is the William R. Kenan, Jr. Professor of Political Science at Furman, where he has taught since 1973.  He received a B.S. degree in political science from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. He was awarded the Alester G. and Janie Earle Furman Award for Meritorious Teaching in 1991.

A specialist in American politics, Guth’s recent work has assessed the impact of religion on the electoral process and on public policy in the Clinton, Bush and Obama administrations. He has written four books and dozens of articles for both scholarly and public audiences.

In 2008, his work on religious influences on Congressional voting received the Paul J. Weber Award for the best paper on religion and politics presented at the annual meeting of the American Political Science Association. This particular project has involved over three dozen student researchers over the past two decades.

Guth also initiated Furman’s Washington Internship program, which has sent more than 1,000 Furman students to Washington since 1978. The program has twice won the Washington Center’s Award for the outstanding small college program in the country.

Guth has commented on American politics for CNN, NBC Nightly News, CBS Evening News, ABC World News Tonight, All Things Considered, CBS Sunday Morning, the BBC and many other media outlets.

Previous Furman winners of the SCICU Excellence in Teaching Award are Victoria Turgeon (biology), Scott Henderson (education), Lloyd Benson (history), Brannon Andersen (earth and environmental sciences), Gil Einstein (psychology), Elizabeth Smith (political science) and Anne Leen (classics).

For more information, contact Furman’s News and Media Relations office at 864-294-3107 or visit the SCICU website.

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