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Danielle Vinson receives 2019 SCICU Teaching Award


Last updated April 16, 2019

By Tina Underwood

Furman Professor of Politics and International Affairs Danielle Vinson has been awarded a 2019 Excellence in Teaching Award from the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, Inc. (SCICU).

A faculty member from each of SCICU’s 20-member institutions is nominated for the award according to rigorous guidelines. Recipients were honored at a special dinner held at the Columbia Metropolitan Convention Center April 9. Each recipient was awarded a $3,000 professional development grant.

A Furman faculty member since 1995, Vinson holds a Ph.D. and a master’s in Political Science from Duke University and a bachelor’s in Political Science and English from Furman. She is the director of Furman’s Washington Internship program and was department chair from 2009-2015.

Vinson’s teaching interests are focused on American political institutions and political communication. Her courses include American government, the U.S. Congress, the American presidency, and media and politics. She also teaches her department’s research methods course and a first-year writing seminar on humor and politics.

In all her classes, Vinson makes an effort to incorporate original research, and in recent years, her American government classes have helped her compile and analyze data on congressional members’ use of social media.

She is the author of the books “Congress and the Media: Beyond Institutional Power and Local Media Coverage of Congress and Its Members” and has authored or co-authored articles on media and the courts and campaign finance and communication in political campaigns. She enjoys involving her students in her research.

She frequently does interviews with local and national media on congressional and presidential campaigns and South Carolina politics and speaks to community groups on these issues. In 2001, Vinson received Furman’s Meritorious Advising Award.

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

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