Kevin J. McMahon is the John R. Reitemeyer Associate Professor and Chair of Political Science. His research examines the presidency and the political origins and consequences of Supreme Court decisions, covering a range of areas, including civil rights and liberties, constitutional law, American political development, political parties, and elections. His book, Reconsidering Roosevelt on Race: How the Presidency Paved the Road to Brown (University of Chicago Press, 2004), won the American Political Science Association’s Richard E. Neustadt Award for the best book published on the American presidency in 2004. He is also the co-author and co-editor of three books (one forthcoming) on American Politics and has published several book chapters and journal articles. He is currently working on a book entitled, Nixon’s Court: The Silent Majority and the Conservative Counterrevolution That Was, for the University of Chicago Press.

Before earning his PhD at Brandeis University in 1997, Professor McMahon taught for two years in Russia with the Civic Education Project (a.k.a., the “academic Peace Corps”). Before arriving at Trinity, he was Associate Professor of Political Science and Legal Studies Coordinator at the State University of New York, Fredonia, where he was honored with the Hagan “Young” Scholar Award. In 2006, he was a Fulbright Distinguished Research Chair at the University of Montreal. In the classroom, his teaching style is Socratic in spirit, driven by a philosophy that students perform best when they are asked to actively participate in their own learning.