  {"id":9175,"date":"2025-12-11T11:09:08","date_gmt":"2025-12-11T17:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/political-science\/?p=8993"},"modified":"2026-03-04T12:59:54","modified_gmt":"2026-03-04T18:59:54","slug":"from-the-chair","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/political-science\/from-the-chair\/","title":{"rendered":"From the Chair"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>Another chair letter, another farewell!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>First, we bid farewell to our long-time colleague, Distinguished Professor Kathy Dolan, who retired in June after an impactful career. Farewell, and a hearty congratulations! <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Professor Dolan served nearly 25 years at 51ÁÔÆæ and had just completed her second term as University Committee Chair. She had also just finished her second term as co-editor-in-chief of one of the field\u2019s foremost journals, the <em>American Journal of Political Science<\/em>. In her tenure at 51ÁÔÆæ, she served as department chair and director of graduate studies, and held a number of positions in departmental and university governance. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"alignleft uwm-c-img--left uwm-c-img--caption-gray\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"262\" height=\"300\" src=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/political-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/186\/2025\/12\/01-Kathy-and-Tom-262x300.webp\" alt=\"A man and woman sit beside each other at a dinner table, a martini glass in front of them.\" class=\"wp-image-9152\" srcset=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/political-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/186\/2025\/12\/01-Kathy-and-Tom-262x300.webp 262w, https:\/\/uwm.edu\/political-science\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/186\/2025\/12\/01-Kathy-and-Tom.webp 720w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 262px) 100vw, 262px\" \/><figcaption>Our two most recent Distinguished Professors Emeritus, Tom Holbrook and Kathy Dolan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Her prolific scholarship included two books and many peer-reviewed articles on gender and politics, including the best article published in 2009 in <em>Political Research Quarterly<\/em>. She won a National Science Foundation grant for her research on voting for women candidates and was frequently called upon by local, state, and national media for her astute political commentary. Her work has been cited nearly 6,000 times and she still has research in progress. She\u2019s taught thousands of students about American government, hopefully making a dent in the knowledge deficits she often studies in her research. Our department will not be the same without her!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Second, I bid farewell as the Chair, leaving the department\u2019s leadership in the capable hands of my colleague, Associate Professor Hong Min Park, after serving for six years. I began my term in fall of 2019, touting engagement as my theme only to be stymied by a worldwide virus.&nbsp;That\u2019ll teach me to dream big! I have learned and grown a lot and have enjoyed being my colleagues\u2019 biggest fan through some difficult times for 51ÁÔÆæ and for higher education more generally. I continue to believe strongly in the dual research and teaching missions of this great university and I\u2019m confident that our people, which are obviously our greatest strength, will come through these difficult times with strength and creativity to make 51ÁÔÆæ even more remarkable. I hope our friends will stand beside us, speak up for us, and support us in every way in which they are able.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Enjoy this Fall 2025 newsletter, highlighting what our POL SCI students do that makes an impact while they\u2019re here with us, and once they move on. I know we\u2019ll continue to hear about all the big things they do to make a difference in our world. Kathy would tease me for saying it, but the future remains bright!&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>&#8211; Professor Sara Benesh<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Another chair letter, another farewell!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; First, we bid farewell to our long-time colleague, Distinguished Professor Kathy Dolan, who retired in June after an impactful career. Farewell, and a hearty congratulations! Professor Dolan served nearly 25 years at 51ÁÔÆæ and had &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1272,"featured_media":8995,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","uwm_wg_additional_authors":[]},"categories":[84],"tags":[78],"class_list":["post-9175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-letter-from-chair-intro-newsletter","tag-fall-2025"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v27.3 (Yoast SEO v27.3) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Political Science<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/uwm.edu\/political-science\/from-the-chair\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From the Chair\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Another chair letter, another farewell!&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp; First, we bid farewell to our long-time colleague, Distinguished Professor Kathy Dolan, who retired in June after an impactful career. 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