DR. FRED SLOCUM: Associate Professor of Political Science

Dr. Fred Slocum, associate professor of political science, hails from Charlotte, North Carolina. He graduated from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with his Bachelor of Arts in political science. From there he went to University of Iowa earning his doctorate degree in political science with a concentration in the areas of American politics, comparative politics (Western Europe), and social philosophy.

His education has grown consistently. He graduated from the four-week Summer Institute in Political Philosophy at the Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. From there he went on to graduate from a five-week national endowment for the humanities summer seminar, Faulkner and Southern History, from the University of South Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina. He then completed in the Oxford Round Table workshop, “Diversity in Society” at Oxford University in the United Kingdom. He went to Prague in the Czech Republic to complete in a summer course in “Crime, Law, and Philosophy,” sponsored by the public policy institute Schola Empirica. He has also graduated from the City of Mankato’s Public Safety Citizen Academy in October 2016.

Dr. Slocum has authored a book chapter on religion southern honor traditions and Republican realignment in the South. He frequently attends the leading venue for research on Southern Politics, the Southern Political Science Association Conference. He also regularly attends the Midwest Political Science Association conference and sometimes other conferences. His primary academic interests are race and politics, political philosophy, Southern politics, and U.S. politics.

The courses he teaches are U.S. Government, Intro to Political Analysis, Campaigns and Elections, Political Parties, Racial and Ethnic Politics, Political Psychology, American Legal Philosophy, Environmental Politics, Public Opinion and Polling Methods, Legislative Process, Executive Process, Southern Politics, and a graduate seminar on American politics.

He is a member of the Government Relations Committee, which acts as a liaison group between the Minnesota State University system faculty and the Minnesota legislature. He is involved with “Concurrent Enrollment,” serving as consulting faculty for U.S. Government courses at high schools in St. Peter and Belle Plaine, MN.

In the spring of 2017, he co-chaired the statewide Transfer Pathways work group for political science. This group is charged with overseeing the transfer pathway for two-year college students transitioning to our four-year institutions of learning to study political science.

If you are a Karaoke fan, you might check out Dr. Slocum’s performances at area karaoke events. He also plays keyboards in a band and sings in an, “excellent choral ensemble,” he says.

Dr. Slocum is working on reviving the campus chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society, to begin online for next semester. He is looking for members and would like to hear from those who are interested in participating in events sponsored by this effort. Drop him an e-mail to learn more.

“There is no overall GPA requirement and membership is open to students of any majors,” he says. Interested students can contact him through his e-mail, frederick.slocum@mnsu.edu.

Dr. Slocum also would like to inform students of the opportunity of a trip to the Midwest Political Science Undergraduate Research Conference at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter this spring that the club will be going on.