James M. Glaser is dean of the School of Arts and Sciences and Professor of Political Science at Tufts University. Prior to his appointment as dean of the school in 2014, he served as dean of academic affairs for Arts and Sciences (2010–2014) and dean of undergraduate education for Arts, Sciences, and Engineering (2003-2010). He was also chair of the political science department for four years (1999-2003).
As dean, Glaser aims to work with faculty colleagues and Arts and Sciences staff to improve faculty governance; to update and refresh the graduate and undergraduate curriculum; to improve residential life for undergraduates, to support the new facilities being designed and built on campus; to fulfill the school's commitment to the diversification of the faculty, staff, and student body; and to enhance the research profile of the school through new faculty hires and support of the outstanding scholars and researchers already on staff. As the School of the Museum of Fine Arts was acquired by the university during his deanship, Glaser has tended to the integration of SMFA at Tufts into the university and its growth and diversification.
Glaser received his BA from Stanford University and his PhD from the University of California, Berkeley. He is the co-author (with Timothy J. Ryan) of Changing Minds, if Not Hearts: Political Remedies to Racial Issues (2013, University of Pennsylvania Press), in which they argue that strategic politics can change how members of the mass public think about issues of race, while not operating through how they feel about people of other races. His previous books, The Hand of the Past in Contemporary Southern Politics (2005, Yale University Press) and Race, Campaign Politics, and the Realignment in the South (1996, Yale University Press), each received the Southern Political Science Association's V.O. Key Prize awarded to the year's best book on southern politics and were both recognized by Choice as Outstanding Academic Titles. His current research project, with Professors Jeffrey Berry and Deborah Schildkraut, is a study of how liberals and conservatives fundamentally differ in how they think about politics -- compromise, civility, power, and obligations to others -- as opposed to policy.
As the Founding Director of The Institute for Global Leadership, I had the pleasure to report to Jim who was a consistent advocate and supporter of our efforts. In particular Jim cared about our Synaptic Scholars program and attended and introduced many of its forums. He also chose Synaptics to host significant speakers including the theoretical and mathematical physicist, Freeman Dyson and Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia.