The College has named Daniel Shea as the next director of the Goldfarb Center for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, President William Adams announced on March 7. Shea will also teach in the Government Department. He will begin his career at Colby on August 1, 2012.

Shea is currently a professor of political science at Allegheny College in Meadville, Penn., where he initiated and directs its Center for Political Participation. According to Colby’s press release, “The author or editor of 19 books and scores of articles on the American political process, Shea focuses on campaigns and elections, civility in politics, the dynamics of the party system, the politics of the media and grassroots political activism.”

His interest in political science stems from his years as an undergraduate student at the State University of New York (SUNY) Oswego, where he said he was “always a political activist” and ran a campus club. He received his Master’s in campaign management from the University of West Florida and spent several years running campaigns in central and Northern New York. “I loved it, and I loved being a campaign consultant, but it’s a hard lifestyle,” he said. He decided to approach the academic side of political campaigns while pursuing his Doctorate at SUNY Albany. There, he began researching the “clash of theory and practice,” a field he said is largely unexamined, but that he was able to approach from a unique vantage point as both a scholar and practitioner of campaign management.

Shea will be taking over for current Goldfarb Director Sandy Maisel, who has led the Goldfarb Center since its founded in 2003, and announced that he was stepping down as director earlier in the 2011-12 academic year. Over the past nine years, the Goldfarb Center has brought countless renowned speakers to campus and has sought to “foster active citizenship” at local, national and international levels, according to its website.

Next year, Shea said he plans to “build upon the really strong foundation” that Maisel and the College students and faculty have already set down. He envisions expanding the community outreach programs and will consider “ways that we might internationalize our program,” he said. Shea emphasized the changing nature of citizenship in the increasingly globalized world. “We are global citizens,” he said. He also expressed interest in the ways in which journalism has become a reciprocal process, with citizens engaging much more directly than ever before with the news media, and would like to explore that new frontier more.

Shea said that he is excited to move to Maine with his wife and three children, who enjoy the outdoors, camping, fishing, hockey and skating. As for Colby, “It’s a world class liberal arts college,” he said, and he looks forward to joining “the wonderful students and [incredible] faculty” come August.

Vice President for Academic Affairs and Dean of Faculty Lori Kletzer said, “Dan’s collaborative nature, his affinity and energy for big ideas, and his desire to connect with faculty and students across campus all fit well with the next phase of the Goldfarb Center at Colby.”