James L. Gibson

CAREER AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS / STATEMENT OF VIEWS

James L. Gibson earned his B.A. in political science from Emory University in 1972 (with highest honors, and membership in Phi Beta Kappa), and his Ph.D. in 1975, from the University of Iowa. After teaching at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee, and the University of Houston, Gibson became the Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government at Washington University in St. Louis in 1999.

Gibson was elected president of the Midwest Political Science Association in 1998-1999, has served on various APSA committees, and has supported the Association's Centennial Campaign. He is also the recipient of several research awards, including the APSA's Burdette Pi Sigma Alpha Award and the Eulau Award, and awards from three Organized Sections: Political Organizations/Parties, Comparative Politics, and Law and Politics. The International Society of Political Psychology recently recognized his Overcoming Intolerance in South Africa (with Amanda Gouws) with the Alexander George Award for the best book published in political psychology. Gibson spent 2001-2002 as a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation.

Gibson has long been involved in the affairs of the National Science Foundation. He was a member of the first formal committee to call for a separate social sciences directorate, and then served on the Advisory Committee for the Directorate for Social, Behavioral and Economic Sciences from 1992 until 1998.

About one-third of Gibson's roughly 100 refereed articles have appeared in the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, or the Journal of Politics. He has also published five books; his Overcoming Apartheid: Can Truth Reconcile a Divided Nation? was published in 2004 (by the Russell Sage Foundation in the U.S. and the HSRC Press in South Africa).

Gibson has eclectic research interests; his recent work focuses on mass psychology and behavior and democratization in the United States, Europe, and Africa. His research seeks to understand how and why ordinary people think the way they do about political issues (especially political tolerance and issues of justice) and how such thinking translates into public policy and democratic reform.

As one whose entire career has been devoted to understanding and advancing political tolerance, I believe that one of the most important challenges facing all academic organizations is the protection of intellectual and academic freedom from political interference, manipulation, and misrepresentation. An important role of APSA is to advocate for the integrity of scientific and intellectual inquiry and to vigorously protect the marketplace of ideas.