Political science professor is named Congressional Fellow

By Erika L. Mantz, Media Relations

A UNH political science professor has been chosen to participate in the American Political Science Association’s highly selective and nonpartisan Congressional Fellowship Program.

J. Mark Wrighton, assistant professor of political science, will join other political scientists, journalists, doctors, federal executives and international scholars in the 52nd class of fellows. Wrighton will be on leave from UNH for the 2004-2005 academic year. The goal of the program is to expand knowledge and awareness of Congress, and the fellows will gain a “hands on” understanding of the legislative process by serving on congressional staffs. He will spend nine months working for a member of Congress to be determined at the start of the program.

“There is no better way to learn about something than to actually experience it,” Wrighton says. “I’ve been sending students to Washington for 12 years, and there has always been a part of me that was envious. Most of us don’t have the chance to experience Congress from the inside, and now I will.”

Wrighton is in his fourth year at UNH. With his expertise in congressional and presidential elections and teaching experience in both Iowa, home of the nation’s first caucus, and New Hampshire, host of the first-in-the-nation presidential primary, Wrighton has a broad range of political experience.

The nine months he spends working as a legislative assistant for a member of Congress will improve his own scholarship and teaching, as well as enhance public understanding of American national politics and policy-making. He is the second member of the UNH Political Science Department to be named a Congressional Fellow.