Jack Knight, Ph.D., professor and chair of the Department of Political Science, will be named the Sidney W. Souers Professor of Government in Arts & Sciences. A formal installation will take place Nov. 28.
"I am absolutely delighted to appoint Professor Knight to the Souers professorship in government," said Edward S. Macias, Ph.D., executive vice chancellor and dean of Arts & Sciences. "Jack began his academic career at Washington University, and his career has blossomed during the past 12 years he has been here. He is an outstanding scholar in his field, and he has provided excellent leadership to our Department of Political Science. He is a superb teacher, as well.
"I am particularly pleased to recognize his considerable involvement with our interdisciplinary programs in Arts & Sciences. His wise counsel has had a significant impact on the development of these key intellectual clusters."
Knight earned a bachelor's degree from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 1974, with a double major in English literature and religious studies, and a juris doctorate in 1977 from the same institution. He earned a master of arts in 1980 and a doctorate in 1989 in political science, both from the University of Chicago.
Knight joined the political science department here in 1988. In 1995, he was promoted to associate professor with tenure and was made full professor in 1999. He served as associate chair of the Department of Political Science from 1996 to 1999, when he was appointed chair. He is a fellow in the Center for Political Economy and a member of the Committee on Social Thought & Analysis, both in Arts & Sciences.
An active participant in the University community, Knight has served as member and chair of the Faculty Council, on the executive committee of the American Culture Studies Program in Arts & Sciences, as secretary of the Senate Council and Faculty Senate, and as a member of the Fulbright Grants Committee, among many others.
Knight's primary areas of research are modern social and political theory; law, courts and jurisprudence; political economy; and philosophy of social science. His publications include "Institutions and Social Conflict" (Cambridge University Press, 1992); "Institutionen und gesellschaftlicher Konflikt" (J.C.B. Mohr, 1997); and "Explaining Social Institutions," edited with Itai Sened (The University of Michigan Press, 1995). With Lee Epstein, Ph.D., the Edward Mallinckrodt Distinguished University Professor of Political Science and professor of law at Washington University, he co-wrote the "The Choices Justices Make," which won the C. Herman Prichett Award from the American Political Science Association for the best book published on law and courts. He also has published numerous articles in journals and edited volumes on such topics as democratic theory, the rule of law, judicial decision-making, and theories of institutional emergence and change.
A dedicated teacher and mentor of both graduate and undergraduate students, Knight has supervised an extraordinary number of independent projects, honors theses and dissertations in political science. Working with John R. Bowen, Ph.D., professor of anthropology and the Dunbar-Van Cleve Professor in Arts & Sciences, Knight won a 1992 William T. Kemper Foundation Faculty Award for developing an undergraduate course on "Individual and Community," a seminar that explored the role of the individual in various forms of social organization in a community, with special attention to cross-cultural perspectives. He also plays active roles in at least three key interdisciplinary programs in Arts & Sciences, --Social Thought & Analysis, Political Economy and American Culture Studies.
The Sidney W. Souers professorships in government were established in 1982 by Sylvia N. Souers to honor her late husband and to perpetuate his dedication to public affairs and government service, and their long-standing interest in higher education and the St. Louis community. As holder of the first of the two Souers professorships, Knight succeeds John Sprague, Ph.D., professor emeritus of political science, following Sprague's retirement. James L. Gibson, Ph.D., professor of political science, was named to the second of the two professorships in 1999.