Steven Rosenstone, dean of the University’s College of Liberal Arts, was elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences earlier this month for his contributions to the study of American politics.
“He’s one of the country’s leading scholars in American and comparative electoral behavior,” said Ed Fogelman, chairman of the University’s political science department.
Rosenstone, a political science professor at the University of Michigan before taking over as CLA dean last October, served as the program director for Michigan’s Center for Political Studies and Institute for Social Research.
While at Michigan, he specialized in studying electoral behavior and political participation. He also headed the school’s National Election Study, which Academy Fellow Frank Sorauf, a regents professor emeritus of political science at the University, called the “best single survey study of the American electorate.”
The academy is an honorary society founded in 1780 by John Adams and others to help cultivate the arts and sciences and, according to its original charter, “advance the interest, honor, dignity and happiness of a free, independent and virtuous people.”
Sorauf, who voted for Rosenstone’s induction, said he doesn’t know the CLA dean well, but respects his accomplishments.
“He’s a very distinguished scholar of American politics,” Sorauf said. “As a scholar, there’s simply no political science department in the country whose average level of quality wouldn’t be increased by the addition of Steve Rosenstone.”
Rosenstone has published numerous books, including: “Third Parties in America: Citizen Response to Major Party Failure,” “Mobilization, Participation and Democracy in America” and “Forecasting Presidential Elections.”
The academy has more than 4,000 fellows and foreign honorary members. Each year its members elect new fellows from a broad range of disciplines, including mathematical and physical sciences, biological sciences, social arts and sciences and the humanities.
Joining Rosenstone in the official September induction ceremony will be University Microbiology Professor Martin Dworkin, who was elected for his work in cellular and developmental biology and immunology.
Other new members include: former U.S. Senator Sam Nunn, Supreme Court Justice David Souter, AIDS researcher David Ho and musician Wynton Marsalis.