Dr. José D. Villalobos

Dr. José D. Villalobos is Chair and Professor of Political Science and Public Administration, as well as a Distinguished Teaching Professor at UTEP. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Texas at San Antonio and his doctoral degree from Texas A&M University. He is a recipient of the University of Texas System Regents' Outstanding Teaching Award, a University of Texas System Curricular Innovation Grant, UTEP's Most Distinguished Faculty Member Award, and UTEP's Outstanding Service to the College Award in Liberal Arts. Dr. Villalobos has also garnered numerous recognitions for his research, including the George C. Edwards III Best Dissertation Award, the Southwestern Political Science Association's Best Paper Award, and four book awards: the American Political Science Association's Best Book Award, the David O. Sears Award, the Robert E. Lane Award, and the APSA Best Book in Experimental Research. He has served as an Inaugural Member of UTEP's Academy of Distinguished Teachers, the Provost’s Faculty Fellow-in-Residence, Faculty Fellow for UTEP's Center for Community Engagement (CCE), Chair of the Dean's Community Engagement & Leadership (CEL) Program in Liberal Arts, and member of the Provost's Community Engagement Council.

His research examines institutional leadership, public opinion and behavior dynamics, and policymaking. He has published journal articles in The Journal of Politics, Political Psychology, Politics & Gender, American Behavioral Scientist, Political Research Quarterly, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Public Administration, Administration & Society, and other scholarly venues. Dr. Villalobos is also co-author of Seeing Us in Them: Social Divisions and the Politics of Group Empathy (Cambridge University Press) and Czars in the White House: The Rise of Policy Czars as Presidential Management Tools (University of Michigan Press). For his work connected to teaching and engagement, he is co-author of Analyzing American Democracy: Politics and Political Science, 6th edition (Routledge forthcoming) and belongs to a cohort of scholars who developed and employ the Empathic Global Citizenship (EGC) framework for curricular innovation in community-engaged learning. Dr. Villalobos is also on the Editorial Board for Presidential Studies Quarterly and serves as an Associate Editor for The Social Science Journal.