James R. Martin, PhD, Jr.

Department

• Interdisciplinary Studies

Position

• Associate Professor

Faculty Biography
This biography provides a sense of my professional career outside of academia, my academic pursuits in teaching, service, and research activities, and concludes with a brief discussion of my personal activities.

Before entering academia, I spent 25 years working in a small family business oriented towards audio, video, and digital production and editing. This work involved the recording, editing, production, and packaging of promotional and educational materials for individuals and companies across the United States and Canada. As a senior executive and owner, my professional responsibilities including customer relations, marketing, budgeting, and employee management with hire, review, and termination authority. During my time on the management team (1989-2009) the company (Dicobe Media, Inc.) won a Heartland Better Business Bureau Ethics award (2003) and I was fortunate enough to be named to the 40 under 40 list of business executives in Omaha. After I started work at Creighton in October of 2012, the business was sold to its’ employees and continues to operate today.

Academically, I hold a BA in Political Science and History from Bellevue University (dual major, degree obtained in 1991). After obtaining my BA, I worked in the family business for many years. In 2004, I started my studies at Creighton, eventually obtaining an MA in International Relations. During my MA studies, I worked on several research projects with Dr. Terry Clark, the director of the program at that time. I also worked as an open-source researcher for several months with USSTRATCOM in the GISC (Global Innovation and Strategy Center) as a student-intern.  After completing my MA, I was fortunate enough to teach a few introductory level political science courses as an adjunct for UNO and eventually as a visiting instructor at Bellevue University (where I learned to teach online). In 2009, I started my PhD studies at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida. During my PhD program (a residential program) I traveled back and forth between Omaha and Tallahassee to attend to studies, work, and family responsibilities. At Florida State, I was advised and worked with Dr. Sona Golder and Dr. Brad Gomez as a research assistant and also taught several online courses in comparative politics. I was hired to teach in the Doctoral Program in Interdisciplinary Leadership (the EdD program) by Dr. Isabelle Cherney in October 2012; I successfully defended my PhD at Florida State in March of 2013.

I have taught full-time in the EdD program since that time, primarily teaching online doctoral level social science research and writing courses. I’ve also had the opportunity to teach in the classroom a few times for the Department of Political Science. My responsibilities in the program currently involve teaching courses, advising 70+ students, chairing the admissions committee, serving as a chair and 2nd committee member on numerous dissertation committees, facilitating faculty development and communications, and acting as and coordinating the activities of course directors (technical administrative management of courses) in our program). I’ve also served in numerous service roles in the program, at the graduate school level, and at the university level. I am also (since 2014) the assistant director of the EdD program. Examples of my service include participation in the strategic planning process under Father Lannon, service on the Graduate Board, service on the Creighton Global Initiative grant review committee under Dr. Padilla, facilitation of the 2014 program review process, service on numerous hiring committees for the EdD program, serving as the academic misconduct officer for the program, and other commitments. My research activities since working at Creighton include presentations each year (at least one per year) of political science oriented papers at the Midwest Political Science Association’s yearly conference in Chicago Illinois, publications related to the scholarship of teaching and learning in scholarly journals, presentations at the AEA assessment conference at Creighton in 2015 and 2016, two AEA grants in 206 and 2017, a presentation and workshop at the Association of Leadership Educators in 2018, and the production of several working papers on SOTL and political science oriented topics that are currently under review at a variety of scholarly journals. I’ve also written an op-ed piece that appeared in the Omaha World Herald in February of 2017.

Personally, I’ve lived and worked in Nebraska for most of my adult life. I have two adult children, one of whom graduated from Creighton university and another who is a junior at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln. I am active in serving the community of those recovering from alcohol and drug abuse and have volunteered in several capacities in this regard over the last 28 years. I am also a caregiver for my widowed mother. Finally, I am also active in the art community in Omaha, presenting shows most recently at the Apollon, Malibu Galleries, and an art space in Benson.
 

Books

Articles

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• , 1, 14-23

Publications

Editing and Reviews

Presentations

Research and Scholarship Interests

• I am primarily interested in voting, the study of government cabinets, elections and electoral systems, but am also interested in democratization.  I have extensively studied Eastern and Western Europe, but have also researched party systems in Africa, Latin America and the Middle East.  While I am trained in quantitative analysis included MLE and Social Network Analysis techniques, I value context and view qualitative insights as key to the development of theory and have learned quite a bit about qualitative research since arriving at Creighton.
  
  Teaching Research: I am interested in online pedagogy and andragogy. I am particularly interested in assessing the moderating influence of teaching strategies on students’ sense of connectedness to their programs, to faculty, and to their fellow students, and the ultimate influence of these on tangible outcomes. 
   
   

Current Research Projects

• My current research involves three projects: the first two examine the influence of gender, experience, and other aspects of personal identity on tangible manifestations of government cabinet. These include government formations, survival, and legislative production in parliamentary systems. The third project examines the influence of immigration of various sorts on party systems in democracies. I also continue to conduct SOTL assessment research regarding teaching and learning outcomes. Finally, a new project, supported by a Haddix grant with Dr. Candace Bloomquist, is investigating the phenomenon of trust within institutions of education.

Grant Funding Received

• AEA Assessment Grant, 2016 ($2000). Studied the effect of a the creation of a proposal construction course.
• A grant from Florida State University (2012). Funded travel for research interviews of members of the Israeli Knesset and non-governmental political activists.
• Haddix Foundation Interdisciplinary Research Grant. Co-investigator: Dr. Candace Bloomquist. My roles in this grant were in research design, writing, designing the survey instrument, deploying the instrument, gathering the data, conducting the SNA analysis, mentoring graduate student workers, and writing up the results of those elements of the work.

• Graduate Research Mentor Award, Creighton University , 2020
• Omaha Entertainment and Arts Awards (OEAA) - Co-Nominee, OEAA, 2019
• Award, 2012
• Award, 2012