Richard C. Sauerzopf

Richard Sauerzopf is a part-time instructor with the Political Science Department and a post-doctoral fellow with Michigan State University's Global Urban Studies Program.

From 1998 to 2006, Sauerzopf taught at the Department of Geography and Urban Planning at Wayne State University in Detroit. There, he served as the director of the Department's Urban Studies Program, from 2000 to 2005. In that capacity, he worked successfully with others to elevate the University's undergraduate Urban Studies Co-Major Program to the status of a full-fledged major. In 2005, the year that he left full-time service at Wayne State, he was awarded the "Excellence in Teaching Award for Full-Time Faculty" by the University's College of Urban, Labor, and Metropolitan Affairs.

Sauerzopf pursued his doctoral studies in Political Science at the Nelson A. Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy, at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNYA). In 2002, he was awarded his Ph.D. His dissertation, which was chaired by Todd Swanstrom, is titled "The Spatial Origins of National Politics: Place and Race in the Fragmented Metropolis." It is a time-tracked analysis of the political geography of metropolitan Detroit relating the dynamic spatial structure of the region's metropolitan municipalities to the political attitudes and actions of its residents. The study indicates the potential for understanding the structure of American national election politics through the lens of metropolitical economic, social, racial, and governmental systems.

Presently, Sauerzopf is continuing his research on the effects of metropolitical structures on national election politics. He is also exploring the impact of central cities on national elections, as he continues to update and analyze an extensive base of presidential and congressional election data gathered initially by Samuel Eldersveld and expanded by Sauerzopf and Swanstrom.

In the past, at SUNYA and at Wayne State University, Sauerzopf has taught undergraduate and graduate courses in urban politics, urban studies, urban policy, urban social research, the urban "underclass," and the challenges of sustainable metropolitan development.

In the Spring of 2008, Sauerzopf graduated with a Master of Divinity degree from Bexley Hall Seminary in Columbus, Ohio. As he continues his teaching and research, he is pursuing a vocation as a priest in holy orders in the Episcopal Church.