PLS PhD Teaching Award for 2022 goes to Jonathan Spiegler

May 17, 2022

MSU Department of Political Science has awarded its 2022 Teaching Award to PhD student Jonathan Spiegler.

"Jon is an exceptional and innovative contributor to undergraduate teaching in the department. He has taught a course that was very well received focused entirely on Tocqueville's Democracy in America," said Dr. Sarah Reckhow, Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director.

Jon is the recipient of the Interdisciplinary Inquiry and Teaching Fellowship from the James Madison College at MSU, and teaches classes on American political philosophy, public policy, and public administration.

"I would like to thank the department for the opportunity to teach such a diverse range of classes while I have been a graduate student at MSU. As a teacher, I aim to improve the ability of my students to exercise their reason. I try to bring to the surface students’ political ideas and prejudices so that they can be examined and evaluated with the goal of becoming better informed citizens and leaders, those with the ability to apply their reason and logic to the difficult issues they will encounter outside of the classroom," Jon said.

Jon is a PhD student in political science at Michigan State University specializing in political philosophy and public policy. Jon’s dissertation research is a systematic study of the political thought of the French philosopher and statesman Alexis de Tocqueville. He is also currently working on a study interpreting Tocqueville's thought on race and slavery. In public policy, Jon has published research on gun violence in Policy Studies Journal and is currently working on a study comparing the effects of the minimum wage and labor unions on economic inequality in the United States.

Jon earned his BA in political science and economics from Kenyon College, and his Master of Public Policy from the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.