For Paul Musgrave, Capitol Hill has come to the dining room table. Like so many others, his world was turned upside down this summer as a result of the pandemic, and that meant big changes for his recent stint as a legislative fellow for Congress.
“I was drafting bills and doing research from the dining room,” Musgrave says.
As an assistant professor of political science at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, Musgrave is an expert in American foreign policy. He has a Ph.D. in government from Georgetown University and a master’s degree in politics from University College Dublin, and his studies focus on U.S. foreign policy and international relations theory. His work has been published widely, appearing in outlets such as The Washington Post, American Politics Review, and International Theory.
While at IU, Musgrave was a Wells Scholar and one of just 12 students nationwide to receive a Mitchell Scholarship, a joint program of the United States and Ireland that provides funding for graduate study. He also worked as a columnist for the Indiana Daily Student and served on the university’s student government, work that he credits with teaching him lifelong skills he carried over into his career as a professor.
Like many schools and universities, University of Massachusetts is completely online this year, a circumstance that necessitates a new approach to teaching. There are new challenges, too, from deciding on how to deliver a lesson online to adjusting the lighting in a room.
“There’s much more organization, planning, foresight and flexibility,” Musgrave says.
But every cloud has its silver lining, and Musgrave believes that students can use this to find new passions and skillsets.
“With everything on the table,” he says, “it’s a great time to go deeper into the things you love.”
