Meet the Faculty

Dr. Daniel Smith

Phone: 562-1293
E-mail: desmith@nwmissouri.edu

Dr. Smith's on Political Science (MP3, 1.82MB)

Replace current bio of Daniel Smith with the following:
Dan Smith came halfway across the country to join the Northwest faculty in 1999. A native of the Washington, D.C. area, his first visit to the Midwest was his job interview at Northwest, and the culture shock may never entirely wear off. He received his B.A., with high honors, from the College of William and Mary; his J.D. from the University of Virginia; and is receiving his Ph.D. from Rutgers University in New Jersey. A self-styled "recovering lawyer," he practiced telecommunications law in Washington, D.C. for several years before coming to Northwest, representing high-tech companies and trade associations before the Federal Communications Commission, state administrative agencies, and federal and state courts.

Mr. Smith teaches advanced courses on the law, judicial politics and the U.S. Constitution, as well as the general education American Government course. He advises political science majors and minors, particularly those with an interest in law. He also serves as coach of the Northwest Mock Trial Team, and faculty advisor for Students for Political Awareness, the Northwest Young Democrats, and the Northwest chapter of Hillel.

His research interests fall into three major categories: (1) contemporary issues of constitutional law, primarily civil liberties; (2) judicial politics, particularly the intersection of politics and law on the U.S. Supreme Court; and (3) legal and political theory. In the Constitutional Law area, his current interests are First Amendment-- speech and religion-- and privacy rights. He has written and presented several papers on the nature of privacy rights and the protection of privacy by the American states. In the political theory area, he is published in the emerging field of Political Hebraism and participated in the first International Colloquium on Political Hebraism in Jerusalem, Israel in 2004. He is also heavily involved in research and demonstration of teaching innovations in Political Science; current projects include an article on use of hypotheticals in teaching advanced law courses (publication pending) and a study of the utility of collaborative writing projects in general education courses.

When not teaching, writing or working with students, he spends much of his time playing the piano, maintaining his dream of playing in a blues band, reading, or blogging. The rest of his time is spent with his kids, Benjamin & Sarah, who turn 10 in November 2007.

Mr. Smith's wife Susan works at the Missouri Academy for Mathematics and Science at Northwest, and sings with the Kansas City Chorus.

Back to Meet the Faculty

Northwest Missouri State University

Meet the Faculty

Dr. Daniel Smith