Assistant Professor of Political Science

Education:
B.S., The United States Military Academy at West Point
M.A., Georgia State University
Ph.D., University of Texas

Curt Nichols studies American political institutions, political and constitutional development, party systems, the presidency, judicial politics, qualitative methods, politics and the military.

Professor Nichols comes to Baylor from the University of Texas, where he completed the dissertation, The Governing Cycle and the Dynamics of New Majority Formation, which traces the origins of cycles in American political development back to constitutional structure and explores the tasks that leaders have to succeed in performing in order to overcome the high entropy conditions that the American political system is periodically prone to encountering.

Courses at Baylor:

PSC 2302 American Constitutional Development

PSC 3330 The American Presidency

PSC 4350 Political Parties

PSC 5321 Seminar in Public Law: Judicial Politics

PSC 5330 American Political Development

Selected Publications:

"Exploiting the Opportunity for Reconstructive Leadership: Presidential Responses to Enervated Political Regimes," with Adam S. Myers, American Politics Research. September (2010) 38: 806-841.

"The Presidency and the Political Order: In Context," , Polity. October (2011) 43: 513-531.

"The Presidential Rankings Game: Critical Review and Some New Discoveries," forthcoming, Presidential Studies Quarterly, June (2012).

"Military Family Attitudes towards Civilian Leaders in the United States," with David Leal, forthcoming, Armed Forces and Society, (2012).

"Reconsidering Realignment from a Systemic Perspective," Clio. Summer (2009) 19:2 pp. 3, 50-53.

"Latino Veterans and Income: Are there Gains from Military Service," with David L. Leal and Jeremy Teigen in Latino's and the Economy: Integration and Impact in Schools, Labor Markets and Beyond, eds. David L. Leal and Stephen J. Trejo. (2010). New York: Springer: 193-212.