Dr-Glen-Smith
Glen Smith, Associate Professor of Political Science & International Affairs.

Dr. Glen Smith, Associate Professor of Political Science at our Gainesville campus, recently was awarded a Presidential Grant entitled “Intellectual Humility and Political Hostility.”

The funding from the grant will support the implementation of a nationally representative survey that examines whether intellectual humility lowers political hostility. Dr. Smith says, “Intellectual humility is the extent to which people accept that their political views might be wrong, and previous research suggests that this might help people disagree about politics in a more friendly manner.”

Dr. Smith’s plan is to use the data gathered from the survey to write a book about the role of intellectual humility in American politics and to develop ways that instructor can promote intellectual humility in classroom settings. “In my classes in particular, I plan to utilize intellectual humility so as to facilitate productive discussion of political issues,” states Dr. Smith.

The grant will also support a student assistant in his classroom and travel to an academic conference.