Peregrine Schwartz-Shea

Peregrine Schwartz-Shea is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Utah. She joined the faculty in 1984. She teaches courses in the graduate program in political science as well as the Master's of Public Administration program. Her favorite undergraduate course is Gender and Politics, which has the University's diversity designation.

Her research peregrinations have taken her from rational choice experimental projects to interpretive methodologies and their attendant evaluative criteria and standards. In the interim, she documented the lack of methodological pluralism in doctoral curricula and (with Dvora Yanow) a similar tendency in methods texts used in political science. She obtained the funding for and helped organize the 2009 National Science Foundation Workshop on Interpretive Methodologies in Political Science – which brought together doctoral students from around the nation who employed interpretive empirical approaches in their dissertation projects. Currently, she is co-editor with Yanow of the Routledge Series on Interpretive Methods. Their book, Interpretive Research Design: Concepts and Processes, is the first volume in the series.

In 2012 Professor Schwartz-Shea received a University of Utah Graduate Student Mentor Award. “The award recognizes faculty who effectively guide graduate students throughout their professional training in a continuing, multifaceted partnership sustained by mutual respect and concern. The effective mentor serves as a teacher, advisor, advocate, sponsor and role model.” She also served as 2012 President of the Western Political Science Association and was a nominee (one of four finalists) for the College of Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2011-2012 Senior Superior Teaching Award. She and her spouse have raised two children. She enjoys tandem biking, skiing, and yoga.