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Portrait of Paul Sum

Paul Sum

PhD, Northwestern University
  • Professor, Political Science & Public Adm

Contact Info

  • Email: paul.sum@UND.edu
  • Office: 701.777.3550
  • Dept: 701.777.3831

Office Address

Nistler Hall Room 324D
3125 University Avenue, Stop 8379
Grand Forks ND 58202-8379

Biography

Paul E. Sum received his PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University in 1996. He came to the University of North Dakota in fall 2000. He teaches courses in Comparative Politics, Democratization, Global Perspectives, Human Rights, and Political Behavior. Sum’s research agenda explores various aspects of political behavior, including cooperation, civil society, inequalities, and democratic citizenship. Here is an example of Sum's recent scholarship which looks at the impact of inequality on collaborative problem-solving skills among youths: 

https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hMr72dqBJnKbc

Sum also is an accomplished international evaluator and consultant. He has worked with the U.S. Agency for International Development, World Bank, Council of Europe, OSCE, National Democratic Institute, International Research & Exchanges Board, and the American Council for Learned Societies. 

Sum maintains a special relationship with Romania. He held the position of Lecturer and Fellow at the Faculty of Political Science and Public Administration at Babes-Bolyai University in Cluj-Napoca, Romania (1996-1998) under a program funded by the U.S. Department of State, Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs. Since 2007, he has held an academic appointment at the same faculty for the Masters in Research Design and Data Analysis Program. In 2009-2010, Sum was the recipient of a Fulbright Scholar Award to Romania where he lectured and conducted research.

Sum teaches the following courses at UND:

Pols 120 - Global Perspectives (survey course centering on globalization with an introduction to primary international actors, institutions, & issues)

Pols 225 - Comparative Politics (foundational course that explores the workings of a political system addressing why we see similarities and differences in outcomes across space and time)

Pols 321 - International Human Rights (seminar course that develops theories of human rights, asks why human rights violations occur, and addresses responses to human rights violations from international organizations, states, and NGOs)

Pols 405 - Political Behavior (culminating course which considers the motivations and forms citizen political action take)

  • Political behavior and attitudes
  • Democratization & retreats from democracy
  • Post-communist politics / Romanian politics
  • Nonprofits in the policy-making process
  • Social enterprises & the "fourth sector"

Recent publication: Collaboration and socio-economic inequality: Estimating the effects of intra-school and inter-school inequality on collaborative problem-solving skills, International Journal of Educational Development, 2023 https://authors.elsevier.com/a/1hMr72dqBJnKbc

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