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Tara Lennon‘s academic training is in political philosophy and international relations. She earned dual bachelors in government and psychology at Wesleyan University and her master’s and doctorate in political theory and international relations at Arizona State University. Her studies focused on theories of political representation.

For the decade after her doctorate, she evaluated the effectiveness of state agencies and school districts for the Auditor General’s Office—the objective research branch of the Arizona State Legislature. She testified before legislative committees about policy issues and managed research teams that assessed education funding, academic achievement, and operations of programs, agencies, and school districts. She loved seeing policy-making at work, but is happy to be back at the university discussing how issues, such as freedom and justice, are reflected in current policy decisions and in various forms of political participation. For example, she sees citizenship and patriotism not as abstract concepts, but as how we choose to treat each other in this country every day, in every conversation.

Her current research projects include Twitter’s impact on civic engagement, active learning and simulations, and methods and mini-lessons for improving civil deliberation in any course.