Andrew C. Rudalevige has joined Bowdoin’s Government and Legal Studies Department as a senior faculty member.

Rudalevige has carved out a distinguished academic career focused on American politics, and actually had his start as a politician. He was a city councilor in his hometown of Watertown, Mass., from 1994 to 1996, and was a Massachusetts Senate staff member from 1989 to 1994.

For the past 11 years, he’s taught political science at Dickinson College, where he held the Walter E. Beach ’56 Distinguished Chair in political science. He has also taught at the University of Lyon, in Lyon, France, and at the University of East Anglia, in Norwich, England, both places as a visiting professor, and at Princeton University as a visiting scholar.

Rudalevige earned his B.A.at the University of Chicago in 1989, and his M.A. and Ph.D. at Harvard University in 1997 and 2000. Rudalevige’s first book, Managing the President’s Program (Princeton, 2002), won the American Political Science Association’s Richard E. Neustadt Award as the best book on the presidency in 2003.

His 2005 book, The New Imperial Presidency: Renewing Presidential Power after Watergate (University of Michigan Press), was named a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2006. Along with numerous journal articles, he has published two recent books on the Obama presidency and the legacy of George W. Bush.

He teaches courses on American government, the presidency, legislative process, public administration, U.S. presidential elections, and more.