Faculty

Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan

Frank E. Duckwall Professor of Florida Studies (2022-24)
Associate Professor, Political Science
Founding Director, Center for Civic Engagement
Lead Instructor, 深夜看片 St. Petersburg YMCA Civic Fellows Program

Contact

Home Campus: St. Petersburg
Office: PNM101B, the Center for Civic Engagement Suite in the Piano Man Building
on the St. Petersburg campus
Email

BIO

Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan (Ph.D. Rutgers University) is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Founding Director of the Center for Civic Engagement at the 深夜看片 St. Petersburg, where she teaches courses in American Government and Public Law. She is the Co-Founder and Lead Instructor for the USF YMCA Civic Fellows Program, a nationally award-winning statewide civics education initiative.

McLauchlan is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in civics education, democratization, and strengthening civil society, the rule of law and justice sector reform. She has presented her research findings on these topics in Albania, Canada, Finland, France, Hungary, Ireland, Korea, Kosovo, Moldova, North Macedonia, Poland, Serbia, Switzerland, Uganda, United Kingdom, and Zimbabwe; and her perspectives have been featured in the Washington Post, Boston Globe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, the BBC, CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, and news outlets throughout Florida.

McLauchlan has received numerous national and international teaching and community engagement awards, such as the Political Studies Association-American Political Science Association International Partnership Award, the American Political Science Association Craig L. Brians Award for Undergraduate Research and Mentorship, the American Association of State Colleges and University鈥檚 American Democracy Project Barbara Burch Award for Faculty Leadership in Civic Engagement, and Campus Compact鈥檚 Graham-Frey Civic Educator Award.

McLauchlan was a Fulbright Scholar in Moldova in 2010, 2012, and 2023, and in North Macedonia in 2017 engaged in projects focused on Democracy and Civil Society and strengthening Rule of Law. In 2024, McLauchlan was awarded a U.S. State Department CDAF Grant to conduct workshops with students, community partners and government officials in Zimbabwe to develop citizenship education designed to strengthen citizen oversight and government accountability. In 2025, McLauchlan served as a Fulbright Specialist at the Great Lakes Center for the Study of the United States at Makerere University in Uganda. She was awarded a Diploma from the Government of the Republic of Moldova, recognizing fruitful international cooperation as well as the Medal of the Free University of Moldova (ULIM).  She also received the Award of the City of Klos, Albania in honor of the promotion of democratic values, community engagement and volunteerism and an Honorary Degree Leadership Excellence Award for "outstanding dedication and commitment to promoting rule of law, democracy building, and civic engagement" from UBT in Pristina, Kosovo. She serves as a High-Level Expert for the Ad Hoc Committee on Advancing Good Governance, Rule of Law, and Anit-Corruption for 2030 Albania in the European Union for the Assembly of the Republic of Albania.

Before becoming a university professor and researcher, McLauchlan worked at the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee (on the confirmation of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg), the U.S. Department of Justice, and the White House. A veteran of several presidential campaigns, she has managed statewide operations across the U.S., from Portland, Maine to Portland, Oregon. (This includes work on the 2000 Bush v. Gore Recount in Florida and managing the first ever 100% Vote by Mail presidential election in the U.S., as state director for the campaign in Oregon.)

TEACHING PHILOSOPHY

I believe strongly in the citizen scholar model and provide experiential learning and civic engagement opportunities for students in each of my courses. Examples include the Supreme Court oral argument simulation in Constitutional Law I, the Senate Judiciary Committee Supreme Court Confirmation Hearing and the Courtroom Observation Research assignment in Law and Politics, and the campaign internships in The Campaign Process, American National Government, and The Road to the White House.

I strive to internationalize the curriculum and to provide opportunities for my students to become 鈥済lobal citizens.鈥 Examples include my projects in Women and the Law in which my students worked together in groups with students at the Moldova State University鈥檚 American Studies Center on , Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in which my students working on comparative legal research papers about women鈥檚 rights in the Middle East were paired with a woman lawyer from that country (we partnered with the ) who mentored them on their projects, and in Civil Rights and Civil Liberties in which my students partnered with a seminar at the Scoala Nationala de Studii Politice si Adminstrative in Bucharest, Romania, working in groups on  in the U.S. and in Europe and my Civil Liberties and Civil Rights class that partnered with South East European University in Skopje, Macedonia, working on groups on research projects comparing and contrasting decisions of the Supreme Court of the U.S. and the European Court of Human Rights on similar legal questions.

COURSES TAUGHT AT 深夜看片 ST. PETERSBURG CAMPUS

  • Undergraduate

POS 2041 American National Government  

POS 4614 U.S. Constitutional Law I

POS 4624 U.S. Constitutional Law II (Civil Rights and Civil Liberties)

POS 3691 Introduction to Law and Politics (The Judicial Process)

POS 3273 Practical Politics: The Campaign Process

POS 4693/WST 4930 Women and the Law I

PUP 4323 Women and Politics

POS 3182 Florida Politics and Government

POS 3931 and POS 4941 The Road to the White House

POS 2112 State and Local Government

LDR 3263 Community Leadership Practicum

IDS 2932 Leadership and Civic Engagement

CPO 4930 Comparative Politics: Moldova (Study Abroad Course)       

POS 4910 Individual Research

IDS 4914 Advanced Undergraduate Research Experience Project Based (PURE)

POS 4941 Field Work 

  • Graduate

Florida Politics and Government

Civil Liberties and Civil Rights in the U.S.

The Road to the White House: Florida鈥檚 Role in Presidential Selection

Comparative Politics: Moldova (Study Abroad Course)

Field Work

PUBLICATIONS ABOUT TEACHING AND LEARNING

  • 鈥淯sing the Citizens Campaign 鈥10 Steps of No Blame Problem Solving鈥 Method鈥 to Teach Students How to Work with Policy Makers to Solve Community Problems.鈥 The Political Science Educator Vol. 29, Issue 2 (Winter 2026). 
  • 鈥淭he USFSP-YMCA Civic Fellows Program: Developing University-Community Partnerships to Improve Civics Education.鈥 Civic Pedagogy: Teaching Civic Engagement in an Era of Divisive Politics. Palgrave Macmillan 2024. 
  • 鈥Teaching and Learning about Local Government Using the Citizen Campaign鈥檚
    鈥10 Steps of No Blame Problem Solving鈥 Method: A Case Study鈥 for The Political Scientist. (with Steven Brown, Alexa Matos and Nathan Tout-Puissant)
  • 鈥Creating a Global Classroom: International Collaborative Legal Research Partnerships.鈥 Vol. 1, No. 1 (2024) Journal of Legal and Political Education pp. 1-17.  
  • 鈥淐reating a Global Classroom: Developing Collaborative Legal Research Partnerships for Undergraduate Students in the U.S. and North Macedonia.鈥 with Jusuf Zejneli.  JUSTICIA: International Journal of Legal Sciences. Vol 8, No. 13 (2020)
  • "Simulations in Online Courses: Integrating Synchronous Experiential Learning Opportunities for Students in the Virtual Classroom鈥 (with Karla Morris and Steph James) The Teaching Professor May 2020.
  •  with Elizabeth Bennion.  PSNow, American Political Science Association,  23 March 2020.
  • 鈥溾 Vol. 8, No. 1 (April 2019)  eJournal of Public Affairs, pp. 32-68.
  • 鈥淐ivic Engagement Education鈥 with Elizabeth A. Bennion, included in 鈥淭eaching and Learning Conference-within-a-Conference Launched at APSA Annual Meeting in Boston,鈥 by Alison Rios Millet McCartney and Renee Van Vechten, PS: Political Science and Politics, Vol. 52, Issue 1 (January 2019), pp. 157-158.
  • 鈥淐ultivating Global Citizenship in Higher Education: Civic Engagement and Service Learning in Joint Study Abroad Courses.鈥 Vol. 4, No. 1 (2015) Revista Internacional de Educacion para la Justicia Social (RIEJS) pp. 111-129.  With Larisa Patlis. 
  • 鈥淟earning Citizenship by Doing: Integrating Campaign Internships into Political Science Coursework,鈥 in Teaching Civic Engagement: From Student to Active Citizen.  Alison McCartney, Elizabeth A. Bennion, and Dick Simpson, eds. Washington, DC: American Political Science Association, 2013.
  • 鈥淐reating a Global Classroom:  Providing Collaborative Research Opportunities for U.S. and Moldovan Students.鈥 Vol. 19 (November 2012)  Journal for Civic Commitment. With Svetlana Suveica. 
  • 鈥溾 Vol. 16, Issue 1 (Spring 2012) Political Science Educator. Article is on pp 15-19.
  • 鈥淚ntegrating Civic Engagement into the Higher Education Curriculum in the United States,鈥 in Intercultural Communication in the New Millennium, edited by Elena Crestionicov, American Studies Center, Moldova State University, 2012.
  • 鈥The Courtroom as Classroom: Integrating Civic Engagement in Public Law Courses.鈥 Vol. 17 (October 2011)  Journal for Civic Commitment. 
  • 鈥Learning Citizenship by Doing:  Evaluating the Effects of a Required Political Campaign Internship in American Government鈥  Issue 12 (January 2009)  Journal for Civic Commitment.
  • 鈥溾&苍产蝉辫;&苍产蝉辫;The Political Science Educator. Vol. 10, Issue 2 (December 2005).