Shannon L. Jenkins

Shannon Jenkins is the Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs and Undergraduate Education. She started at UMass Dartmouth in 2004 and is a Professor of Political Science. She served as chair of the Political Science Department from 2012-2018 and was the Academic Director of Online Learning in Online and Continuing Education from 2015 to the 2020. She served as the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences from 2020-2024. Her primary research focuses on decision-making in state legislatures, with a specific focus on the role of political organizations and gender in shaping outputs in these institutions. She also researches the effect of engaged learning pedagogies on college students’ political interest and engagement; she was awarded the Manning Prize for Teaching Excellence in 2019 in recognition of this work. She is the author/co-author of three books and has received two Fulbright awards, one in China in 2012 and one in Japan in 2019.