Sean Theriault

Interests

Biography

Professor Theriault researches American political institutions, primarily the U.S. Congress.  His current research is on the Gingrich Senators and how they have transformed the U.S. Senate.  His classes include the U.S. Congress, Congressional Elections, Party Polarization in the United States, and the Politics of the Catholic Church.  He has received numerous teaching awards, including UT Professor the Year in 2011 and the Friar Society Teaching Fellowship (the biggest undergraduate teaching award at UT) in 2009.

Professor Theriault has published two books, The Power of the People: Congressional Competition, Public Attention, and Voter Retribution (Ohio State University Press, 2005) and Party Polarization in Congress (Cambridge University Press, 2008). He has also published numerous articles on subjects ranging from presidential rhetoric to congressional careers and the Louisiana Purchase to the Pendleton Act of 1883.