Jocelyn Evans, Ph.D.

Dr. Jocelyn Evans, professor of government and interim director of the UWF Kugelman Honors Program, has taught American government, legislative behavior, women and politics, religion and politics, parties and interest groups, elections, constitutional law, political theory and research methods. Currently, Evans teaches first-year students in the Kugelman Honors Program how to be leaders through service in their community. Her core seminar is an intensive interdisciplinary course that incorporates undergraduate research under the guidance of faculty mentors across campus. Students build data literacy skills, practice academic writing, and present the results of their hard work at the annual UWF Student Scholar Symposium.

She has published several books and scholarly articles that explore congressional behavior, political culture and political science education. Evans, who was an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in Washington, D.C., during the 9/11 and anthrax attacks in 2001, wrote “One Nation Under Siege: Congress, Terrorism, and the Fate of American Democracy,” a book that documents how terrorism impacted the culture on Capitol Hill. She is co-author of “Central Ideas in American Government,” a best-selling interactive webtext, now in its eleventh edition, that helps students learn critical introductory concepts of American government and politics. She also wrote “Women, Partisanship, and the Congress,” a book that examines the differences between Republican and Democratic political cultures and how they affect women members of Congress. Her book with Dr. Jessica Hayden, "Congressional Communication in the Digital Age," focuses on how technology has shaped communication between members of Congress and their constituents. And her most recent work published by OU Press and co-authored with Dr. Keith Gaddie, "The U.S. Supreme Court's Democratic Spaces," traces the evolution of the Court across time and space and explores the social meaning of Cass Gilbert's iconic temple design for the permanent home of the institution. 

Evans, who was the chair of the Department of Government at UWF from 2012 to 2014, is on the editorial board of the academic journal, Perspectives on Political Science, and has served on the councils of political science associations, such as the Southwest Political Science Association, the Florida Political Science Association, and the American Political Science Association’s Women’s Caucus – South.

She received a bachelor’s degree in interdisciplinary studies from Berry College, and master’s and doctorate degrees in political science from the University of Oklahoma, where she received the Carl Albert Congressional Research and Studies Center Graduate Fellowship.