Welcome to Arkansas State University!

Associate Professor of Political Science

Department Chair


Education

  • Ph.D., Texas A&M University, 2014
  • M.A., Arkansas State University, 2009
  • B.A., Arkansas State University, 2007

Teaching Specialties

  • Comparative Politics
  • Elections
  • International Relations
  • Political Economy
  • Political Methodology
  • Public Policy

Courses Taught

  • Advanced Political Analysis
  • Data Visualization for the Social Sciences
  • Foreign Policy Analysis
  • International Organization
  • Introduction to Comparative Politics
  • Introduction to International Politics
  • Introduction to Political Analysis
  • Seminar in Political Economy
  • Policy Analysis
  • Techniques of Political Science Research
  • Terrorism and Political Violence

Research Interests

  • Comparative Public Administration
  • Elections
  • Political Economy
  • Political Methodology
  • Rural Public Policy
  • Spatial Econometrics

Affiliations

  • American Political Science Association
  • International Studies Association
  • Midwest Political Science Association
  • Southern Political Science Association
  • The Society for Political Methodology

Biography

Dr. Wimpy is Associate Professor and Department Chair of Political Science. He teaches courses in international relations, comparative politics, political methodology, and public policy. Additionally, Dr. Wimpy serves as the Faculty sponsor of the Model United Nations program at A-State. He is formerly an affiliate faculty with the Harvard Institute for Quantitative Social Science (IQSS) and the former research director of the MIT Election Data and Science Lab. A native of the Arkansas Delta, Dr. Wimpy is a two-time graduate of A-State. His research has appeared in The Journal of Politics, Electoral Studies, Nature: Scientific Data, Political Science Research and Methods, Social Science Quarterly, and other edited volumes in various university press outlets. He has also presented at various academic and thematic conferences around the world. Dr. Wimpy has conducted fieldwork in Ethiopia, Malawi, Mozambique, South Sudan, Sudan, and Yemen. As an undergraduate and graduate student at A-State, Dr. Wimpy studied Arabic in Morocco, Oman, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. Dr. Wimpy is also an affiliate faculty member with the Center for No Boundary Thinking at A-State and the Arkansas Biosciences Institute. Recently, he was named the founding director of the Institute for Rural Initiatives at A-State.