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Biography

Annika has arrived or keeping things in perspective --- Baby Pictures of Annika: Here are the first pictures of Annika. Natalie, our daughter, gave birth to Annika on July 4th, 2002. Carsten now has a sister. Her proud grandparents were in attendance in Washington, D. C. shortly after returning from their sabbatical in Germany.

(Click on the small gif to see a larger image.)

I am professor of political science, and department chair, at Western Illinois University in Macomb, Illinois. I have been at Western since 1972 and my degree is from the University of North Carolina. My wife, Jutta, also attended UNC and teaches political science, with a focus on comparative politics. Our daughter, Natalie, is married to Paul a Lt. Commander in the Navy and they have a three year old boy, Carsten. They live in Memphis, Tenn. and Natalie works for Volunteer Memphis as development officer.

I teach political theory -- modern and classical -- the philosophy of the social sciences at the graduate level, politics and film, American political thought, and the Internet and Political Science. My teaching load has been reduced while I serve as department chair.

I have used computers and the Internet in my teaching for almost ten years. Up until six years ago usage was confined largely to running SPSS (Statistical package for the Social Sciences) to analyze polling data for use in my Philosophy of Science course and using e-mail to maintain contact with colleagues. In December of 1994, following the example of John Murphy in Western's Department of Music, I began using the World Wide Web, listservs, mailing lists, gopher, etc. for all of my classes.

While my main research interest remain democratic theory as it pertains to voting behavior and the Supreme Court, the Web and Internet have also been an important research area. In November of 1995, I presented "The Internet in an Educational Environment: Potentalities and Concerns " at the Illinois Political Science Association meetings. A revised version of the paper was published in the Illinois Political Science Review Spring, 1996 Vol.2, no.1. I also presented a paper on "The Internet as an Egalitarian Resource." at a recent meeting of the American Political Science Association. Both are available to view. I am also keenly interested in questions about pedagogy in the teaching of introductory courses and the decline of trust in government. These two themes were recently combined in the paper 'Rush Limbaugh and the Introductory Government Text" presented at the Midwest Political Science Association meeting in April of 1997. This past year I presented a paper on teaching general education courses to non-political science majors. It will be published this Spring in the Illinois Political Science Review. In November of 2000 I presented the paper "Predicting Electoral Outcomes: What Do We Know and When Do We Know It." at the Illinois Political Science Association meeting. I am revising that paper and working on another paper on the 2000 election.

If you wish to comment or send a message: c-Helm@wiu.edu

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