Rate My Professor Jack Mewhirter

Jack Mewhirter is an Associate Professor at the Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs at the University of Tennessee, Knoxville. He holds a PhD in Political Science from Florida State University, completed between 2011 and 2016. Before joining the University of Tennessee in 2024, Mewhirter was an Associate Professor and Director of Graduate Studies in the School of Public and International Affairs at the University of Cincinnati from 2016 to 2024, where he also served as an Assistant Professor earlier in his career. His academic trajectory reflects a commitment to advancing understanding of governance and policy dynamics through rigorous empirical research.

Mewhirter specializes in public policy and policy process research, with key interests in collaborative governance, environmental policy, and policy evaluation. His scholarship explores the origins of societal problems within complex governance systems, including topics such as police militarization, public trust in government during crises, COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy, and symbolic representation in policymaking. Prominent publications include 'Militarization and Police Violence: The Case of the 1033 Program' (2017, Research & Politics, with Casey Delehanty, Ryan Welch, and Jason Wilks, cited over 220 times), 'The Origins of Conflict in Polycentric Governance Systems' (2020, Public Administration Review, with Mark Lubell and Ramiro Berardo), 'Towards a Predictive Model of COVID-19 Vaccine Hesitancy Among American Adults' (2022), 'Manifesting Symbolic Representation through Collaborative Policymaking' (2024, Policy Studies Journal, with Danielle M. McLaughlin and Brian Calfano), 'Blame Attribution, Partisanship, and Federalism' (2024, Public Opinion Quarterly, with Matthew J. Uttermark, Rebecca Sanders, and Danielle M. McLaughlin), and 'Bridging the Gap: Advancing Policy Process Theory through the Study of Policing Subsystems' (2025). With over 950 citations on Google Scholar, his work has garnered attention, including features in media outlets like The Washington Post. Mewhirter has received the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center Summer Research Fellowship ($6,000) in 2022 and contributes to the field through service on dissertation committees, graduate advising, and editorial roles such as on the Policy and Politics blog.