Rate My Professor Joseph Aistrup

Joseph A. Aistrup is a professor of political science whose academic career includes extensive leadership roles across several institutions. He earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Indiana University in 1989, M.A. from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in 1984, and B.A. from Fort Hays State University in 1982. Since July 2021, he has served as Professor in the Department of Political Science at Auburn University, following his tenure as Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Professor there from September 2013 to June 2021. Previously at Kansas State University, Aistrup was Interim Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences in 2011, Associate Dean from 2009 to 2013, and Head of the Department of Political Science from 2002 to 2008, advancing from Associate Professor to Professor. Earlier, he directed the Docking Institute of Public Affairs at Fort Hays State University from 1999 to 2002 while serving as Associate Professor, held assistant directorship and faculty roles there from 1993 to 1999, and was an Instructor and Assistant Professor at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University from 1988 to 1992.

Aistrup's scholarship centers on southern politics, party competition and realignments, elections and voter ID laws, and interdisciplinary work in environmental policy, sustainability science, and coupled human-natural systems, especially water resources and agriculture. His books include Southern Strategy Revisited: Republican Top-Down Advancement in the South (1996, University Press of Kentucky) and Kansas Politics and Government: The Clash of Political Cultures (2010, University of Nebraska Press, with H. Edward Flentje). Prominent articles are "Drilling Setbacks vs Government Takings: The Case of Colorado’s 2018 Ballot Initiatives" (2024, Society and Natural Resources), "The 1990s Party Realignment of U.S. Presidential Elections: Geographic Sorting of Counties by Blue or Red" (2023, Social Science Quarterly), "Dobbs, American Federalism, and State Abortion Policymaking: Restrictive Policies Alongside Expansion of Reproductive Rights" (2023, Publius: The Journal of Federalism), "Voter Photo ID Laws in the US: The Case of a Spurious Relationship between Race and the South" (2022, Journal of Election Administration Research & Practice), "Climate Change Beliefs in an Agricultural Context" (2018, Climatic Change), and "Conserving the Ogallala Aquifer in Southwestern Kansas: from the Wells to People, a Holistic Coupled Natural-Human Model" (2017, Hydrology and Earth System Sciences). Awards include the Robert L. Lineberry Award for best paper in Social Science Quarterly (2012), OpenMI Award (2017), and several from the American Economic Development Council and National Rural Economic Development Association for economic impact studies.