Michael Nelson, professor of political science at Rhodes College, presented “The Politics of Presidential Debates” at 7:30 last night in the Watkins Auditorium at UTM.

“The first presidential debate is scheduled to take place three days after Michael Nelson’s lecture. Professor Nelson will provide a non-partisan ‘viewers guide’ to help us analyze and interpret what takes place in the debates,” said Dr. William Zachry, UTM director of Honors Programs.

Nelson has published 20 books on the presidency, elections, the bureaucracy, public policy and higher education. Two of his books have won the Benjamin Franklin Award, one in the category of history, politics and philosophy and the other in the reference book category.

He has written nearly 200 articles on a wide range of political, religious, literary and cultural topics for scholarly journals and other periodicals. In addition to his articles on political topics, Nelson has written articles about Charles Dickens, Frank Sinatra, Garrison Keillor, C.S. Lewis, Jonathan Edwards, Stephen L. Carter, Ward Just, the “Iliad,” liberal education, baseball and music.

Nelson won the Jeffrey Nordhaus Award for excellence in undergraduate teaching at Vanderbilt University, where he taught as a tenured professor for 12 years.

He also is a former writer/editor of the “Washington Monthly.” Nelson earned a bachelor of arts degree from the College of William and Mary and a master of arts and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University.

Nelson’s appearance was co-sponsored by Honors Programs and the Political Science Club at UTM. The lecture ended with a brief question-and-answer period, followed by a reception in the UC.

The Academic Speakers program annually brings distinguished scholars, writers and performers to the UTM campus. All lectures are free and open to the public.

For more information, contact Dr. Zachry at zachry@utm.edu or 731-881-7436