We caught up with one of our newest Professors, David MacDonald, to get to know more about him and his prior experience:
- So, what first got you interested in pursuing a career in political science?
I’ve always been interested in American elections (I’m not quite sure how that started) and coming of age during the historic 2008 presidential contest reinforced my interest and desire to pursue the study of politics as a ca
- Can you tell me more about how you chose your area of focus (gender and politics)?
I am particularly interested in what makes people “tick” politically, e.g., why they supported Democrats vs. Republicans and why the support vs. oppose various public policies that come up for debate. To be honest, I’m not sure exactly how that started either, but once I started digging into survey data, I found that I really enjoyed it.
- What made you want to become a professor?
I’ve always wanted to be a teacher and the idea of teaching young adults and being able to combine that with research sounded like a great career opportunity.
- If you weren’t a professor what would you be doing?
I would want to do something with data analysis and think about ways to use data to make the world a little bit better of a place.
- What made you want to come to the University of Florida?
My wife works here (at the Bob Graham Center), and I’ve lived in Florida for nearly all my life. So UF naturally had a lot of appeal to me.
- What’s a goal you have for this semester?
One goal I have is to make students a little be less afraid of numbers. I say that as someone who did not originally come from a strong stats/math background.
- What’s one thing about UF that surprised you?
One thing about UF that surprised me is how spread out the campus is. Much more so than UCF and FSU, my alma maters.
- What’s one thing you like about UF?
One thing I like about UF is the beautiful brick buildings. They are really nice to look at when strolling around campus and walking into work.
- What is one piece of advice (life, college or otherwise) you would give to students?
One piece of advice I would give to students is to try different things. Figuring out what you like, but also what you don’t like is a crucially important part of college and of your early 20s.
- What are some things on your bucket list?
If I had to pick, I would say seeing the Taj Mahal in person.
- What’s a random fact about yourself most people don’t know?
I was born on Constitution Day (September 17th) and my half birthday is St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th)