Professor Makes a Difference in Politics
October 5, 2004
USC professor Michael Preston has been honored by the American Political Science Association for his contributions to politics.
The Frank Johnson Goodnow award — created in 1996 to honor the service of teachers, researchers and public servants who work and contribute to the field of politics — was presented at APSA's awards ceremony in Chicago.
“It's an honor,” said Preston, a political science professor in the USC College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. “I know the people who voted and what a lot of us have given to this field.”
Preston has been on many of APSA's committees. He served as association vice president, member of its endowment and executive committees, president of its Urban Affairs Organized Section and chairperson of the Committee on the Status of Blacks in the Profession.
He also helped create APSA's Ralph Bunche Summer Institute that motivates young people to enter the field of political science.
The association called Preston “a model” for other political scientists at the awards ceremony held in September.
Political science department chair Howard Gillman said the award is a fitting recognition for Preston's contributions to political science.
“His friends and colleagues at USC are very familiar with his gifted and innovative career as a scholar, as well as his devotion to serving our university and our profession,” Gillman said.
“This tribute honors Mike, but he also honors us — all of us at USC who admire and value the sort of exemplary career that Mike represents.”
Preston came to USC in 1986 after 13 years of teaching at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign.
Preston said he wrote “Racial and Ethnic Problems in California” after noticing there were no books on the issue of race and politics in California.
He also developed African American political science courses when he came to USC. His black politics course has grown from eight students the first year it was offered to 37 students this year.
“It's turned out to be a good course,” Preston said.
Preston is director of the USC Center for Multiethnic and Transnational Studies, which as part of its mission, examines differences and similarities across various ethnic and racial groups.
Preston said he is continually motivated to teach by seeing the success most of his former students have had. Some of his students went to graduate school, but most have gone to law school.
“Over time you see your students become successful,” Preston said. “Those are some things as a professor you take pride in. As a professor you want to teach, inform students and watch them grow.”