Kennesaw State’s highest-rated professors get up to a lot during the holiday season; three of them shared their post-semester plans and projects with The Sentinel.
Kerwin Swint, Thomas Scott and Russell James have all amassed more than 4.5 out of 5 ratings on RateMyProfessors.com. In addition to their praised work as educators, they have various personal projects that help occupy their time after the end of this term.
Kerwin Swint not only teaches Introductory Government but also acts as the director of the KSU School of Government and International Affairs. Outside of the lecture hall, Swint is also a drummer for a garage band of three other political scientists. Cleverly named Realpolitik, a piece of Cold War-era political jargon, the band meets on a weekly basis and has played a handful of live shows across rock, pop and folk genres.
Otherwise, he likes to take his family and dogs out traveling, fishing, boating and swimming. He also is currently working on a study about the Senate runoff election between Raphael Warnock and Herschel Walker.
“A project I’m involved in now is on runoff elections in Georgia, so we’re studying Georgia’s 159 counties administering runoffs,” Swint said. “We’re aiming to have that published by next year.”
Russell James, a professor currently teaching Photojournalism and Digital Media Production, spends his own time building new curricula, working on personal projects and attending industry events. He has an upcoming section in Special Topics: Photoshop that he’d been hoping to teach since he started at KSU and thinks it could be related to multiple majors offered at the university.
He said his high student response scores were a surprise to hear about.
“I don’t necessarily have any secrets to teaching, but I know I’m passionate about the subject I teach in,” James said. “I think it’s surreal when students tell me they changed their major or ambitions based on a class they took with me.”
Thomas Scott reminisced on teaching Oral History as recently as 2011 before his retirement as a history professor and detailed how his own projects at the school led him to be a comprehensive professor. He currently works on the KSU Oral History Project as the campus historian. Scott has interviewed most of KSU’s presidents, up to and including President Schwaig, about what they accomplished during their tenure and their legacy at the university.
The three-part interview with Schwaig is currently in the final stages of production
A common theme for highly rated professors was student input and interactivity in assignment details. His office is in the Sturgis library in conjunction with the archives department.
The last day of classes for this semester is Dec. 5. Classes will resume for the spring semester on Jan. 9. Graduates this term will be celebrated in three commencement ceremonies taking place from Dec. 13 through the 15.
