Talks

Teresa Nesbitt Cosby is a Professor of Political Science at Furman University. Her specialty is constitutional law and racial and ethnic politics. Ms. Cosby was the law clerk of retired United States Magistrate Judge William M. Catoe, Jr., she has served as an Assistant Deputy Attorney General for the South Carolina Attorney General’s Office, was the Executive Director of Legal Services of South Carolina, and the former Legal Services of Western Carolina. She has also served as the Executive Director of the Black Family Land Trust, a six-state program. She serves and has served on national, state, and local boards of directors, which includes her service as chair of the Civil Policy Group of the National Legal Aid and Defender Association, and the Upstate Community Mediation Center.

Elizabeth Smith received her Ph.D. from the University of Minnesota where she was a National Science Foundation fellow. She received her B.A. in Political Science from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill graduating with highest distinction as a Morehead Scholar. In 2007, Dr. Smith was awarded the Excellence in Teaching Award by the South Carolina Independent Colleges and Universities, and served as chair of the department at Furman. She does research on women and politics, political socialization, and public opinion and political science education. She and her colleague, Akan Malici, recently published a book with Routledge Press entitled "Political Science Research in Practice." She has also published articles in such journals as Polity, the Journal of Political Science Education and Political Psychology. She has been a professor at Furman for 28 years and she works actively to engage students in the critical political questions of our time and in considering their role as citizens in a democracy.