James Russell Muirhead Jr. (born December 28, 1965) is an American academic, politician, and author serving as a member of the

New Hampshire House of Representatives The New Hampshire House of Representatives is the lower house in the New Hampshire General Court, the bicameral State legislature (United States), legislature of the state of New Hampshire. The House of Representatives consists of 400 members com ...

for the Grafton 12th district. He assumed office on December 2, 2020. He is also the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics and the Chair of the Department of Government at

Dartmouth College Dartmouth College ( ) is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Hanover, New Hampshire, United States. Established in 1769 by Eleazar Wheelock, Dartmouth is one of the nine colonial colleges chartered before the America ...

Early life and education

A native of

Hanover, New Hampshire Hanover is a New England town, town located along the Connecticut River in Grafton County, New Hampshire, United States. As of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, its population was 11,870. The town is home to the Ivy League university ...

, Muirhead graduated from Manchester Central High School and earned a

Bachelor of Arts A Bachelor of Arts (abbreviated B.A., BA, A.B. or AB; from the Latin ', ', or ') is the holder of a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate program in the liberal arts, or, in some cases, other disciplines. A Bachelor of Arts deg ...

degree in government from

Harvard College Harvard College is the undergraduate education, undergraduate college of Harvard University, a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Part of the Harvard Faculty of Arts and Scienc ...

. The recipient of a

Rhodes Scholarship The Rhodes Scholarship is an international postgraduate award for students to study at the University of Oxford in Oxford, United Kingdom. The scholarship is open to people from all backgrounds around the world. Established in 1902, it is ...

in 1987, Muirhead earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in

philosophy, politics and economics Philosophy, politics and economics, or politics, philosophy and economics (PPE), is an interdisciplinary undergraduate or postgraduate academic degree, degree which combines study from three disciplines. The first institution to offer degrees in P ...

from

Balliol College, Oxford Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world. With a governing body of a master and aro ...

. He later received a

Doctor of Philosophy A Doctor of Philosophy (PhD, DPhil; or ) is a terminal degree that usually denotes the highest level of academic achievement in a given discipline and is awarded following a course of Postgraduate education, graduate study and original resear ...

degree in government from

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

Career

From 1996 to 1998, Muirhead was an assistant professor of political science at

Williams College Williams College is a Private college, private liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Williamstown, Massachusetts, United States. It was established as a men's college in 1793 with funds from the estate of Ephraim ...

. From 1998 to 2006, he was an assistant and associate professor of government at Harvard University. From 2006 to 2009, he was an associate professor of government at the

University of Texas at Austin The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public university, public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 stud ...

. He has been the Robert Clements Professor of Democracy and Politics at Dartmouth College since 2009. Muirhead is a frequent seminar moderator for the

Aspen Institute The Aspen Institute is an international nonprofit organization founded in 1949 as the Aspen Institute for Humanistic Studies. It is headquartered in Washington, D.C., but also has a campus in Aspen, Colorado, its original home. Its stated miss ...

. Muirhead's research focuses on

American politics In the United States, politics functions within a framework of a constitutional federal republic, federal democratic republic with a presidential system. The three distinct branches Separation of powers, share powers: United States Congress, C ...

, democracy,

political parties in the United States American electoral politics have been dominated by successive pairs of major political parties since shortly after the founding of the republic of the United States. Since the 1850s, the two largest political parties have been the Democratic P ...

, and the rise of

conspiracy theories in United States politics In United States politics, conspiracy theories are beliefs that a major political situation is the result of secretive collusion by powerful people striving to harm a rival group or undermine society in general. Such theories draw from actual c ...

. In 2019, he co-authored ''A Lot of People Are Saying: The New Conspiracism and the Assault on Democracy'' with Nancy L. Rosenblum. Muirhead was elected to the New Hampshire House of Representatives in November 2020 and assumed office in December. He is a member of the House Election Law Committee.

References

External links

2020 campaign websiteRussell Muirhead's books
at

Harvard University Press Harvard University Press (HUP) is an academic publishing house established on January 13, 1913, as a division of Harvard University. It is a member of the Association of University Presses. Its director since 2017 is George Andreou. The pres ...

Russell Muirhead
at

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

J. Russell Muirhead
at the

Harvard Radcliffe Institute The Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University, also known as the Harvard Radcliffe Institute, is an institute of Harvard University that fosters interdisciplinary research across the humanities, sciences, social sciences, arts ...

Russell Muirhead
at the

Hoover Institution The Hoover Institution (officially The Hoover Institution on War, Revolution, and Peace and formerly The Hoover Institute and Library on War, Revolution, and Peace) is an American public policy think tank which promotes personal and economic ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Muirhead, Russell Living people Politicians from Hanover, New Hampshire Harvard College alumni Harvard University alumni Harvard University faculty Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford Alumni of the University of Oxford Democratic Party members of the New Hampshire House of Representatives Williams College faculty University of Texas at Austin faculty Dartmouth College faculty Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century members of the New Hampshire General Court