Political science professor named New York Times platform contributor

Radford University Political Science chair and Professor Chapman Rackaway, Ph.D., has been selected as a faculty contributor to The New York Times’ curricular tool, InEducation.

InEducation features weekly posts and discussion prompts from leading professors like Rackaway across 16 disciplines. For the educational platform, Rackaway will cover campaigns and elections and, along with his fellow contributors, help college and university faculty and students connect news from around the world with their studies.

“I’ve become an evangelist for the Times, partly because the InEducation system makes it so easy to have class-ready materials available,” said Rackaway, who has been embedding the newspaper’s content into his curriculum for many years. He titled his lessons “Times Talks” and gave a presentation about it one year at the American Democracy Project annual conference.

A New York Times staffer was at the conference and enjoyed Rackaway’s presentation, setting in motion a relationship between the professor and the paper.

“I have had the pleasure of working with Dr. Rackaway over the past several years through The New York Times partnership with AASCU (American Association of State Colleges and Universities) and the American Democracy Project,” said Kandace Fitzwater, the director of Education and Public Library at The New York Times. “In getting to know Chapman, I’ve long appreciated how he utilizes New York Times journalism throughout his teaching, both inside and outside the classroom, to connect theory to practice and help students to become engaged, participating citizens of our society.”

Soon after Rackaway arrived at Radford University in August 2021, he began working with College of Humanities and Behavioral Sciences Dean Matthew J. Smith, Ph.D., to establish a connection with the Times to benefit students.

Smith’s “commitment to continually improving the educational experience for our students,” Chapman explained, led to Radford becoming a “Times school” with 25 constituents across campus, including McConnell Library, the Tartan student newspaper, Citizen Leader, Office of Student Involvement, the Center for Career and Talent Development, the Highlander Success Center, Center for Innovative Teaching and Learning (CITL) and “a dozen of academic departments and colleges.”

Now-retired Provost J. Orion Rogers, Ph.D., Rackaway noted, also played a significant role in ensuring all Radford University students, faculty and staff have complimentary access to NYTimes.com and the InEducation tool.

Rackaway’s passion for the Times, Fitzwater explained, has led the media entity to work with the professor over the years “to co-present at conferences with our team, and we were pleased to include him last March in a two-day virtual summit titled “Teaching with The New York Times. Chapman’s wealth of experience utilizing the Times in teaching and championing the Times to other professors made him the perfect choice to join inEducation as our Campaigns and Elections contributor.”

He was honored, Rackaway said, “to be asked, and how could I turn down the nation’s newspaper of record? I’m looking forward to being a resource for fellow political scientists across the country.”

Rackaway has already begun producing content for the Times’ learning tool.

For students, faculty and staff to activate their complimentary NYTimes.com access, visit accessnyt.com.

To activate the InEducation tool, follow this link to sign up for an account using your Radford University email address.