By Alejandra Garcia, Multimedia and Communications Student Assistant

Fresno State assistant professor Dr. Ali Masood has been appointed as the College of Social Sciences Honors Program director for the next academic school year.

Currently teaching in the Department of Political Science, Masood joined Fresno State in the Fall of 2016 as an Assistant Professor. His research and teaching interests are in American political institutions, judicial politics, and research methodology. Dr. Masood has had his research published in American Politics Research and the Journal of Law and Courts.

“I am really excited to be the new Honors Program director. The students in the Honors Program represent the top students within the college from various disciplines,” Dr. Masood said. “I am looking forward to engaging with these promising students. I enjoy mentoring students and helping them explore career and academic options beyond undergraduate studies. This role provides a unique opportunity to mentor some the College’s most promising students.”

As the new director, Masood will oversee COSS Honor students as they obtain and implement methodological techniques and will also mentor students through their research projects along with other faculty mentors.

The College of Social Sciences Honors Program provides students with opportunities for developing, designing and implementing research projects, obtain one-on-one mentorship from a faculty mentor and receive special recognition at graduation. Students are required to have completed at least 75 credit hours and complete honors research paper or thesis to be delivered at an academic conference or at the Social Science Honors Research Symposium at the end of the Spring Semester.

Masood added that his passion for working with students pursuing research opportunities lead him to apply for this opportunity.  

“I maintain an active research agenda, and I have a history of working with students pursuing research opportunities, so the prospect of teaching a research-based sequence of courses to the College’s top students was very appealing.”

Dr. Masood earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of South Carolina in 2016 and taught several courses at the University of South Carolina while in graduate school. This semester, Masood is teaching judicial politics and American government courses. He says he loves teaching those classes because it allows him to work with the college’s amazing majors and interact with students outside of the discipline.

“Ultimately, my goal is to expose students to diverse research and methodological techniques, so that students are equipped with the necessary tools to engage in innovative and rigorous Social Science research,” Masood said.

For more information about the College of Social Sciences’ Honors Program, visit our website.