Dane G. Wendell, Ph.D.

Hello! I'm Dane Wendell, and I am the Dean of Faculty and Associate Professor of Political Science at Illinois College, in Jacksonville, Illinois.

I serve as Dean of Faculty at Illinois College, working closely with the Provost to oversee faculty work, academic programs, and the day-to-day functioning of Academic Affairs. My role sits at the intersection of people, policy, and operations.

My work centers on academic planning and faculty affairs. I work with faculty and department chairs on teaching, evaluation, and professional development; oversee faculty processes and budgets; and help shape program direction, scheduling, and faculty workload decisions. I use enrollment, course-demand, and student-outcomes data to help align academic resources with institutional priorities and long-term needs.

I am particularly interested in building clearer systems, policies, planning processes, and shared expectations that reduce ambiguity and make academic operations more consistent and sustainable. My experience as a political scientist and teacher continues to shape how I approach this work.

My research and teaching interests focus on political psychology. I've worked on a range of topics including morality and public policy, the politics of disgust, and belief bias in politics. 

My research work has used survey data, automated text-analysis, behavioral experiments, and electroencephalography (reading electrical signals from the scalp). My work has been published in Political Behavior, Policy Sciences, American Politics Research, and Social Science Quarterly.

I received my doctorate with distinction from Loyola University Chicago, my master's degree from Loyola University Chicago, and my bachelor's degree from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. 

In the classroom, I have been an award-winning instructor for courses such as political behavior, political psychology, the American Presidency, and American Elections. My pride and joy is my interdisciplinary course on Biology and Politics, where political science, psychology, and biology majors meet together to explore the evolutionary roots of our politics. My courses also contribute to the psychology and neuroscience programs.

Our paper was accepted for publication: Wendell, D.G. & Tatalovich, R. (2023). Status politics are the origins of morality policy. Politics and the Life Sciences, 1-10. https://doi.org/10.1017/pls.2023.11

In August 2023, I was interviewed on a podcast about teaching politics. Link here. 

In April 2022, I received the Harry J. Dunbaugh Distinguished Professor Award for excellence in teaching.

Ask the Experts program interviewed me about political psychology and conspiracy theories. Link here. You can also watch it on YouTube here.

Jacksonville Journal Courier announces my Constitution Day talk with Jacksonville Area Museum entitled "Can Free Speech Last in America Today?" See this link for more.

Our paper “Disgust Sensitivity and Support for Immigration Across Five Nations” was accepted for publication in Politics and the Life Sciences. More information is available here. See my ResearchGate page for the paper.

In 2021, I received the Charles E. Frank Fellowship for Excellence in Teaching.

Our paper "Classifying public policies with Moral Foundations Theory." was published at Policy Sciences. More information is available here. See my ResearchGate page for the paper. 

Our paper "Expanding the Scope and Content of Morality Policy Research: Lessons from Moral Foundations Theory" was published at Policy Sciences. More information is available here. See my ResearchGate page for the paper.

Visit my LinkedIn page here to connect.

Visit my Google Scholar page and my ResearchGate page for detailed information about my publications. Texts of all papers are available on ResearchGate.