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Robert Speel image

Robert Speel

Program Chair (former), Political Science, Penn State University - Behrend, (Adjunct)
Phone(814) 898-6206

Dr. Speel earned both his PhD and his MA from Cornell University and his BA from the University of Pennsylvania. He is currently Associate Professor of Political Science at Penn State Behrend in Erie, PA, where he is also the Director of the Public Policy Initiative and the former program chair.  He has been associated with the Department of Politics and Public Administration at TMU since 2006.

Dr. Speel's teaching and research interests include most aspects of American politics, including elections and voting behavior, state and urban politics, Congress and the Presidency, and public policy, as well as ethnic and racial politics and Canadian politics. His book, Changing Patterns of Voting in the Northern United States (Penn State University Press), examines the creation of the regional divide of Red States and Blue States in the United States. He continues to research the development of regional movements and regional voting behavior in the United States.

At TMU, Dr. Speel regularly teaches Washington DC: Seat of U.S. Government (POG392) and  team-teaches (with Dr. Gregory Inwood) Canadian-American Relations (POG417).  He also teaches U.S. Politics (POG341) and has twice taught a course on US Elections (POG490). In 2025, Dr. Speel and Dr. Inwood produced a book based on their course and published by University of Toronto Press titled The Same, Only Different: Understanding Canada and the United States.

Dr. Speel has received numerous awards for teaching, outreach, research, and advising at Penn State and has been the recipient of two university-wide awards, the George W. Atherton Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Undergraduate Program Leadership Award.