Paul A. Harris

Education

PhD, Auburn University

MPA, Georgia Southern University

BA, Excelsior College

About Me

Paul A. Harris joined the Department of Political Science as an adjunct faculty member in the fall of 2008. In 2010 he was tenured and promoted to associate professor, and in 2015 he was promoted to the rank of professor. Harris has over two decades full-time teaching experience having taught for ten years (August 1998 – July 2008) at Augusta State University in Augusta, Georgia, and for one year as a Friedrich Ebert Foundation Post-Doctoral Fellow at the Westfälische Wilhelms Universität Münster, Germany (September 1997 – July 1998).

Since returning to Auburn, Harris has taught a wide array of courses including American Government, special topics courses on immigration, refugee and asylum policy, Honors Lyceum, the interdisciplinary, team-taught Human Odyssey course, Honors Leadership and Scholarship, as well as Honors Book Clubs, to name a few. As a member of the graduate faculty, Harris also serves on doctoral dissertation committees. Most recently, Harris served as Department Chair from January 2019 – August 2022.

Harris’ research specialization is comparative immigration policy where he has published widely (in English and German) on the subject. In March 2009, his co-authored article “Dalton, Georgia’s Response to Immigration” was awarded the H. George Frederickson PA Times Best Article Award for the best PA Times article written in 2008. His current research examines the U.S. Army’s occupation of Germany following World War II and the myriad challenges faced by military government in reconstructing governmental institutions, building governmental capacity and advancing democratic ideals in the immediate postwar years.

Prior to becoming department chair, Harris served as associate director for the University Honors College. In this role, he mentored Auburn students in the application for national prestigious scholarships such as the Rhodes, Marshall, Fulbright, Truman, Mitchell, Goldwater, and Gates-Cambridge to name a few.

Research Interests

comparative immigration policy

Publications

• Harris, Paul A. & William E. Baker (2017) “Reflections on Refugee and Asylum Policy in the U.S. and Germany: Bringing Peace to a Fractious World.” In Richard Penaskovic & Mustafa Sahin, eds. Peacebuilding in a Fractious World: On Hoping against All Hope:. Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers
• Harris, Paul A. & William E. Baker (2017) "Immigration Policies, a Survey.”  In, Farazmand, Ali, ed.  Global Encyclopedia of Public Administration, Public Policy and Governance.  Basel: Springer International Publishing AG
• Harris, Paul A. (2016)  “Alabama’s Monuments Man:  Robert K. Posey and the Quest for the Ghent Altarpiece.”  Alabama Heritage. 121:8-21. Summer 2016
• Harris, Paul A. (2014a) Robert Kelley Posey.  The Encyclopedia of Alabama 
• Harris, Paul A. (2014b)  Henry C. Newton.  The Monuments Men Foundation.  
• Lyubansky, Mikhail, Paul Harris, William Baker & Cameron Lippard (2013) “One Day on the Red Hills of Georgia: How Immigration Status Shapes Latino Migrants’ Experience of Discrimination, Utilization of Public Services, and Attitudes towards Acculturation.” Norteamérica: Academic Journal of CISAN-UNAM (Center for Research on North America – National Autonomous University of Mexico), Year 8, Special Issue, 85-117.
• Harris, Paul A. (2013) “East European Jews in Germany Since 1990.” In, Bade, Klaus, Pieter C. Emmer, Leo Lucassen and Jochen Oltmer, eds. The Encyclopedia of Migration and Minorities in Europe:  From the 17th Century to the Present.  Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
• Lyubansky, Mikhail and Paul A. Harris (2012) “A Reform Synagogue, an Orthodox Rabbi and a Christmas Tree:  The Complex Identity of Russian Speaking Jews in the United States.”  In Diekmann, Irene, et.al.,  eds. "… und handle mit Vernunft". Beiträge zur europäisch-jüdischen Beziehungsgeschichte.  Hildesheim: Georg Olms Publishing
• Baker, William E. and Paul A. Harris (2011) “Success Stories: Proactively Responding to the Immigration Boom.” In Lippard, Cameron D. and Charles A. Gallagher, eds. Being Brown in Dixie:  Race, Ethnicity, and Latino Immigration in the New South.  Boulder, CO.: Lynne Rienner Publishers.
• Harris, Paul A. and William E. Baker (2009)  “Leitkultur und Migration in der USA: Die Herausforderung der Latino einwandernen Kulturübertragung und der Assimilation im amerikanischen Süden” [The Guiding Cultural Value System in the U.S.A.: The Challenge of Latino Cultural Assimilation in the American South]. In, Willi Jasper, ed. Tagungsband – Wieviel Transnationalismus verträgt die Kultur? Berlin: Verlag Dr. Köster.
• Baker, William E. and Paul A. Harris (2009).  Navigating Immigration Policy at the Local Level.  The Public Manager: The Quarterly for Practitioners. 38:1:33-36. 
• Baker, William E. and Paul A. Harris (2008) “Dalton, Georgia’s Response to Immigration.”  PA Times. American Society for Public Administration. 31:1:6

Editorials

• Harris, Paul A. (2017)  “Remembering D-Day Invasion.” The Augusta Chronicle. Tuesday, June 6, 2017
• Harris, Paul A. & William E. Baker  (2014)  “Prayers for peace and the fall of the Berlin Wall.”  The Birmingham News. Sunday, November 9, 2014.
• Harris, Paul A. (2014) “Robert Kelley Posey: How Alabama's 'monuments man' recovered an artistic treasure stolen by Nazis” The Birmingham News. Wednesday, June 18, 2014.
• Harris, Paul A. (2012) “Jewish American Immigrant Experience Worth Celebrating.” The Birmingham News. Sunday, May 20, 2012.
• Harris, Paul A. (2011) “A study of post-9/11 U.S. – Europe Relations.”  Opelika-Auburn News. Friday, September 9, 2011.