Guest Lecturer: UMSL Professor Dr. Terry Jones
Seats go quickly in Dr. Terry Jones’ politics and public policy lectures at The Gatesworth.

Seats go quickly in Dr. Terry Jones’ politics and public policy lectures at The Gatesworth.

Dr. Terry Jones, Ph.D., is a professor of political science and public policy administration at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, and the author of several books, including Fragmented by Design: Why St. Louis Has So Many Governments.

For more than ten years, Dr. Jones has led monthly discussions for The Gatesworth’s “Questers” speaker series. “Each session focuses on topics of local or national significance, be it recent Supreme Court decisions, issues up for discussion by the Missouri General Assembly, redistricting, or the use of public subsidies,” Dr. Jones explains.

In his decade as a Gatesworth guest lecturer, Dr. Jones has found an audience that’s eager to learn. “The resident participants are well-read, well-informed, insightful, and curious, bringing a richness of life and career experience that often makes them more of an expert than the teacher,” he says.

Dr. Jones has found a wealth of knowledge among his students. “During a lecture on the electoral system, I realized a guy sitting in the back of the classroom was a renowned specialist on electoral systems in Europe,” he says. “I recognized him and said, ‘John, is that you?’”

In a separate discussion about local race relations, Dr. Jones discovered that, during the civil rights movement in the 1960s, one of his students had been a member of the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). “I learn a great deal from these individuals who have had, and continue to have, a significant impact on our community,” he says.

Text based on an interview from Town&Style