Associate Provost to Promote Best Practices, Excellence in Teaching

Dr. Paul Diehl, an expert in international conflict and an advocate for teaching excellence, has joined UT Dallas as associate provost and director of teaching-learning initiatives. 

In this newly created position, Diehl’s priority will be to establish a center for teaching and learning with associated programs and events to enhance undergraduate and graduate instruction, said Dr. Inga Musselman, acting provost of UT Dallas.

“The expert teaching of students in the broadest sense is our top educational priority at UT Dallas, and we are fortunate to have many talented instructors on our faculty,” Musselman said.

“A recent swell of enthusiasm for a center of teaching excellence has prompted the provost’s office to expand its leadership in teaching. In this arena, Professor Diehl brings a wide range of expertise and prior experience, and we are privileged that he is now among our ranks.”

Diehl comes to UT Dallas from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was Henning Larsen Professor of Political Science and the founding director of the Office of Undergraduate Research. He also served for a decade as the founding director of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences Teaching Academy, which is dedicated to faculty development and instructional excellence. Diehl also is the recipient of 10 awards for excellence in teaching.

“UT Dallas faculty have won numerous teaching awards, and instruction is taken very seriously on this campus,” Diehl said. “Establishing a center dedicated to teaching is one way to channel that support and interest into programs that will make teaching even better here, from instructors and graduate students to tenured faculty.”

Diehl said that input from faculty members will be key to determining priorities and a timeline for establishing programs under the new initiative. Two important components will be promoting the scholarly study of teaching and developing practical applications and techniques.

“There is a lot of evidence for what best practices are and what works, and there is a hunger here for people to explore those kinds of pedagogical ideas,” Diehl said. “In addition, there are many ideas that could be implemented in the classroom, from better ways to lead discussion to developing advanced teaching approaches, such as incorporating online components and new technologies.”

In addition to his duties in the Office of the Provost, Diehl has been appointed as Ashbel Smith Professor of Political Science in the School of Economic, Political, and Policy Sciences. An expert in international conflict, peacekeeping and international law, Diehl is the author or editor of 25 books, including the forthcoming The Puzzle of Peace: The Evolution of Peace in the International system, and more than 100 articles and chapters. He is president of the International Studies Association, the largest professional organization of its kind in the world with membership from 109 countries.

Diehl received his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan, and his undergraduate degree, summa cum laude, from Canisius College in Buffalo, New York.