The Michael Brintnall Teaching and Learning Award supports faculty attendance at the APSA Teaching and Learning Conference and is named in honor of former APSA Executive Director Michael Brintnall, who was deeply committed to advancing the scholarship of teaching and learning in the discipline.
Citation from the Award Committee:
This year’s Michael Brintnall Teaching and Learning Award recipient is Dr. Yujin J. Jung in recognition of her dedication to teaching in her career thus far.
Members of the selection committee were impressed with Dr. Jung’s commitment to creating a student-centered environment and employing creative teaching practices. Through structured, inclusive, and inquiry-driven classrooms, Dr. Jung engages students with timely and challenging questions about democracy in an era of polarization and rapidly changing information environments, helping them develop the intellectual grounding and democratic dispositions needed to navigate a complex world. Her innovative use of active learning—including simulations, games, and structured debates—encourages respectful, evidence-based dialogue and makes complex political concepts accessible and meaningful to students.
In awarding the 2026 Brintnall Teaching and Learning award to Dr. Yujin J. Jung, the selection committee looks forward to her contributions to the TLC at APSA, and her continued contributions to advancing teaching and learning pedagogy and practices in our field.
Yujin Julia Jung is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Mount St. Mary’s University. Her research examines political behavior, populism, democracy, polarization, and computational social science, with a regional focus on the United States and East Asia. She received her Ph.D. in Political Science from the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs at the University of Missouri.
Her work has appeared in Political Science Research and Methods, Political Science Quarterly, Government and Opposition, Journal of East Asian Studies, Social Science Quarterly, Japanese Journal of Political Science, and other peer-reviewed outlets. Her current research develops comparative and computational approaches to the study of populist attitudes, ideological extremism, democratic norms, political rhetoric, and the use of large language models in social science research.
At Mount St. Mary’s University, Jung teaches courses in political analysis, comparative politics, Asian politics, artificial intelligence and politics, democracy, and populism. She previously received the Missouri Excellence in Political Science Teaching Award from the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs and the GPC Excellence in Teaching Award at the University of Missouri. Her teaching emphasizes methodological clarity, active learning, and the connection between empirical research and contemporary democratic challenges.
APSA thanks the committee members for their service: Liz Norell of the University of Mississippi and Dale Mineshima-Lowe of Parami University
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