Jason Casellas is an associate professor of political science at the University of Houston. He specializes in American politics, with specific research and teaching interests in Latino politics, legislative politics, and state and local politics. His first book, Latino Representation in State Houses and Congress, sets the benchmark for the study of the nation's fastest growing minority group. He is currently working on a project examining the extent to which different racial and ethnic groups value descriptive representation, and the implications for democratic governance.

He is the recipient of numerous fellowships, including a Princeton President's Fellowship, an American Political Science Association Fellowship, a Ford Motor Company Fellowship, the Samuel DuBois Cook Postdoctoral Fellowship at Duke University, and a United States Studies Centre Postdoctoral Fellowship at the University of Sydney (Australia). He is also a member of the Texas Advisory Committee of the United States Commission on Civil Rights.

His dissertation won third place in a nationwide, inter-disciplinary competition for the best dissertation given by The American Association of Hispanics in Higher Education (AAHHE) and Educational Testing Service (ETS).

His work has appeared in the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, Aztlán: Journal of Chicano Studies, the Journal of California Politics and Policy, and other peer-reviewed journals.

Edward J. Harpham graduated Phi Beta Kappa and Phi Kappa Phi with a degree in Political Science from the Pennsylvania State University. He was awarded an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government from Cornell University. Dr. Harpham currently is the Dean of the Hobson Wildenthal Honors College, Associate Provost, and Professor of Political Science at The University of Texas at Dallas. Dr. Harpham teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in political theory, American government and Texas politics. He also offers a recurring honors reading tutorial on medicine, politics, and philosophy for pre-med students. He was awarded the 1996-97 Chancellor's Council Outstanding Teaching Award at UTD. Dr. Harpham served as Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education from 1998-2009. He is past president of the Southwestern Political Science Association (2001-02). Dr. Harpham sits on the Board of Directors for The Bill Archer Center and is the Treasurer of the UTD Chapter of Phi Kappa Phi.

Dr. Harpham has been selected numerous times to appear in Who's Who Among America's Teachers, Marquis Who's Who in American Education, and Marquis Who's Who in America. In 1994, he was honored by the University of Texas at Dallas to be an Andrew R. Cecil Lecturer and the Polycarp Kusch Lecturer in 2006. In 2009, he delivered the Will Man Richardson Lectures in Economic and Political Science at Austin College.

Dr. Harpham is the author or editor of 10 books, one which has gone through 7 editions, a second has gone through 3 editions, and two other books which have gone through 2 editions. He also has published over 25 professional articles or chapters in books. The unifying theme to Dr. Harpham's work has been the exploration of the relationship between economics and politics. Much of Dr. Harpham's earlier work investigated the roles that modern economic ideas have played in shaping our understanding of politics and public policy in the west. Another area of interest has been the relationship between technological transformations and political change in American political history. More recently, he has been investigating the theories of the passions found in modern liberal thought. He is particularly interested in understanding how the theories of the passions developed in the 17th, 18th, and 19th centuries influenced modern notions of the individual, sociability, and individual decision-making in the work of such individuals as Rene Descartes, John Locke, David Hume, Francis Hutcheson, and Adam Smith. Dr. Harpham has a special interest in Texas politics and government and is the author of three leading texts in the field with W.W. Norton Publishers.