啾咪漫画

Dr. Hope Dewell Gentry

Assistant Professor, Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, CLASS

Dr. Dewell Gentry teaches political science at MSU Billings, but the hands-on experience she gives her students takes students from the philosophical to the realistic.

As the instructor of the methodology courses in the political science program in the Department of Social Sciences and Cultural Studies, one of the classes Dr. Dewell Gentry teaches is PSCI 345, 鈥淢edia, Public Opinion, & Polling.鈥� During that course, she leads students through the design of a political survey that becomes the annual 鈥淢ountain States Poll.鈥� During the experience, students help craft the questions, participate in calling respondents and recording answers, and assist in data analysis. The work in the class takes time and dedication to detail, but the students benefit from the experience, a nominator wrote.

鈥淎s part of the project, students choose an item or items to analyze and report on independently,鈥� the nominator wrote. 鈥淎t the conclusion of the poll, Dr. Dewell Gentry leads a press conference to announce the results, and students join her to give their own analysis of the items they worked on. The Mountain States Poll is nationally recognized and is regularly cited by such reputable statisticians/polling organizations as Nate Silver鈥檚 FiveThirtyEight. The work done by Dr. Dewell Gentry and her students is timely, relevant, and crucial to understanding politics and political polling in the U.S.鈥�

The finished project is something that pundits in Montana, the region, and the nation reference when talking about Montana politics.