Newly added Political Science professor, Daniel Carrigg set to give ‘down and dirty’ lessons about politics in class. PHOTO CREDIT: Daniel Carrigg
Daniel Carrigg may be a new lecturer in the political science department at the University of Rhode Island, but he is certainly not new to the school.
Carrigg started at URI in the fall of 2001 as an engineering student but soon discovered a passion for political science, which he earned a B.A. in. He enjoyed his time in the classroom so much that he decided that he wanted to teach— and in particular, he wanted to teach college students.
“I got a job teaching up in New Hampshire briefly, and that kinda taught me I would rather teach college,” Carrigg said. “But I ended up coming back down [to Rhode Island] for a girl, who happens to be my wife now.”
After moving back down to Rhode Island, Carrigg eventually got a government job. From there, he worked his way up to become the chief of program development in the Rhode Island Office of Energy Resources for the state of Rhode Island before being asked to become deputy director of policy at the Rhode Island Attorney General’s Office.
However, none of those government jobs were as interesting to him as learning more about political science.
“The whole time I kept itching to go back to school,” Carrigg said.
So, while working his government job, he returned to the University to pursue a graduate degree in political sciences. Carrigg earned his master’s degree in political science from URI and then began looking for a Ph.D. Program. Carrigg got into the political science program at Brown University, where he earned his Ph.D. in 2020.
Finally, Carrigg began teaching political science at a handful of Universities.
“For a year during COVID, I was teaching at Brown, Roger Williams, Salve Regina and the University of Rhode Island,” Carrigg said. “When this position opened up I was happy to finally be back full time.”
Carrigg’s previous positions in the Office of Energy Resources and Attorney General’s Office makes him believe that he is well prepared to teach political science. According to him, while working for the government he was able to get “down and dirty with real experience in policy and politics.”
One of his memorable experiences was working with DeepWater Wind to create the first offshore wind farm in the United States in Block Island.
“I think we are just really lucky to have him and his expertise,” Kristin Johnson, the interim department chair of Political Science at URI, said. “He is known for really facilitating insightful dialogue and exchange with students, and he was like that when he was a student as well.”
After practicing policy for so long, Carrigg wants to better prepare students for the professional world after school.
“For my policy courses, they are going to get a down and dirty lesson on how to write policy,” Carrigg said. “They will start to put on paper, even if it’s just a general idea, how they would change the law and how they could accomplish that.”
Carrigg also teaches a course on the constitution and Supreme Court in which he wants to emphasize how the law is never devoid of politics. With his history of working in law and policy, Carrigg said that he understands how the interconnectedness of the two can often be forgotten in a classroom.
“The law is never truly divorced from politics,” Carrigg said. “Some people may like to think it is, but there is always political pressure. Politics is always driving what the courts want to talk about. So I like to think about how politics drive policy and how policy drives politics.”
While Carrigg may be new to teaching at URI, he is not new to the school. He is enthusiastic about returning to campus and teaching political science.
“I’m just really excited to be back here,” Carrigg said. “I did my undergrad here, I did my master’s here, I actually met my wife when she worked in the emporium; so I’ve trodden the grounds of Kingston for a very long time. I am just very excited to be back.”