Robert P. Watson

professor, writer, political commentator

Dr. Watson is Professor and Coordinator of American Studies at Lynn University. Prior to joining Lynn’s faculty in 2007 he taught for 15 years at four other universities and with the Junior Statesman Foundation at Yale, Stanford, and Georgetown. Watson is the author or editor of 30 books and two encyclopedia sets, and has published over 150 scholarly articles, book chapters, and essays on topics in American politics and history. A frequent media commentator, Watson has been interviewed by CNN, MSNBC, Fox News, USA Today, The New York Times, Time, U.S. News & World Report, and most other major outlets in the United States. His commentary has appeared on C-SPAN, Book TV, The Voice of America, and Hardball with Chris Matthews, to name a few, as well on the BBC and public television/radio in ten countries, and one of his lectures was the debut program for the launch of C-SPAN’s new American History TV channel. Watson also writes a Sunday column for the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, tapes a Sunday talk show for south Florida’s PBS affiliate and a Sunday morning news show for south Florida’s NBC affiliate, and serves as the political analyst for WPTV 5 and WFTL 850 AM. The co-convener of seven national conferences on the presidency, Watson has served on the boards of several scholarly journals, academic associations, and community foundations as well as with the Calvin Coolidge Foundation, Harry S. Truman Foundation, and George McGovern Center for Public Service. He regularly organizes town halls, civic education programs, and voter registration drives in the community and has delivered roughly 2,000 lectures for universities, libraries, historic sites, and community groups around the country. Watson also founded the non-profit think tank Think Act Lead, co-founded the Florida Election Reform Initiative, and was the founding editor of the scholarly journal White House Studies. For his work Watson has received a number of awards, including the International Abraham Lincoln Award for his contributions to the study of the presidency, the Children's Hero Award for the programs he offers area schools, the South Florida Business Journal’s “Heavy Hitter in Education,” the League of Women Voters’ Good Government Award, both the Professor of the Year and Faculty Service Awards multiple times while at Florida Atlantic University, and Lynn’s Teacher of the Year Award.