February 19, 2024
The College Board has appointed Susquehanna University’s Nick Clark, department head and professor of political science, to serve as the Advanced Placement lead college faculty consultant, known as the chief reader, for its AP course Comparative Government and Politics.
In this role, Clark contributes to the development of the AP Comparative Government examination and leads over 100 high school AP teachers and college faculty in grading the AP Comparative Government exam each summer. His term lasts through 2027.
“The College Board’s Advanced Placement program impacts high school students across the nation by giving them the opportunity to learn advanced curriculum that can lay the foundation for their college careers and potentially earn them college credits before they even set foot on a university campus,” Clark said. “I’m honored the College Board has given me the opportunity to participate at this level.”
AP Comparative Government and Politics is an introductory college-level course that uses a comparative approach to examine the political structures, policies, and economic and social challenges of six selected countries: China, Iran, Mexico, Nigeria, Russia and the United Kingdom. Students analyze data and text-based sources as they explore topics like power and authority, legitimacy and stability, democratization, internal and external forces, and methods of political analysis.
Clark joined the faculty at Susquehanna in 2013. Since that time, he has established an impressive record of scholarship focused primarily on the European Union. In 2018, he was awarded the university’s John C. Horn Distinguished Service Lectureship in recognition of his leadership, his skill as a teacher, his rich background of institutional service and his professional résumé as both a practitioner and a scholar.
Clark earned his bachelor’s degree from Hastings College, Hastings, Nebraska, master’s degrees from the University of Twente, Enschede, Netherlands, and the University of Münster, Münster, Germany, and his doctorate from Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana.