A Rising Star

Curtis Signorino, a 1993 graduate of the Extension School's Master of Liberal Arts Program (ALM), recently made headlines throughout academia--he has accepted a tenure-track teaching job before he finishes his PhD. The front-page story in the September 5 issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education depicted Signorino as "a rising star."

Signorino's rise to stardom began when he was an ALM student in the history of conflict and war. While studying qualitative measures, he questioned a statistical technique discussed in one of his classes and in a textbook written by Gary King, Professor of Government at Harvard University. He introduced himself to Professor King, who then confirmed his interpretation, implemented the correction, and hired him as a research assistant.

The rest of the history unfolds in somewhat more expected fashion. Signorino completed his master's degree at the Extension School, including a thesis on international conflict, and continued his studies in a doctoral program at Harvard's Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. With one year left to complete his PhD, he was tendered faculty positions and accepted an appointment as an assistant professor in the political science department at the University of Rochester, where he will begin teaching in 1998.

Signorino began Extension studies simply to improve his work as an officer in the Air Force and for the intellectual challenge. At that time, five years after finishing his undergraduate degree in computer engineering, he had no thought whatsoever of a change in career.

In retrospect, Signorino views the ALM as an "extraordinary experience." He feels he learned more about critical thought in his studies at the Extension School than in his earlier work in math and science. Through an oversight in a textbook and through his expertise on the statistics of international relations first developed at the Extension School, he found himself a new career.