Adam C Irish
Adam Irish earned his B.A. from the University of Michigan and his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of Illinois, Urbana–Champaign. Between degrees, he served in Teach For America at a low-income school in Las Vegas, Nevada, teaching 5th grade for two years.
While completing his doctorate, Professor. Irish received several teaching accolades, including the 2011 Campus Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching Award. Before joining Chico State, he spent two years as a Mellon Postdoctoral Teaching Fellow at Wheaton College (MA) and one year at Georgetown University, where he taught advanced courses in international law.
Dr. Irish’s research examines the challenges countries face when trying to cooperate, with a focus on how democracy and party politics shape international law and international organizations. He also conducts research on the effectiveness of different teaching techniques, often co-authoring with graduate students.
Between 2015 and 2020, Professor Irish served as faculty adviser to Chico State’s chapter of Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society. Under his guidance, the chapter was recognized for four years in a row as one of the 16 “Best Chapters” nationwide. In 2019, the chapter also received Chico State’s Outstanding Student Organization Award and Event of the Year Award. In 2020 Professor Irish was honored with the Myles Tracy Outstanding Student Organization Advisor Award.
Professor Irish is happily married. In his free time, he is a dedicated tabletop gamer. He runs and plays in two long-standing Dungeons & Dragons campaigns. Professor Irish is also a founding member of the Chico Wargaming Society. He regularly competes in Warhammer 40K RTT and GT events.