Mark Stephen Jendrysik

Mark Stephen Jendrysik is a Professor in the Department of Political Science and Public Administration. He has been a faculty member at the University of North Dakota since 1999. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. His B.A. is from Providence College.

He is the author of Explaining the English Revolution: Hobbes and His Contemporaries (Lexington, 2002) and Modern Jeremiahs: Contemporary Visions of American Decline (Rowman and Littlefield, 2008). His recent publications include, “Fundamental Oppositions: Utopia and the Individual,” in The Individual and Utopia: A Multidisciplinary Study of Humanity and Perfection, Clint Jones and Cameron Ellis, eds., Ashgate, 2015 (27-44), “Long Habits and Legitimacy,” in Picking the President: Understanding the Electoral College, Eric Burin, editor, The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, 2017 (49-51), and “Endgames,” in Protesting on Bended Knee, Eric Burin, editor, The Digital Press at the University of North Dakota, 2018 (221-223).

His latest book, Utopia was published in May 2020 as part of the Key Concepts in Political Theory series by Polity (UK).

He is proud to share Chicopee, Massachusetts as his hometown with famed utopian author Edward Bellamy. (Be sure to read Looking Backward someday.) He spent many hours in his youth working at the Bellamy homestead, working with his father, the President of the Edward Bellamy Memorial Association, doing everything from installing insulation, digging out stumps, and helping catalog the Association's collection of Bellamy materials. This was the beginning of his lifelong interest in utopian thought and action.

Prior to his appointment at UND he held visiting positions at Bucknell University (1996-98) and the University of Mississippi (1998-99). He also held a post-doctoral appointment at the Center for Survey Research of the University of Virginia (1995-96). He likes to say that he was “seeing America one college at a time.”

He is pleased to note that his father Stephen Jendrysik has published four books on the history of Chicopee, Massachusetts. He is also pleased to note that his cousin, Father Walter Ciszek, SJ is being considered for sainthood. He recommends Father Walter's books With God in Russia and He Leadth Me to those seeking spiritual insight.

He is an unashamed "foamer" (railfan) and an avid, if somewhat space constrained, O Gauge model railroader. He credits Mad Magazine, Star Trek (TOS) and Mr. Rogers with providing that basis for his life's philosophy.

A lifelong Red Sox and Patriots fan, he has no time for bandwagoning Johnny-Come-Latelies. A soccer player (goalie) in his youth, he firmly believes that "the beautiful game" is America’s sport of the future.