Timothy J. Shaffer is the inaugural Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF) Chair of Civil Discourse and director of the SNF Ithaca Initiative in the Joseph R. Biden, Jr. School of Public Policy and Administration at the University of Delaware. Shaffer is also director of Civic Engagement and Deliberative Democracy with the National Institute for Civil Discourse.
Shaffer serves as the associate editor of the Journal of Deliberative Democracy, as a country expert on deliberative democracy with the Varieties of Democracy (V-Dem Institute) research project, and as a co-director of the Deliberative Pedagogy Lab. He has received national and international awards such as the Early Career Recognition Award from the International Association for Research on Service Learning and Community Engagement and the National Team Excellence in Extension Award from the Extension Committee on Organization and Policy for the development of Coming Together For Racial Understanding.
Shaffer publishes in diverse academic journals and outlets such as National Civic Review, The Good Society, the Journal of Deliberative Democracy, and The Conversation. He has also co-edited and authored seven book projects including Deliberative Pedagogy: Teaching and Learning for Democratic Engagement (Michigan State University Press, 2017), Creating Space for Democracy: A Primer on Dialogue and Deliberation in Higher Education (Routledge, 2019), and Teaching Democratic Ideals to Public Affairs Students: Findings and Reflections from Diverse Course Designs (Routledge, 2023).
