Ranjit Singh

Assistant Professor of Political Science and International Affairs

Ranjit Singh ’90 experiences déjà vu quite often at Mary Washington. When he became a member of the UMW faculty in 2004, he’d already spent countless hours on campus, both as an undergraduate and growing up as the son of professor Raman K. Singh, who taught English here until 1994.

“My first memories go back to 1967,” Singh said. “I was 3 or 4 years old when my father first started working at Mary Washington. I remember visiting his office in Chandler Hall and playing on Dad’s typewriter.”

An assistant professor of political science and international affairs, Singh is the 2007 recipient of UMW’s Giving Tree Award for outstanding faculty or staff. He received a master’s degree in Arab studies from Georgetown University and a doctorate from the University of Virginia. While living for seven years in the Middle East, Singh helped design and implement democracy programs in support of the 1996 Palestinian elections. He also managed offices in the Occupied Territories, consulted regularly with senior Palestinian and Israeli officials, served as a consultant for a member of the ruling family in Bahrain, and worked as an Arabic-English translator in Washington, D.C.

These days, Singh is busy making more Mary Washington memories – he brings his own son, one-year-old Leo, to visit his office in Monroe Hall.

Q. What do you love most about UMW?
A. It’s one of the most beautiful campuses you could hope to work on. I often think when driving here that it’s like working in a park. One of the things I really love is how congenial the people are. It’s a very friendly place, and we have some of the most polite students I’ve ever met.

Q. What would you change about UMW?
A. I’d like to see the campus internationalized more, with more foreign students and different types of students, and I’d like to see our students spend more time studying abroad. They learn so much more living in another country than they do in a classroom. I’d also like to see them study in nontraditional countries, like the Middle East, Africa, and Asia, more often than they do.

Q. What has most influenced your life?
A. My travels and the experiences I’ve had in other countries. It informs my teaching and affects my sense of priorities. I’ve been in countries where life is very difficult and there’s a lot of poverty and political unrest. I think in some ways that brings an emotional aspect to my academic work here.

Q. What motivates you?
A. Sometimes I’ll be reading or watching television or I’ll overhear a conversation, and I’m struck by a really good idea. I try to think about how that idea can relate to what I do. It can be a huge motivator that adds a sense of excitement to what I’m doing, either in teaching or research.

Q. Who inspires you?
A. People who work very hard in anonymity to do the right thing. I’m thinking of people I’ve met in the Gaza Strip, one of the poorest, most violent places on Earth. Sometimes I have to step back and wonder how a society can function when there’s that much poverty and fighting, and I’ve been fortunate to have met the people who make that happen every day. They’re not famous. They work against overwhelming odds just to make sure the kids are going to school and the streets are getting cleaned.

Q. What one thing would people be surprised to know about you?
A. How rustic and rural my upbringing was. I was raised on a working farm in Stafford, and my brother and I would slaughter chickens and shovel manure. I remember days when we’d slaughter as many as 200 chickens and put them in the freezer. We also had goats, and we baled hay every summer.