Paul Manuel

Manuel has over twenty-five years of experience with college-level teaching, experiential education, student advising, program management, and development. He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses, including comparative political systems, comparative public policy, international organization, public management, Capitol Hill internships, and leadership. He has also supervised many graduate-level capstone projects at the McCourt School.

He previously worked at the School of Public Affairs at American University in Washington, DC, where he served as the faculty director of the leadership experiential program for eight years. Previously, Dr. Manuel founded and directed the Mount Leadership Institute (now called ILEAD) at Mount St. Mary’s University in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and, before that, he was a co-founder and executive director of the New Hampshire Institute of Politics at Saint Anselm College in Manchester. He was a tenured full professor of politics at Mount St. Mary’s University and Saint Anselm College. He served as the politics department chair at Saint Anselm College for 15 years. Manuel has also taught at the University of Maryland-College Park, Boston University, and at the University of New Hampshire (Durham and Manchester).

Manuel's scholarship has contributed to the democratization literature in Portugal, with a focus on religion in a post-transition setting. His published work includes twelve authored, co-authored, or edited works and numerous scholarly articles. The Portuguese Commission for the Commemorations of the 50th anniversary of the 25th of April Revolution [Estrutura de Missão para as Comemorações do Quinquagésimo Aniversário da Revolução de 25 de Abril de 1974] has recently honored his work, Vozes da Revolução: Revisitando o 25 de Abril de 1974, Entrevistas e Estudos [English: Voices of the Revolution: Revisiting the Portuguese Revolution of 25 April 1974] (Lisbon, Tinta da China, 2024), for making a significant historical contribution to the scholarship. That book was launched at the May 2024 international conference around the 50th-anniversary celebration of the April 25 revolution at the University of Lisbon. It will be featured at two events in November 2024, at the Portuguese Embassy in Washington, DC, and at Georgetown University.

Manuel has been a research fellow at the Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs at Georgetown since 2010 and a local affiliate at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University since 1995. Manuel currently participates in the Varieties of Democracy Project, with a focus on Portuguese-speaking Africa. He has served on the National Screening Panel for the Graduate Fulbright Competition in Spain and Portugal (Iberia) and has received Fulbright and National Endowment for the Humanities grants. He served terms on the Executive Council of the New England Political Science Association from 2006-2008 and again from 2019 to 2023. Manuel divides his time between Washington DC and Massachusetts.

He holds a Ph.D. in government from Georgetown University, an M.T.S. from the Weston Jesuit School of Theology (now known as the Gloria L. and Charles I. Clough School of Theology and Ministry at Boston College), an M.A. in international relations from Boston University, and a B.A. in political science, Summa Cum Laude, from Boston University.