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Michael S. Harris is a professor of higher education in the ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½ Simmons School of Education and Human Development. His primary research interests consider the culture, strategy, and behavior of higher education institutions. Harris has taught graduate courses in organization and governance, academic leadership, organizational theory, and the history of American higher education. Currently, he is working on a book on higher education leadership under contract with Harvard Education Press.

Harris was a 2024-2025 fellow of the American Council on Education where he studied leadership and strategy at the University of Utah. At ÕýÆ·À¶µ¼º½, he has held leadership roles as Chair of the Department of Education Policy and Leadership and Director of the Center for Teaching Excellence. He is a past president of the Faculty Senate and served as Faculty Trustee during the 2023-2024 academic year.

His work has been published in leading higher education journals such as The Journal of Higher Education, Research in Higher Education, Higher Education, Innovative Higher Education, and Higher Education Policy. He has published four books, Teaching for Learning: 101 Intentionally-Designed Educational Activities to Put Students on the Path to Success 2^nd Edition (Routledge, 2021) with co-authors Claire H. Major and Todd Zakrajsek, The Qualitative Dissertation in Education: A Guide for Integrating Research and Practice (Routledge, 2019) with coauthor Karri Holley, How to Get Tenure: Strategies for Successfully Navigating the Process (Routledge, 2019), and Understanding Institutional Diversity in American Higher Education (Jossey-Bass, 2013).

Harris is a frequent observer of higher education, and his expertise has been quoted by The Associated Press, The Atlantic, The Boston Globe, The Houston Chronicle, The Dallas Morning News, Texas Tribune, Texas Capital Tonight, Propublica, Marketwatch, The Chronicle of Higher Education, and InsideHigherEd, among others. 

He holds a B.A. from the University of North Carolina in American History, a M.Ed. and Ed.D. from the University of Pennsylvania in higher education administration. In 2004, he received the AERA Division J Dissertation of the Year award.

Research

BOOKS AND MONOGRAPHS

Major, C.H., Harris, M.S., & Zakrajsek, T. (2021). Teaching for learning: 101 intentionally-designed educational activities to put students on the path to success (2^nd edition). New York: Routledge

Holley, K.A., & Harris, M.S. (2019). . New York: Routledge.

Harris, M.S. (2019). . New York: Routledge. 

Harris, M.S. (2013). Understanding institutional diversity in American higher education. ASHE Higher Education Report, 39(3). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. PDF

SELECTED JOURNAL ARTICLES

Harris, M.S. (2021). The soft underbelly of universities as anchor institutions:  The disconnect between university and community research priorities. Higher Education Policy, 34(3), 603-621.

Harris, M.S. (2020). An empirical typology of the institutional diversity of U.S. colleges and universities. Innovative Higher Education, 45(3), 183-199.

Harris, M.S. & Ellis, M.K. (2018). Exploring involuntary presidential turnover in American higher education. The Journal of Higher Education, 89(3), 294-317. PDF

Harris, M.S. & Holley, K.A. (2016). Universities as anchor institutions: Economic and social potential for urban development. In Paulsen, M.B. (Ed.) Higher education: Handbook of theory and research, Volume XXXI. Dordrecht, The Netherlands: Springer. PDF