Jon Dalager

Job Title

• Associate Professor of Political Science
  History, Philosophy, and Political Science College of Arts and Sciences

Highlight

Associate Professor of Political Science

Started at Bethel

2023

Education

• University of Minnesota - B.A. in Political Science and Speech Communication, 1979
• University of Minnesota - J.D. in Law, 1982
• University of Illinois - Ph.D. in Political Science, 1995

Biography

Dr. Jon Dalager came to Bethel University from Alexandria Technical and Community College where he served as the Project Director for the Global Military Learning Network, a federally funded initiative designed to increase educational opportunities for active-duty and military veterans at a consortium of colleges and universities in Minnesota’s Seventh Congressional District.

Dr. Dalager previously served as the Interim Dean of the School of Urban Education at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul and was the System Director for Academic Programs and Quality Assurance at the system office for the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities. Prior to that, he was the Dean of the School of Social and Natural Sciences at Wayne State College in Nebraska and the Chair of the Department of Political Science and full professor with tenure at Georgetown College in Kentucky.

A Minnesota native, originally from Morris Jon earned a diploma from Brown Institute in Radio and Television Broadcasting and then attended the University of Minnesota at Morris where he received his bachelor’s degree in Political Science and Speech Communication. He then attended the University of Minnesota Law School, receiving his J.D. and was admitted to the state bar for Minnesota and North Dakota. After practicing law for several years, he attended graduate school at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign where he was awarded an M.A. and Ph.D. in Political Science. He is currently in the master’s program for Higher Education and Student Affairs at St. Cloud State University.

Dalager received a Fulbright Award in 2013 to conduct research and teach at Goethe University in Frankfurt, Germany. In 2021, he was selected to serve as a delegate to France as part of the Fulbright International Education Administrators Program. This grant allowed him to travel to France to engage in discussions on international education and collaboration with partner universities. Dalager is an avid downhill skier, a supporter of Minnesota United soccer, and regularly volunteers with the Minneapolis/St. Paul International Film Festival and the Woodbury Community Theater. He has served on the Board of the Minnesota Sinfonia and is a past president and board member of the University of Minnesota Morris Alumni Association and the Minnesota Fulbright Association.