In this episode of 1050 Bascom, we were grateful to welcome back Prof. Scott Straus to talk about his new role as Chair of our Political Science Department. Prof. Straus shared some of his goals for the department and talked about how he is thinking about his leadership role on campus amidst an ongoing pandemic, a revitalized civil rights movement, and deep political divisions across the state and nation. We also appreciated Prof. Straus’ insights into helping us address questions of political violence in a comparative context. We enjoyed our conversation with Prof. Straus and learned so much. We hope you will too.