Returning to Texas as dean of the Prothro-Yeager College of Humanities & Social Sciences felt like a homecoming for Phillip W. Barker, Ph.D. After relocating from New Hampshire and arriving on campus in August, Barker said he quickly felt at home at MSU Texas.

After all, Texas is home to Barker, who was born in Baytown, attended junior high and high school in Longview, and graduated from Texas A&M University. His career has taken him to Sherman, Texas,  (Austin College) and Shreveport, La., which he says is basically Texas. Most recently, Barker served as director of the Morris-August Honors Program at Keene State College in Keene, N.H.

“It’s good to be back in Texas,” Barker said. “It’s all positive so far. The campus is beautiful; working with administration is great; and there’s a vibrancy on campus that is really exciting.”

One of Barker's first priorities at MSU Texas is “listening.” And he plans to do a lot of it.

“I’m not coming in with a preplanned agenda, and that was one of the things I said in my interview,” Barker said. “The first thing I’m going to do is just listen to people. I want to hear from our department chairs. I want to hear what’s working, what’s not. I want to listen to students and faculty.”

Barker joined the Keene State political science faculty in 2015 and served as the department chair before being named director of the university’s honors program. At Keene State, he improved enrollment and retention of the programs under his supervision, developed and led comprehensive curricular redesigns, and stewarded a $150,000 annual budget and a $1.3 million endowment.

Before his tenure at Keene State, Barker spent seven years at Austin College in Sherman, Texas, where he taught political science and served as the director of the Model UN program.

Barker was named a Fulbright Scholar and visiting lecturer in international relations at the University of Malta in 2015 and was awarded the Roy F. Melugin Award