Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director
Heritage Hall 409
(205) 996-2159
Research and Teaching Interests: Organizational and individual ethics, workplace rules and red tape, rule behavior, public administration in pop culture, social equity, human resources management, governmental transparency
Office Hours: By Appointment
Education:
- BA, Rutgers University – Newark
- MPA, Rutgers University – Newark
- PhD, University of Kansas
Dr. Borry (she/her/hers) joined UAB's Department of Political Science and Public Administration in fall 2013, and since 2019, has served as the Department's Graduate Program Director
Dr. Borry’s research interests include public sector rule behavior, red tape, public administration in pop culture, and social equity. Her work has appeared in Public Administration Review, Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, Public Management Review, Public Administration, International Public Management Journal, Public Integrity, Journal of Public Affairs Education, and more. She has won several awards for her research, teaching, and service, including the 2018 Outstanding Early Career Scholar Award by the Center for Organization Research and Design (CORD) at Arizona State University and the 2019 UAB College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching.
Dr. Borry maintains active service to the field of public administration. She currently serves as Associate Editor of Public Performance & Management Review and on the editorial boards of the Journal of Social Equity in Public Administration (JSEPA), Review of Public Personnel Administration (ROPPA), and The Social Science Journal. She also serves on the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA) Diversity & Social Equity Committee and on the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA) Section on Public Administration Education (SPAE).
Dr. Borry is a scientist with UAB's Institute for Human Rights (IHR), an affiliate with the Center for Organization Research and Design (CORD) at Arizona State University, an academic fellow with the Local Government Workplaces Initiative (LGWI) out of University of North Carolina, and a member of Scholars Strategy Network’s Alabama Chapter.
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Recent Courses
- Scope of Public Administration
- Open Government
- Equity in Public Administration
- Public Administration in Pop Culture
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Select Publications
Books
- Borry, E. L. and Jones, P. A. (2025). Teaching Public Administration with Pop Culture. Routledge.
Articles
- Chordiya, R., Dolamore, S., Love, J. M., Borry, E. L., Protonentis, A., Stern, B., and Whitebread, G. (2023). Staking the Tent at the Margins: Using Disability Justice to Expand the Theory and Praxis of Social Equity in Public Administration. Administrative Theory & Praxis.
- Henderson, A. C., and Borry, E. L. (2023). The Emotional Burdens of Public Service: Rules, Trust, and Emotional Labour in Emergency Medical Services. Public Money & Management, 43(5): 405-414. Symposium issue on emotional labor.
- Borry, E. L., and Reuter, T. K. (2022). Humanizing Bureaucracy: Applying the Human Rights-Based Approach to Weber’s Bureaucracy. Perspectives on Public Management and Governance, 5(2): 164-173. Symposium issue: Reappraising Bureaucracy in the 21st Century.
- Kaufmann, W., Borry, E. L., DeHart-Davis, L. (2022). Can effective organizational rules keep employees from leaving? A study of green tape and turnover intention. Public Management Review, 25(8): 1427-1448.
Book Chapters
- Borry, E. L. (2025). Incorporating Practice into the Public Administration Classroom. In J. G. Schafer and B. D. McDonald (Eds.), Engaged Learning in the Public Service Classroom. Routledge.
- Borry, E. L. (2022). Using Pop Culture to Teach Public Ethics: The Case of Parks and Recreation. In K. Bottom, J. Diamond, P. Dunning, and I. Elliott (Eds.), Handbook of Teaching Public Administration. Elgar Publishing.
- Gaskin, R. E., and Borry, E. L. (2021). When Bullies Get Jobs: Workplace Bullying in Local Governments. In D. Svyantek (Ed.), Organizations Behaving Badly: Destructive Behavior and Corrective Responses (pp. 127-147). Information Age Publishing.
Book Review
- Borry, E. L. (2023). Ungrading: Why rating students undermines learning (and what to do instead). [Review of the book Ungrading: Why rating students undermines learning (and what to do instead) edited by S. Blum.] Journal of Public Affairs Education, 29(2): 245-246.
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Academic Distinctions
- 2022 Faculty Academic Excellence Award, Alabama Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA)
- 2020 Outstanding Reviewer, Journal of Public Affairs Education, Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration (NASPAA)
- 2019 Dean’s Award for Excellence in Teaching, College of Arts and Sciences, University of Alabama at Birmingham
- 2018 Outstanding Early Career Scholar, awarded by the Center for Organization Research & Design at Arizona State University
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Professional Memberships
- Scholars Strategy Network – Alabama Chapter
- Pi Alpha Alpha and Pi Sigma Alpha Honor Societies
- Public Management Research Association
- American Society for Public Administration
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Media
- “Organizational Rules, Green Tape, and Employee Turnover with Erin Borry & Leisha DeHart-Davis.” Interview on GovLove Podcast by Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL.org). February 4, 2022.
- “Teaching Ethics through Parks & Rec with Dr. Erin Borry.” Interview on GovLove Podcast by Engaging Local Government Leaders (ELGL.org). July 5, 2019.
- “When the machines come for government jobs, will efficiency crush equity?” Article by Matt Windsor on UAB News. May 8, 2019.
- “9 times ‘Parks and Recreation’ taught us how to get real about ethics.” Article by Matt Windsor in UAB Reporter. April 25, 2019.