Professor of Government Joseph Kling not only studies issues of race and ethnicity, he has defined them – literally. Kling is the author of an entry in the Encyclopedia of Race and Ethnic Studies, published in 2004. A graduate of Rutgers University, Kling also holds a Master of Social Work degree from Rutgers and earned the Ph.D. in political science from the City University of New York. He has co-edited two volumes that look at issues of class, community, and political action, Dilemmas of Activism: Class, Community, and the Politics of Local Mobilization, and Community Mobilization in the Era of Global Cities.  

At St. Lawrence, Kling chaired a four-year project during which the entire University community examined its views on diversity, pluralism and unity. He received the Louis and Frances Maslow Award in 1986, which is "given annually to a faculty member who has shown the most interest in and understanding of the education and welfare of the student body as a whole."

Kling teaches courses in American Government, Public Policy, Political Theory and American Social Movements.