Rodger A. Payne is a Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisville and an Associated Faculty member with the Film Studies and Production minor. Payne is on sabbatical fall 2025 and spring 2026. In spring term 2026 he is a visiting scholar at the Copernicus Institute of Sustainable Development at Utrecht University (The Netherlands) examining the future of international cooperation on climate change in the face of United States withdrawal from various institutions and agreements.

With Nayef Samhat, Payne is the coauthor of Democratizing Global Politics; Discourse Norms, International Regimes, and Political Community (State University of New York Press, 2004) and the author of more than 50 academic journal articles and book chapters. His most recent publications include an examination of U.S.-Canadian climate change policy coordination in an era of America First, the persuasive appeal of the film Don't Look Up, an empirical investigation of the partisan support for the climate change provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act, and the threat American First poses to various bilateral and multilateral relationships and norms, including the human rights and climate change regimes, as well as the western security community. 

From 1994-2011, Payne directed the Grawemeyer Award for Ideas Improving World Order. Payne also served as his Department’s Chair for eight years. He previously taught for two years at Northwestern University and was a visiting research fellow at Harvard’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs, Stanford’s Center for International Security and Cooperation, the University of Chicago’s Program on International Politics, Economics, and Security, and University of Dundee's Institute for Social Science Research. During fall 2018, he served as Fulbright Canada Research Chair in Canadian-U.S. relations at Carleton University’s Norman Paterson School of International Affairs. 

In addition to Fulbright Canada and University of Dundee's Institute for Social Science Research, Payne has received research funding from the International Peace and Security Studies Program of the Social Science Research Council (funded by the MacArthur Foundation) and numerous internal programs at the University of Louisville, including the Center for Asian Democracy and College of Arts and Sciences. He was a member of the two-person 1983 National Debate Tournament championship team from the University of Kansas. Payne completed an M.A. and Ph.D. in Government and Politics from the University of Maryland and has an M.A. degree in Communication from Baylor University.