Political Science and International Affairs Newsletter
Spring 2008
http://www.umw.edu/polisci/
New Faculty
The department is pleased to announce the addition of Surupa Gupta in fall 2008. Dr. Gupta received an M.A. in International Relations from Jadavpur University in Kolkata, India and obtained a Ph.D. in International Affairs at the University of Southern California (USC). At present, Dr. Gupta is a professor at the School of International Relations, USC where she teaches course on international political economy and Southeast Asia. She recently conducted research on India’s food subsidy program for the International Food Policy Research Institute. Her previous experiences abroad include field research in India. Her recent publications include “Foreign Direct Investment in India: Policy Reform and Politics” in Canadian Foreign Policy, and “New institutions, new interests: Explaining the domestic politics of India’s negotiating strategy at the World Trade Organization” in Bases of Coalition-building in International Negotiations.
At UMW, Dr. Gupta will teach introductory courses on political science and international affairs in addition to upper level courses on international political economy and South Asian politics.
Pi Sigma Alpha Induction
Induction to the Political Science and International Affairs scholastic honorary society will take place at 5 pm on Thursday, April 17, 2008 in the Red Room at the Campus Center. A reception will follow the ceremony. Juniors and seniors are eligible for induction if they have a grade point average of at least 3.0 overall, and a 3.2 in upper level courses (with at least 12 credit hours in upper level political science courses).
Additional Related Field Courses in International Relations, Fall 2008
ANTH 371 Nationalism/State-Making
BUAD 415 International Marketing
GEOG 332 Migration Politics in a Globalizing World
HIST 200 Socialism Theory and Practice
HIST 383 Islamic Civilization
HIST 386 Modern Iraq
HIST 471 Stalin and Stalinism
HIST 471 European Immigration
PHIL 331 Islamic Law
PSCI 471 International Political Economy
PSCI 471 The New Central Asia
PSCI 471 Politics of War
SOCG 335 Global Perspectives on Health and Illness
Undergraduate Research Funds
Thinking of completing an independent study project next year? The University has undergraduate research funds available for this purpose. These funds can be utilized for any research related activities associated with the independent study project, including travel, materials acquisition, and photo-copying.
Departmental majors have effectively utilized these funds in recent years in exciting and academically challenging ways.
Justin Simeone used an undergraduate research grant to conduct interviews with experts and policymakers in Israel for his senior honors thesis comparing judicial responses to the legal challenges posed by terrorism.
Megan Vaughan-Albert received an undergraduate research grant to aide in research for her senior honors thesis on the U.S. Government’s response to perceived excesses of private military firms.
Student Exchange Programs
European Capitals Tour
Professor Kramer and Professor Porter Blakemore, Associate Professor of History, will again conduct in summer 2008 their hugely popular course, IDIS 350: European Capitals. This year's course will take the 25 students enrolled therein to London, Paris, Vienna, Prague, and Berlin. Among the many highlights of this year's trip, the group will meet for a briefing with a member of the British Parliament followed by a private tour of the Palace of Westminster which houses Parliament, visit the just opened and restored Petite Trianon at Versailles built specially for Marie Antoinette, attend a concert of classical music provided by the Imperial Orchestra in Vienna, spend a day at the headquarters of Radio Free Europe in Prague touring the broadcast facilities and meeting with analysts for briefings on political issues in the Soviet Successor States as well as Afghanistan, Iraq and Iran, and meet with officials at the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin for briefings on German foreign policy, relations with the United States, and the future of NATO.
Please see Professor Kramer if you are interested in taking next year's course: interested students are advised to contact Professor Kramer very early in the fall semester because space on the trip is limited to 25 students with demand for these spots routinely far exceeding their supply.
Lingnan University
UMW has an academic exchange with Lingnan University in Hong Kong. Information about Lingnan University can be found at its home page: www.LN.edu.hk. Information about the exchange program can be found at www.LN.edu.hk./oip/siep/exchange_index.html. For more information, see Christopher Musick, Director of International Academic Services in the Academic Affairs Office in GW 203, or email him at cmusick@umw.edu. or Sandy Kwok (skwok@ln.edu.hk) at Lingnan University’s Student International Exchange Program.
Alumni Book Group
Lindsay Bennett and Kory Jessen will be running the book group while Professor Davidson is on sabbatical. The alumni book group marked its fourth anniversary and is going strong. Seniors who are interested in joining the group should look for an up-coming email with details on how to join or they can contact Professor Davidson at jdavidso@umw.edu.
Faculty Activities
Professor Jack Kramer
Jack Kramer has published a biographical entry on "Boris Yeltsin" in the Modern Encyclopedia of Russian, Soviet, and Eurasian History (Academic International Press, 2008). He also delivered a paper on "The Demographic Consequences of Drug Abuse in Russia" at the Annual Convention of the American Association for the Advancement of Slavic Studies in New Orleans, LA, November 2007.
Professor Stephen Farnsworth
Stephen J. Farnsworth, Associate Professor of Political Science and International Affairs and a former Canada-US Fulbright Scholar, is co-author of an article, “Canadian TV News on Bush and Iraq: No More Hostile than Top US Network,” which was recently published in Policy Options, a leading Canadian public policy journal.
Dr. Farnsworth is coauthor of a chapter, “How Television Covers the Presidential Nomination Process,” which was recently published in The Making of the Presidential Candidates, 2008 (Rowman & Littlefield). Dr. Farnsworth recently traveled to Armenia where he led a USAID-sponsored election reporting training program for three dozen journalists in advance of Armenia’s 2008 presidential election.
Professor Elizabeth F. Larus
Elizabeth F. Larus, Associate Professor, studied anti-terrorism in Israel in May-June 2007 as an academic fellow of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies (FDD). She participated in an intensive series of lectures by academics, diplomats and military officials, and traveled to military, police and prison facilities throughout Israel and the West Bank. Her op-ed “Terror, democracy and the Israel model,” appeared in the Free Lance-Star. “Acknowledge Militant Islam's Threat, Then We Can Counter It,” appeared in the Richmond Times Dispatch.
In June 2007, she presented her paper “Retaining Diplomatic Allies: Soft Power versus Hard Cash” at the international conference “Taiwan’s Search for Democratic Partners,” at St. Anthony’s College, Oxford University (UK). Professor Larus was awarded a 2007 Supplemental Faculty Development Award for the conference. In October 2007, Professor Larus presented her papers “Taiwan’s Efforts to Retain Diplomatic Relations with Small States,” and “China’s Use of Soft Power” at the meeting of the American Association for Chinese Studies in Richmond. Professor Larus is taking leave in fall 2008 to write a textbook on contemporary Chinese government and politics.
Professor Jason Davidson
Jason Davidson, Assistant Professor, published an article titled “In and out of Iraq: A vote-seeking explanation of Berlusconi’s Iraq policy,” in the February 2008 issue of Modern Italy.
Professor Davidson presented a paper titled “Transatlantic Alliance Burden-Sharing from Vietnam to Iraq: Alliance, Interest, and Electoral Politics” at the International Studies Association annual conference in San Francisco in March.
Professor Davidson’s review essay “Alliances: Here to Stay?” is forthcoming in the Spring 2008 issue of International Spectator.
Professor Davidson will be on sabbatical in Rome, Italy for the 2008-09 academic year. He will be conducting research for a book on British, French, and Italian decisions to provide or refuse military support for the U.S. when it has used force from Vietnam to the 2003 Iraq war.
Professor Rosalyn Cooperman
Rosalyn Cooperman, Assistant Professor, is finishing work on her book manuscript, Running with EMILY: How Abortion Shapes Women’s Candidacies to Congress.
Professor Cooperman also served as one of four principal investigators for the 2004 Convention Delegate Study, a survey of Democratic and Republican party activities.
Professor Ranjit Singh
Last spring, Ranjit Singh, Assistant Professor, won UMW's 2007 Giving Tree award for outstanding commitment to students and the university community. His public lectures in 2007-08 year included a talk on Islam and the West delivered to local schoolteachers, and his new seminar, "Opposition in the Middle East," appeared in the fall. In November, Professor Singh presented UMW's new Middle East Studies Certificate program at a roundtable on regional studies at small universities held at the annual Middle East Studies Association meeting in Montreal, Canada. He will become director of the Certificate program for 2008-09.
Professor Singh's op-ed "Roadmap Leads Mideast in the Wrong Direction" appeared in the Richmond Times-Dispatch in January. He is currently revising an article on the failure of secular and religious Arab opposition movements. He is invited to join a discussion on promoting undergraduate research hosted by the Virginia Social Sciences Association in Lexington, VA in April, and will speak to UMW alumni about Middle East politics in May.
Professor Robert Barr
Robert Barr, Assistant Professor, received a $60,000 grant from the Smith Richardson Foundation to support a book project, tentatively entitled “Understanding Populism.” He will be on leave from the
University in the fall of 2008 to conduct field research in Latin America. Professor Barr also chaired a panel and presented the paper “Populism versus Democracy Promotion” at the Latin American Studies Association conference in Montreal in September, 2007. In April, 2008, he presented the paper “Populism in Bolivia? Social Movements and the Morales
Government” at the Midwest Political Science Association conference in Chicago.
Since the last newsletter, the journal Party Politics finally accepted for publication his article “Populists, Outsiders and Anti-Establishment Politics.” In addition, the Journal of Latin American Studies extended a revise and resubmit offer for his article
“Indigenous Populism.” He is currently in the process of revising that paper.
Professor Emile Lester
Emile Lester’s article “The Required World Religions Course in Modesto, California” appeared in the spring edition of the refereed journal Religious Education. His co-authored article “Learning about World Religions in Public Schools” has been accepted for publication by the British Journal of Religious Education and will appear in winter 2008. A third article entitled “Talking About God in Modesto” will appear in the popular policy journal American Interest in spring 2008.
Professor Lestor completed the penultimate chapter of his book project on religion in public education, and was invited to present on the chapter at University of Virginia and The College of William and Mary seminars.
Student Fulbright
Justin Simeone, a senior double major in History and Political Science, was recently awarded a U.S. Student Fulbright grant to the European Union for 2008-09. The Fulbright will cover Justin’s tuition to attend the London School of Economics’ Masters of Science Program in Politics and Government in the European Union where he will pursue his proposed research project “E.U. Member State Resistance to European Asylum Appellate Jurisdiction.”
Student Internships
Spring 2008
Laura Boyette is interning with First Nations Development Institute in Fredericksburg.
Susan Goldstein is interning with The Israel Project in Washington, D.C.
Megan Vaughan-Albert is interning with Amnesty International in Washington, D.C.
Kevin Kallmyer is interning with Geonocide Watch in Fredericksburg.
Jenny Bryant, Office of U.S. Senator Jim Webb (D-VA)
Justin German, Office of U.S. Representative Rick Boucher (D-VA)
Anna Cloeter and Marija Ozolins at Radio Free Europe
Scott Zagrodny at the US State Department, Bureau of Caucasian Affairs
Fall 2007
Krista Benedetto interned with First Peoples Worldwide in Fredericksburg.
Tait Keenan and Nick Ryan interned with Geonocide Watch.
Summer 2007
Osob Samantar, Office of U.S. Senator John Kerry (D-MA)
Alex Vakos, Office of State Delegate Terrie Suit (R-VA)
Spring 2007
Heidi Meredith, Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe.
Melissa Gonzalez, the Peruvian mission to the Organization of American States.
Alison Baker, Virginia State Senator Edd Houck
Stephanie Bowen, Holley & Levine, P.C.
Ellen Brandau, Fredericksburg Office of the Public Defender
Lydia DuRant, U.S. Representative James Moran (D-VA)
Jennifer Knowles, Parrish, Houck & Snead, P.L.C.
James Schroll, Jefferson Government Relations
Laura Zamperini, Bibi Bahizi Law Office
Fall 2006
Jasmine Junk, Embassy of France.
Ellen Brandau, Attorney Gary Webb, Child Support Enforcement.
Caitlin Quinn, Attorney Gary Webb, Child Support Enforcement.
Kevin Murphy, U.S. Secret Service
Deniz Soyer, Forward Together PAC
Summer 2006
Victoria Brandis, Pearl S. Buck International.
Kathryn Elvey, University Legal Council, Virginia Tech.
Spring 2006
Janet Ardrey, Senator Patty Murray
Jennifer Bell, EMILY’s List
Marissa Dearborn, Genocide Watch
Lauren Decot, Democratic Senate Campaign Committee
Courtney Hopkins, Adams, Hussey & Associates
Adam Jacobson, Genocide Watch
Ashley McGrew, Representative Thelma Drake
Kate Paris, Virginia State Senator Edd Houck
Frank Puleo, Representative Tom Davis
Gricel Soriano, Rappahannock Legal Services
Alumni Notes
Jessica Wells is enrolled in graduate studies in the International Development Studies program of the Elliot School of International Affairs, George Washington University.
Ken Scheiber teaches Spanish and coaches cross-country at Christ School, Arden, North Carolina.
Desiree Morris is a teacher working with special education students in the Stafford County schools system.
Jackie Rose is a program developer with Big Brothers/Big Sisters in Fredericksburg.
Liz Burns is a substitute teacher in Fredericksburg.
Wendy Brayer is Post Management Assistant in the Executive Office for the Bureau of Near Eastern Affairs and the Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs at the Department of State.
Brian Dempsey was accepted to the Masters in International Relations program at the University of Chicago.
Carrie Ingalls is a Technical Writer / Editor with Northrop Grumman.
Sara Rose Cavalli is Political Director for Congressman Eric Cantor
Vanessa Macoy is a recruiter with Grassroots Campaigns, Inc.
Catherine Stewart is an Analyst, specializing in international economics, with the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Cris Clapp is Communications Director for Enough is Enough, an internet safety group.
Erik Johnston is Associate Legislative Director for the National Association of Counties.
Brady DeRemer working with the international consulting firm Booz Allen specializing in war gaming
Heidi Meredith and Megan Linn both with the Directorate of Counterterrorism at the FBI
Peter Kelley works as a legislative asst in the office of Senator Tom Harkin (D,Iowa)
Rose Likens, International Affairs 1980, was Ambassador to El Salvador.
Doreen Ciavarelli is working at General Dynamics.
Shawn Gremminger is a Federal Legislative Affairs Associate for the National Association of Children’s Hospitals.
Anne Kringen is an assistant to the Director of Security and External Relations at the Air Transport Association.
Luke Wolkenhauer is a writer for gdansk-life.com in Poland.
Alden Fahy is attending George Washington’s Elliot School of International Affairs.
Katerina Karakehagia is the officer responsible for European Union issues at the Embassy of Cyprus.
Christine Faivor-Ryon works for Representative Connie Mack.
Sydney McClure works for the American Manufacturing Trade Action Coalition in Washington, D.C.
Dan Bettis is a Ph.D. candidate at Texas A&M University.
Michael Casey is a research assistant with the Institute for National Strategic Studies at the National Defense University.
Bonnie Dye works as a Staff Associate and Program Evaluator for the Harlem Health Promotion Center in Harlem, NY. In May 2006, Dye will be moving to Chiang Mai, Thailand to work on an HIV/AIDS public health project.
Kacy Zuchowski is Human Resources Coordinator for Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP.
Jenn Golladay is a law student at the University of Richmond.
Emily Lynch is studying public health at Emory University and is currently doing field research in Malawi.
Ryan Balis is working at the National Center for Public Policy Research in Washington and recently completed a master's degree in political science at the London School of Economics.
Kirsten Barnum is a Business Consulting Analyst at the Corporate Executive Board.
Brian Jones is pursuing a master’s degree in political science at George Mason University.
Laura Henderson is working in the public relations office of Sen. Elizabeth Dole.
Chris Winslow graduated from law school and is pursuing a law career in Richmond. He recently completed tour of duty in Djibouti as an officer in the US Naval Reserve.
Rebecca Morrison is pursing a master’s degree in international politics at American University.
Carrie Wallinger was in the Peace Corps, serving in Mongolia.
Megan Yuenger is a Program Officer for American Councils for International Education. She recently served as a Peace Corp Volunteer in Turkmenistan.
Gabe Walters is enrolled in law school.
Andy Wright is staff assistant to Va. Sen. Edd Houck.
Gabriela Castañeda is now Sister Maria de la Revalcion with the religious order Servants of the Lord and Virgin of Matara in Bowie, MD.
Amy Shioji is working for The Performance Institute in Washington, D.C.
Keith Wright is Director of Food Security for Food for the Hungry.
Sara Winnan works for an Australian development NGO in East Timor.
Paul Premo is working for Chemonics International, USAID.
Trish Daugherty is in law school at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.
Colin Dwyer is currently attending the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidates School.
Lauren Legard is a defense contractor for Technical Analysis Center.
Mandy Ransone is Community Organizer for Sierra Club in St. Petersburg, FL.
Art Speyer is Section Head for Central Eurasia, Marine Corps Intelligence Activity.
Gale Mattox is former Chairman and Professor, department of political science, United States Naval Academy.
Lindsay Bennett is working for IBM Global Services.
Kathy White is the legislative clerk for the Rules Committee in the U.S. House of Representatives.
Katie Godburn is working in Congressman Wayne Gilchrest’s office and plans to attend George Washington University in the fall.
Cassandra (Cassie) Newman received her master’s in peace studies from American University.
Nicole Hale is working for The Analysis Corporation.
Jessica Wells is a Contractor at the Government Accountability Office.
Molly Murphy is a full-time employee at the polling firm Greenberg Quinlan Rosner.
Sarah Campbell is working as a Public Policy Analyst for Strategic Forecasting, Inc.
Connor Hannigan is in the Peace Corps, serving in Togo.
Kate Paris is a Special Assistant to the Counselor to the Governor.
Jennifer Meixell (Harris) is a Program Analyst for the City of Savannah.
Gabriela Casteneda is now Sister Maria de la Revalcion with the religious order Servants of the Lord and Virgin of Matara in Bowie, MD.
Andrew S. Koelz will be attending University of Virginia School of Law in the fall.
(A number of people are also working for the US Departments of Defense and Homeland Security, but they cannot be identified online.)
Editor: Elizabeth F. Larus
Assistants: Megan Wittling
Blythe McLean