News
5.16.13 - Professor Charles Lipson's Op-Ed in the Chicago Tribune
Professor Charles Lipson discusses the recent scandals in the Obama administration, as well as the problematic elements of large government in a Chicago Tribune Op-Ed. Read the article here.
5.10.13 - Professor Cathy J. Cohen Appointed as next Political Science Chair
Professor Cathy J. Cohen has been appointed as Chair of the Political Science Department, from July 1st, 2013 to June 30th, 2016.
5.6.13 - Professor Emeriti Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph's Letter to the New York Times Book Review
Professor Emeriti Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph note the influence of Gandhian civil disobedience in Rosa Parks' activism in a letter to the New York Times Book Review. Read the letter here.
5.2.13 - Doctoral Candidate Lindsey O'Rourke Accepts Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College
Doctoral candidate Lindsey O'Rourke has accepted an International Security and US Foreign Policy Postdoctoral Fellowship at Dartmouth College for the 2013-14 academic year. Read more about the fellowship here.
5.2.13 - Doctoral Students Chad Levinson and Gene Gerzhoy accept Pre-doctoral Fellowship at Harvard University
Doctoral students Chad Levinson and Gene Gerzhoy have accepted 2013-14 pre-doctoral fellowships in the International Security Program at Harvard University. Read more about the fellowship here.
4.30.13 - The Political Science Department's Leonard D. White Memorial Lecture
On April 23, 2013 the Political Science Department hosted Ira Katznelson, who gave a lecture entitled "Reflections on Fear Itself" for the Leonard D. White Memorial Lecture. Watch the Vimeo video.
4.22.13 - Professor Robert Pape on the Potential Motivations Behind the Boston Attacks
Professor Robert Pape weighs in on the profile of the Tsarnaev brothers, and what explanation this can give to the motivations behind the Boston terrorist attacks. Read the MSNBC article here.
4.17.13 - Professor Robert Pape on the First Steps to Identifying the Bomber in the Boston Attacks
Professor Robert Pape discusses reconstructing the characteristics of the bombs and attack as a first step in the investigation of the Boston Marathon bombing. Read the Chicago Tribune article.
4.16.13 - Professor Michael Albertus on the importance of land reform in the talks between FARC and the Colombian Government
Professor Michael Albertus discusses the importance of market based land reform in the negotiations between the rebel group FARC and the Colombian government. Read the full article here.
4.15.13 - The Times Higher Education World ranks University of Chicago 2nd in Social Sciences
The Times Higher Education World ranks the University of Chicago 2nd in its listing of the 2012-13 best universities for social sciences. View the rankings here.
4.9.13 - Doctoral Students Dilara K. Uskup and Rebba A. Moore Awarded NSF Graduate Fellowships
Doctoral students Dilara K. Uskup and Rebba A. Moore have been awarded 2013 National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowships. More information about the fellowship here.
3.28.13 - Professor Bernard Harcourt discusses punishment theory on "French Culture"
Professor Bernard Harcourt discusses punishment theory and the new French edition of Foucault's 1981 lectures on "France Culture" (French NPR). Listen to the full discussion here.
3.22.13 - NSF Funds for Political Science Research Restricted
The United States Senate voted on March 20, 2013 to bar the use of National Science Foundation funds for political science research not deemed essential to national security or economic interest. Read more at Inside Higher Ed.
3.13.13 - Professor Cathy Cohen on the Impact of Voter ID Laws on Minority Youth Voters
Professor Cathy Cohen discusses her research on the disproportionate impact of voter ID laws on minority youth voters in the 2012 election. Read the full article here.
3.13.13 - Professors in the Political Science Department selected for Neubauer Collegium projects
Professor Bernard Harcourt, Professor Lisa Wedeen, and Professor John McCormick have been selected as principal investigators for Neubauer Collegium projects. Read more about the projects here.
2.25.13 - Professor Bernard Harcourt discusses the State of Political Activism
Professor Bernard Harcourt discusses the role of social movements and what it tells us about the state of activism today. Read the full interview in the Chicago Maroon here.
2.14.13 - Professor Mike Albertus on Revolution and Democracy in the Arab Spring
Professor Mike Albertus considers the link between a revolution and the transition to democracy in the context of the Arab Spring. Read the NYTimes Op-Ed here.
2.13.13 - Professor Cathy Cohen on Gun Violence in Chicago and President Obama's Friday Visit
Professor Cathy Cohen discusses the persistent problem of gun violence in Chicago and the need for President Obama to detail a plan of action during his visit on Friday. Read the article here.
2.8.13 - Professor Cathy Cohen's Interview on Gun Control in Chicago
Professor Cathy Cohen weighs in on the need for comprehensive gun control laws in Chicago in the wake of the death of teen Hadiya Pendleton. Watch the interview here.
2.7.13 - Professor Bernard Harcourt Helps to Illuminate Lost Lectures by Philosopher Foucault
Professor Bernard Harcourt's co-edited book helps illuminate lost lectures by philosopher Michel Foucault, illustrating the link between his early and later work. Read the full article here.
2.5.13 - Postdoctoral Scholar Marie-Eve Reny discusses Wang Anshun's Promotion to Mayor of Beijing
Postdoctoral scholar Marie-Eve Reny discusses the promotion of Wang Anshun to mayor of Beijing and the role he is anticipated to play in the fight against air pollution. Read the article here.
1.22.13 - Postdoctoral Scholar Marie-Eve Reny's Faculty Appointment
Postdoctoral scholar Marie-Eve Reny has accepted a position as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Montreal, starting June 2013.
1.19.13 - Professor Michael Dawson on President Obama's Second Inaugural Speech
Professor Michael Dawson discusses what he would like to hear in President Obama's second Inaugural speech. Read the full opinion piece in the NYTimes here.
1.16.13 - Allison Carnegie to Join the Department
The Department of Political Science is very pleased to announce that Allison Carnegie will be joining the Department as an Assistant Professor on July 1, 2013. Read more here.
1.15.13 - Postdoctoral Scholar Ben Lessing's Op-Ed on a New Approach to the Drug War in Mexico
Postdoctoral scholar Ben Lessing discusses the need for a targeted, conditional approach to the drug war and cartel violence in Mexico in the San Francisco Chronicle. Read the Op-Ed here.
12.19.12 - Sarah Parkinson's Faculty Appointment
Sarah Parkinson, one of our PhD students, has accepted a position as assistant professor in the Humphrey School of Public Affairs at the University of Minnesota.
12.19.12 - Diana Kim's Postdoctoral Fellowship
Our PhD student Diana Kim will start in July 2013 as a Prize Fellow at Harvard University in the Program in Economics, History, and Politics.
12.19.12 - Rose Kelanic's Faculty Appointment
Our own PhD student Rose Kelanic will begin a new faculty appointment next fall as an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Williams College.
12.19.12 - Lauren Duquette-Rury's Faculty Appointment
Lauren Duquette-Rury, one of our PhD students, has recently been hired as an assistant professor in the Department of Sociology at UCLA.
12.12.12 - Professor Paul Staniland Awarded a Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Research Grant
Professor Paul Staniland has won a 2013-15 Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation Research Grant to support fieldwork for his book project on state building in post-colonial Asia.
11.19.12 - Professor John Mearsheimer on Israel's Actions in Gaza
Professor John Mearsheimer discusses the current conflict in Gaza and the possible outcomes of the Israeli "Pillar of Defense" campaign. Read the article here.
11.19.12 - Professor John Mearsheimer on Why Iran and the U.S. Should Work Towards an Agreement
Professor John Mearsheimer weighs in on the controversy over Iran's nuclear program and why Iran and the U.S. should work towards reconciliation. Read the interview here.
11.15.12 - Professor Bernard Harcourt's book The Illusion of Free Markets picked by Malcolm Gladwell
Professor Bernard Harcourt's book The Illusion of Free Markets makes the list on Malcolm Gladwell's "ideal bookshelf." Read the article here.
11.6.12 - Professor Betsy Sinclair on Social Media and the Presidential Election
Professor Betsy Sinclair appears on a local news channel discussing the impact of social media on both voters and the presidential campaign. Watch the clip here.
10.31.12 - Professor Mark Hansen on Personal Income Growth and the Election Outcome
Professor Mark Hansen weighs in on personal income growth as an economic indicator that could predict the election outcome. Read the full article in The Atlantic here.
10.30.12 - Professor Betsy Sinclair on the Role of Peer Pressure in Politics
Professor Betsy Sinclair discusses the ways in which peer pressure and social networks enforce behavior in American politics. Read the full article in the Harvard Gazette here.
10.29.12 - Professor Bernard Harcourt on the U.S. Criminal Justice System
Professor Bernard Harcourt considers the systemic problems of U.S. criminal justice system, as well as the paradoxes of justice in an interview with Tribune de Genève. Read the full interview here, and watch a clip.
10.19.12 - Professor Michael Dawson on Inequality and the American Economy
Professor Michael Dawson discusses the social consequences of economic inequality that directly and indirectly affect economic growth. Read the forum here in the New York Times.
10.10.12 - Professor Mike Albertus on Hugo Chavez's Reelection
Professor Mike Albertus discusses the impact of Hugo Chavez's presidential reelection in Venezuela and the continued erosion of democratic institutions. Read the full op-ed in Foreign Policy here.
10.9.12 - Professor Mike Albertus's Op-Ed on Negotiations between Colombia's Government and Insurgents
Professor Mike Albertus and Oliver Kaplan weigh in on the importance of land reform for negotiations between the government of Colombia and the insurgent group FARC, which are due to begin on Oct. 17th in Oslo. Read the full New York Times article here.
9.21.12 - Professor William Howell Weighs in on Executive Powers in Re-election Campaigns
Professor William Howell argues that presidential incumbents use their executive powers to promote their re-election, but that this advantage does not necessarily violate basic norms of constitutional governance. Read the debate here.
9.17.12 - Doctoral Candidate Sebastian Schmidt on the Fiction of Sovereign Statehood
University of Chicago doctoral candidate Sebastian Schmidt argues that the current idea of sovereign statehood is a fiction that arose after WWII. Read the article here.
9.17.12 - Professor Cathy Cohen on Disenfranchising Young Minority Voters
Professor Cathy Cohen's research on young minority voters is featured in this New York Times article.
9.17.12 - Professor Bernard Harcourt on Paul Ryan and Friedrich Hayek
Professor Bernard Harcourt discusses the tension between Paul Ryan's politics and Friedrich Hayek's advocacy for government organized health care. Read it here.
9.17.12 - Trifecta: Profs. William Howell, Michael Dawson, and Bernard Harcourt on Obama
Profs. William Howell, Michael Dawson, and Bernard Harcourt discuss the upcoming United States presidential election.
8.30.12 - Professor William Howell claims that Romney Needs to Cut to the Chase
Professor William Howell argues that Mitt Romney needs to provide compelling solutions to our current economic troubles if he is to win the upcoming presidential election. Read it here on CNN.
8.30.12 - Professor Bernard Harcourt's Interview on Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order
Professor Bernard Harcourt is interviewed on the subject of his latest book, The Illusion of Free Markets, in Cabinet.
8.28.12 - APSA cancels Annual Meeting in New Orleans
Due to Hurricane Isaac, The American Political Science Association has cancelled their 2012 Annual Meeting in New Orleans for August 30, 2012 through September 2, 2012.
8.27.12 - Annual Alumni Letter
Professor and Chair Bernard E. Harcourt addresses the Department's alumni on the news of the previous year. Read it here.
8.16.12 - Professor John Mearsheimer on the Threat of War from Israel
Professor John Mearsheimer discusses the possible calculations of Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu and his Defense Minister Ehud Barak behind their talk of war with Iran. Read it here.
8.10.12 - Professor Howell on Mitt Romney's VP Pick
Professor William Howell considers Mitt Romney's possible choices for his Vice Presidential running mate. Watch the discussion here on Chicago Tonight.
7.18.12
Professor Paul Staniland argues for different strategies in dealing with the violence in Afghanistan. Read the article here.
7.16.12
Professor J. Mark Hansen discusses the upcoming US presidential election. Read the interview here.
7.11.12
Professor Stanislav Markus explains how firms in Russia and Ukraine can use bottom-up methods to protect their property rights. Read it here on the Development Channel of the Council of Foreign Relations.
7.10.12
Professor John Mearsheimer argues that a nuclear-armed Iran would bring stability to the Middle East, although it would also carry risks. Read and watch more here on PBS Newshour.
7.6.12
Esteemed and beloved Professor Emeritus Joseph Cropsey passed away on July 1st. Read the obituary here.
7.3.12
Professor Cathy Cohen and Professor Joseph Kahne have published their findings from the Youth & Participatory Politics Survey Project funded by the MacArthur Foundation's Digital Media and Learning Initiative. Read the announcement and report.
7.2.12
Professor Emeriti Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph were honored with the India Abroad Friend of India Award 2011. Read about it here, and read the articles about the Rudolphs written by Stephen B Herschler, Arthur Rubinoff, and Kamal Sadiq.
6.26.12
Professor Charles Lipson expresses his concern over bringing Barack Obama's presidential library to the University of Chicago. Read it here in the Chicago Sun-Times.
6.15.12
Postdoctoral Scholar Chris Zepeda-Millán was awarded the 2012 APSA best dissertation prize in the Race, Ethnicity, and Politics section.
6.11.12
Professor Paul Staniland's essay on political orders during civil war was discussed in the weekly post Middle East Channel Editor's Reader.
6.7.12 - Gerald Rosenberg on the Role of the Courts and Same-Sex Marriage
Professor Gerald Rosenberg appeared on WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight to discuss the political effects of having courts decide same-sex marriage rulings.
6.4.12 - Cathy Cohen Receives Undergraduate Teaching Award
Professor Cathy Cohen has been named one of the recipients of the 2012 Llewellyn John and Harriet Manchester Quantrell Awards for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching.
5.22.12 - Professor Robert Pape on NATO's mission in Afghanistan
Professor Robert Pape discusses the end of NATO's mission in Afghanistan and NATO's impact on Chicago. Watch it here on Chicago Tonight.
5.14.12 - Professor Albertus on Democracy in Burma
Professor Michael Albertus co-authored this Foreign Policy piece with Professor Victor Menaldo about the challenges Burma faces in transitioning to democracy and its grounds for optimism.
5.1.12 - Professor Harcourt on the Two Faces of US Liberalism
Professor Bernard Harcourt wrote this piece for The Guardian about two-faced liberalism in the US, noting the sharp contrast between the notion of freedom in the socio-economic domain and the concept of liberty in the penal sphere.
4.26.12 - Professor Sinclair on Hashtag Activism and Political Action
Professor Betsy Sinclair was interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio to discuss the transfer of social media activism to real political action. Listen to it here.
4.23.12 - Professor Howell on Obama's Executive Powers
Professor William Howell was interviewed for this New York Times article about President Obama's use of executive unilateral powers to advance domestic policies.
4.13.12 - Professor Albertus on Land Reform in Latin America
Professor Michael Albertus co-authored this piece in Foreign Policy with Oliver Kaplan on using land reform programs like Colombia's 2011 Victims Law to fight Latin America's drug problem.
4.11.12 - Review of Explaining Indian Democracy
Anupama Roy and Ujjwal Kumar Singh wrote this review of Lloyd and Susanne's Rudolph 2008 three volume compendium, Explaining Indian Democracy: A Fifty-Year Perspective, 1956-2006.
4.3.12 - Professor Bernard Harcourt on the Supreme Court Ruling of Routine Strip Searches
Professor Bernard Harcourt expresses his objection to the recent Supreme Court ruling allowing routine strip searches. Read it here on NPR.
3.28.12 - Professor Gooding-Williams on the Trayvon Martin case
Professor Gooding-Williams wrote this blog for the NY Times on the resemblance he sees between George Zimmerman's claim of self-defence in the shooting of Trayvon Martin and the fugitive slave law of the Antebellum period.
3.20.12 - Professor Sinclair on Social Media
Professor Betsy Sinclair spoke to Chicago's WGNTV about how social media affects the elections. Watch the video here.
3.14.12 - Professor Harcourt's Response to Book Review
Professor Bernard Harcourt wrote this article in the Harvard Law Review Forum in response to James Q. Whitman's review of The Illusion of Free Markets.
3.14.12 - Professor Dawson on the War on Drugs
Professor Michael Dawson wrote this opinion piece for the New York Times about discrimination and the war on drugs.
3.6.12 - Professors Mearsheimer and Walt for the Financial Times
Professors John Mearhseimer and Stephen Walt wrote this op-ed for the Financial Times about American-Israeli relations. Free registration is required to view the article.
2.17.12 - Professor Harcourt on mass court hearing for Occupy Chicago arrests
Professor Bernard Harcourt's op-ed about the mass court hearing on the Occupy Chicago arrests made last fall was featured in The Guardian. Read it here.
2.15.12 - Brandon Terry to Join the Department
The Department of Political Science is delighted to announce that Brandon Terry will be joining the Department as Assistant Professor on July 1, 2014. Read more here.
2.14.12 - Benjamin Lessing to Join the Department
The Department of Political Science is very pleased to announce that Benjamin Lessing will be joining the Department as Assistant Professor. Read more here.
2.3.12 - Professor Bob Pape on Humanitarian Intervention
The New York Times featured Professor Bob Pape's op-ed about the need for a new standard of humanitarian intervention, and why the U.S. should not yet intervene in Syria. Read it here.
1.20.12 - University Creates Institute of Politics
The University of Chicago creates an Institute of Politics for students interested in careers in public and social service. With David Axelroad as the inaugural director, the institute will offer extracurricular opportunities to study and participate in the civic life in Chicago and around the U.S. Read more here.
1.20.12 - Professor Bernard Harcourt's Editorial in the Guardian
Professor Bernard Harcourt wrote this editorial for The Guardian about Mayor Rahm Emanuel expanding his executive power and suppressing political dissent on the pretext of the upcoming G8/NATO summits. Read more here.
1.11.12 - The Boston Review Features Michael Dawson
Professor Michael Dawson's article on black politics is the feature article for the Boston Review's forum, The Future of Black Politics. There have been five responses to Professor Dawson posted so far, with three more planned this week. Dawson will then offer his own response at the end of this week. Read Dawson's article and the responses here.
1.11.12 - Department of Political Science ranked 6th for IR programs
The University of Chicago's Department of Political Science has been ranked 6th among International Relations programs for Ph.D. students, according to Foreign Policy's Inside the Ivory Tower. See the full rankings and read more about the survey here.
1.10.12 - Foreign Policy Lists John Mearsheimer as One of the Most Influential IR Scholars
Professor John Mearsheimer was recently featured in Foreign Policy's Inside the Ivory Tower as one of the most influential International Relations scholars as voted by his peers. He answers five foreign policy questions about challenges facing the U.S. and is voted as producing some of the most interesting IR work.
1.10.12 - Professor John Mearsheimer Featured in The Atlantic
Robert D. Kaplan wrote an in-depth feature article about Professor John Mearsheimer for The Atlantic. Kaplan discusses the influence of Mearsheimer's thought and the overall importance of his life's work. Read the article here.
1.9.12 - Professor Michael Dawson on Social Mobility in the U.S.
Professor Michael Dawson's op-ed piece on the decline of social mobility in the U.S. is featured in the New York Times. Dawson discusses the growing consensus that the U.S. may not be the "land of opportunity" the American dream claims it is, and proposes some possible starting points for a solution. Read the article here.
1.4.12 - Professor William Howell on the Iowa Caucus
Professor William Howell's op-ed piece on the Iowa caucus is featured on CNN.com. Howell says that we should thank Iowa for hosting the first caucus and that a small state like Iowa is the perfect place to start the primary and caucus schedule. Read more here.
11.14.11 - Professor William Howell on School Board Elections
Professor William Howell appeared on NPR's All Things Considered to talk about the effects of national politics at local elections. Listen to the story here.
11.10.11 - Professor John McCormick Discussing the Nature of Wealth in America on WBEZ
Last night, Professor John McCormick joined Professor Jeffrey Winters of Northwestern University on WBEZ's Worldview to discuss income disparity and U.S. political economy. Listen to the story here.
11.08.11 - Professor Michael Dawson Discusses the Suppression of Minority Voting in a New York Times Op-Ed Piece
Professor Michael Dawson's op-ed piece on fighting suppression of minority voting appeared in the New York Times Opinion Pages. The piece is part of a debate entitled "Should Voting Be Mandatory? Or are there already too many people casting ballots?" featuring six debaters. Read Professor Dawson's piece here.
10.28.11 - Michael Dawson Talks About His New Book
Professor Michael Dawson on his new book, Not in Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics. The book is the first of three in the Fragmented Rainbow project. Watch it here.
10.25.11 - Professor Tom Ginsburg Discusses Libya's New Constitution in the Chicago Tribune
Professor Tom Ginsburg wrote an opinion piece about Libya's new constitution and the lessons Libya can learn from Iraq. Read the article here.
10.19.11 - Michael Dawson's New Book Published
The Department of Political Science is pleased to announce the publication of Michael Dawson's new book, Not in Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics. Read more about the book, from the University of Chicago Press, here.
10.19.11 - Professor Bernard Harcourt Discusses the Occupy Chicago Movement on WBEZ's Eight Forty-Eight Program
Bernard Harcourt joined Alison Cuddy and Micah Philbrook from Occupy Chicago to talk about the movement and answer listeners' questions. Listen to the story here.
Professor Bernard Harcourt's Article on the Occupy Wall Street Movement Featured in the New York Times Opinion Pages
Bernard Harcourt's article on the Occupy Wall Street movement is featured in the New York Times Opinion Pages. View the article here.
Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph Win Mellon Fellowship
Professors Emeriti Lloyd and Susanne Rudolph have been awarded a Mellon Emeritus Fellowship. The Rudolphs plan to use the fellowship to support their research in India, Britain, and the U.S. relating to their project titled "Romanticism's Child: An Intellectual History of James Tod's Influence on Indian History and Historiography."
The University of Chicago Rises in National College Rankings
The University of Chicago rose in the rankings to #5 (tied with four other schools) in the most recent U.S. News & World Report National University Rankings. See the rankings here.
Political Science Job Market Improving, APSA Reports
The American Political Science Association reports that the job market for political scientists is improving. Read more here.
Professor Bernard Harcourt Interviewed in Harper's Magazine
Bernard Harcourt was recently interviewed in Harper's Magazine about his new book, The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order. You can read the interview here.
Professor and Chair Bernard Harcourt Provides News of the Department in Annual Letter
See Bernard Harcourt's letter of news from the Department here.
Michael Dawson Named Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture
The Department of Political Science is delighted to announce that Michael Dawson, John D. MacArthur Distinguished Service Professor in Political Science and the College, has accepted a three-year term as Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Politics and Culture commencing July 1, 2011. Dawson will succeed Ramon A. Gutierrez, the Preston & Sterling Morton Distinguished Service Professor of History and the College.
Professor Dawson, one of the nation’s leading experts on race and politics, was the Center’s founding Director. His return promises to advance innovative interdisciplinary scholarship, teaching at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, public engagement with matters of race, ethnicity, politics and culture, and community building on campus and beyond.
With research interests ranging from quantitative work to political theory, Professor Dawson’s scholarship has included the development of quantitative models of African American political behavior, identity, and public opinion; explored the political effects of urban poverty; and characterized African American political ideology. His work also delineates the differences between African American public opinion and that of Caucasian Americans. In addition to numerous journal publications, book chapters and opinion pieces, Dawson has authored two books, Behind the Mule: Race and Class in African-American Politics (Princeton 1994) and the award winning Black Visions: The Roots of Contemporary African-American Political Ideologies (Chicago 2001). A third book, Not in Our Lifetimes: The Future of Black Politics, is being published by the University of Chicago Press this Fall. Principal investigator on several significant studies of African American political behavior, Professor Dawson is also known for his project with Lawrence Bobo in which they conducted six public opinion studies on the racial divide in the United States. The information they gathered between 2000 and 2004 is considered the richest data on the issue. With Bobo he is also the co-founding editor of the Du Bois Review, the leading social science journal on racial research.
Professor Dawson has been a member of the University of Chicago faculty since 1992, with a brief interregnum at Harvard University from 2002 to 2005. In addition to his role as founding Director of the Center, Dawson has served as Chair of the Department of Political Science and Director of the Mellon Undergraduate Fellowship Program. Dawson received his Ph.D. from Harvard in 1986.
Assistant Professor Paul Staniland Wins APSA Award
The Department of Political Science is delighted to announce that Assistant Professor Paul Staniland has won the 2011 Kenneth N. Waltz Award from the American Political Science Association’s International Security and Arms Control section for best dissertation submitted in 2010.
Professor Staniland’s dissertation, “Explaining Cohesion, Fragmentation, and Control in Insurgent Groups,” examines why insurgent groups so dramatically vary in their unity and discipline. It argues that the foundational social networks of organizations shape the ability of militant leaders to create strong institutions. Professor Staniland did fieldwork in India, Sri Lanka, and Northern Ireland for the thesis. His research was supported by the Smith Richardson Foundation, MIT Center for International Studies, Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation, Minda de Gunzberg Center for European Studies and Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University, United States Institute of Peace, and Program on Order, Conflict, and Violence at Yale University.
Professor Staniland joined the Department in 2010, after obtaining his Ph.D. from MIT. His research interests are in civil war, international security, and ethnic politics, primarily in South Asia. He also co-directs the University of Chicago’s Program on International Security Policy.
Tom Ginsburg to Join the Department as Associate Member
The Department of Political Science is delighted to announce that Professor Tom Ginsburg has been appointed an associate member of the department. Tom Ginsburg is professor of law at the University of Chicago Law School and most recently the recipient of the 2010 Best Book Award from the American Political Science Association Section on Comparative Democratization for The Endurance of National Constitutions, co-authored with Zachary Elkins and James Melton (Cambridge UP, 2009). His work focuses primarily on comparative constitutional law and politics and he and his colleagues have assembled one of the most remarkable datasets of all modern constitutions across the globe. Professor Ginsburg had also won the American Political Science C. Herman Pritchett Award for Best Book on Law and Courts in 2004 for his book Judicial Review in New Democracies: Constitutional Courts in East Asia (Cambridge University Press, 2003).
In addition to the two APSA-award-winning books, Professor Ginsburg has co-authored Comparative Legal Institutions, with Francesco Parisi and Guy Seidman (Aspen Publishing, forthcoming 2011), and has authored or co-authored over 80 accepted and published articles and book chapters. Prior to teaching, Tom Ginsburg spent two years working as a legal advisor for the Iran-US Claims Tribunal in The Hague, Netherlands, from 1998-2000. He has also held various academic and professional positions in Japan, Thailand, Mongolia, South Korea, Israel, Italy, Tajikistan, and Montenegro. Professor Ginsburg also served as a term member on the Council on Foreign Relations (2002-2007).
Professor Ginsburg earned his Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California at Berkeley in 1999, and his J.D. from Berkeley in 1997.
A pdf copy of this announcement can be found here.
Charles Lipson Awarded the Quantrell Prize for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching
The Department of Political Science is pleased to announce that Professor Charles Lipson has been awarded the 2011 Quantrell Prize for excellence in undergraduate teaching. For more information about the award, please see here.
Lisa Wedeen Named the Mary R. Morton Professor in Political Science and the College
The Department of Political Science is happy to announce that Professor Lisa Wedeen has been named the Mary R. Morton Professor in Political Science and the College. Please see the announcement here.
Political Science Department Celebrates Published Scholarship
We are proud to report that the Political Science Department has had a remarkably productive academic year 2010-2011. Among other achievements, faculty members in the department published nine (9) monographs this academic year, which, for a relatively small faculty of only 31 faculty members, is impressive and matched only by the quality of the work and the prestige of the presses that published the books.
Members of the Political Science faculty will celebrate these publications at 6 p.m. Thursday, May 5, in the Tea Room in the Social Science Research Building. Faculty colleagues in other departments are invited to join the festivities.
The Political Science faculty members and their books being recognized at the event are Cathy Cohen, Democracy Remixed: Black Youth and the Future of American Politics (Oxford University Press, 2011); Bernard Harcourt, The Illusion of Free Markets: Punishment and the Myth of Natural Order (Harvard University Press, 2011); Gary Herrigel, Manufacturing Possibilities: Creative Action and Industrial Recomposition in the United States, Germany, and Japan (Oxford University Press, 2010); John McCormick, Machiavellian Democracy (Cambridge University Press, 2010); John Mearsheimer, Why Leaders Lie: The Truth About Lying in International Politics (Oxford University Press, 2011); Eric Oliver, The Paradoxes of Integration: Race, Neighborhood, and Civic Life in Multiethnic America (University of Chicago Press, 2010); Robert Pape and James Feldman, Cutting the Fuse: The Explosion of Suicide Terrorism & How to Stop It (University of Chicago Press, 2010); Dan Slater, Ordering Power: Contentious Politics and Authoritarian Leviathans in Southeast Asia (Cambridge University Press 2010); and the late Iris Marion Young, Responsibility for Justice (Oxford University Press, 2011).
The books cross a wide range of fields and employ multiple research methods. These methods include archival, interpretive, qualitative and quantitative approaches, case studies and sophisticated statistical models.
The research that went into publishing these books also provided opportunities for graduate students to work closely with faculty as they wrote about the topics they explored.
Michael Albertus to Join the Department of Political Science
The University of Chicago Department of Political Science is delighted to announce that Michael Albertus will be joining the Department as Assistant Professor.
Michael Albertus is one of the most promising young scholars studying the politics of redistribution in social science today. His research on “Political Regimes and Redistribution” examines the relationship between political institutions and redistributive government policies, with a focus on land reform in Latin America. Albertus brings together a remarkable combination of in-depth fieldwork, data collection on land redistribution through archival work and collaboration with land reform agencies in numerous Latin American countries, high-level formal analytic and empirical skills, remarkable productivity, and a deep commitment to Latin America.
He has published on authoritarian durability in Comparative Politics and Comparative Political Studies, and he has a number of articles currently under review, including his innovative and impressive article “Democracy and the Threat of Redistribution: Evidence from Latin America,” a paper that identifies the scope conditions under which democratization induces greater redistribution entitled “Gaming Democracy: Elite Dominance During Transition and the Prospects for Redistribution,” and his detailed case study of redistributive land reform in “Redistribution by Revolution from Above: Land Reform in Peru, 1968-80.”
Michael Albertus is the recipient of numerous grants and fellowships, including the Bradley Graduate Research Predoctoral Fellowship at the Stanford Institute for Economic Policy Research, a Stanford Center on International Conflict and Negotiation Graduate Fellowship, and an Ayacucho Foundation grant through Stanford’s Center for Latin American Studies for fieldwork in Venezuela.
Michael Albertus is completing his Ph.D. at Stanford University, and earned a B.S. in political science, a B.S.E. in electrical engineering, and a B.S. in mathematical sciences, all from the University of Michigan. (1/24/2011)
A pdf copy of this announcement can be found here.
Assistant Professor Tianna Paschel to Join the Department of Political Science
Tianna Paschel is the most promising young scholar in comparative race politics today in the disciplines of political science and sociology. Her research examines the role that black social movements have played in the recent shift from colorblind state discourses to the adoption of ethno-racial policies in Colombia and Brazil in the 1990s. Tianna Paschel comes to us from the Sociology Department at the University of California at Berkeley, where she is completing her dissertation titled States, Movements and the New Politics of Blackness in Colombia and Brazil. It draws on 18 months of ethnographic fieldwork, including over a hundred in-depth interviews, participation in a wide range of events, and extensive analyses of government documents.
Tianna Paschel makes several major contributions that will have critical and lasting impact in political science, sociology, and the study of race. By focusing on two Latin American countries, her research is a call to move beyond the archetypical case of the United States, and instead analyze how common histories of racial domination and slavery can produce distinct racial politics. In so doing, she also shows that while there has been a general shift toward the politicization of ethno-racial identities throughout this region, there are many important differences between countries. Tianna’s work also intervenes in the social movement literature by demonstrating how various approaches to the study of social movements (framing, political process theory, and transnational approaches) are collectively necessary for explaining the development of black social movements in Colombia and Brazil. Also, by analyzing how black movement actors negotiate, inhabit and contest the newly formed structures of political representation set up for black populations, Tianna reveals a reality of social movement institutionalization that is much more complex than the literature suggests.
Tianna Paschel is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including Fulbright, Mellon and Ford. Her article “The Right to Difference: Explaining Colombia’s Shift from Color-Blindness to the Law of Black Communities” is forthcoming in the American Journal of Sociology. She will be in residence as a fellow in July 2011 and will begin as Neubauer Family Assistant Professor in July 2012. (12/21/2010)
A pdf copy of this announcement can be found here.
Assistant Professor Iza Hussin to Join the Department of Political Science
The University of Chicago Department of Political Science is delighted to announce that Iza Hussin will be joining the Department in July 2011.
Both as an assistant professor at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and as a Visiting Fellow in the Islamic Legal Studies Program at Harvard Law School, Iza Hussin has conducted path-breaking research on how the interplay and mutual constitution of religious self-understanding, indigenous elite formation and colonial strategies for rule shaped the development of law and state structures in colonial and post-colonial Egypt, India and Malaysia.
With her strong grounding in social theory from across the social sciences (comparative politics, history, civilizational studies, critical legal theory, and anthropology), her extensive field work, and her linguistic fluency in the multiple regions that she studies, Iza Hussin is sure to place a signature stamp on the discipline and on the Department of Political Science. We expect her bold, creative and highly original research and writings to have a significant impact on discussions of the British colonial experience and the emergence of the modern Muslim state in the post-colonial world. Iza Hussin will contribute greatly and further reinforce the University of Chicago’s premier interpretivist faculty in comparative politics.
Iza Hussin is the recipient of numerous awards and fellowships, including the American Political Science Association’s 2009 Walter Dean Burnham Prize in Politics and History, the International Convention of Asia Scholar’s 2009 award for best Ph.D. in the social sciences, and the Charlotte Newcombe Dissertation Fellowship (from the Woodrow Wilson Foundation) in 2007. Her first book, The Politics of Islamic Law: Local Elites, Colonial Authority and the Making of the Muslim State, is forthcoming from the University of Chicago Press. Iza Hussin earned her Ph.D. from the University of Washington, and her B.A. and M.A. degrees from Harvard University. (12/20/2010)
For more information, please see the announcement here.
Please click here for Professor Bernard Harcourt’s recent letter of news of the Department
The University of Chicago Law School proudly congratulates Bernard Harcourt, the Julius Kreeger Professor of Law, on his recent election and three-year appointment as the new Chair of the University of Chicago's Department of Political Science.
Harcourt has held a joint appointment as a Professor of Political Science for several years. His scholarship intersects social and political theory, the sociology of punishment, criminal law and procedure, and criminology. In true Chicago interdisciplinary fashion, he will continue teaching and will remain active at the Law School while he leads the Department of Political Science.
"I look forward to building strong interdisciplinary ties with my colleagues at the Law School and other divisions at Chicago," Harcourt said. "There is a long tradition of interdisciplinary work in law and politics at Chicago, one that infused the work of noted former colleagues like Jon Elster, Stephen Holmes, Bernard Manin, and Cass Sunstein. We have a lot to build on in this area. It will be a very productive and exciting three years."
"The Chicago Political Science Department brings together a pluralist cutting-edge group of scholars with a rich tradition of its own," he added. "The tradition goes back to Charles Merriam in the 1920s, to Harold Lasswell, Gabriel Almond, Leo Strauss, and to many others. It has come to be known as the 'Chicago School of political science,' a school dedicated historically to combining rich theoretical approaches with rigorous methods on deep questions of political and social importance."
Harcourt received his law degree from Harvard Law School in 1989 and received his Ph.D. in political science from the Government Department at Harvard in 2000. He joined the Law School faculty in 2003.
In 2009, he was awarded the annual Gordon J. Laing Prize for his book Against Prediction: Profiling, Policing and Punishing in the Actuarial Age. The Laing Prize honors the Chicago faculty author, editor, or translator whose book has brought the greatest distinction to the University of Chicago Press's list. (6/16/2010)
