News from Political Science

Teaching Faculty Graduate Undergraduate

 

Political Science Teaching Excellence

2007

Rev. Edmund P. Joyce, C.S.C. Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching: Professor Jim McAdams and Professor Peter Walshe

Dockweiler Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising: Professor John Roos

2006

Kaneb Teaching Awards: Professor Fran Hagopian and Assoc. Director of Undergraduate Studies Josh Kaplan

Frank O’Malley Award: Assoc. Director of Undergraduate Studies Josh Kaplan

The Madden Award: Professor Eileen Hunt Botting

2005

Frank O’Malley Award: Assistant Professor Alvin Tillery

 

Faculty News

Department of Political Science Welcomes Two New Faculty Members

Notre Dame has made two hires this year.  Darren Davis in the American field and Vineeta Yadav in the Comparative field.

  • Darren Davis (M.A., Louisiana State; Ph.D., Univ. of Houston, 1994) will be joining the department in the fall. Professor Davis has particular expertise in public opinion, elections and voting behavior, political psychology, research methods and statistics, and racial politics.
  • Vineeta Yadav (M.A., University of Wisconsin-Madison; Ph.D., Yale University) will be joing the department in the fall. Assistant Professor Yadav specializes in comparative and international political economy with an emphasis on developing countries.

Anthony Messina writes new book on Europe's mass immigration

In his new Cambridge University Press book, The Logics and Politics of Post-WWII Migration to Western Europe, Tony Messina explores the phenomenon of Europe's recent experience with mass immigration and its domestic political and social fallout.   http://www.cambridge.org/catalogue/catalogue.asp?isbn=9780521528863.

Dan Lindley writes new book on information as a tool for peace

In his new book “Promoting Peace with Information,” just released by Princeton University Press, Professor Dan Lindley explores the idea that peacekeeping institutions such as the United Nations can reduce the risk of war by increasing transparency between adversaries.  More news>

Fran Hagopian awarded Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars fellowship

Fran Hagopian has been awarded a fellowship (for 2007-08) by the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars for her project "Reorganizing Political Representation in Latin America: Parties, Program and Patronage in Argentina, Brazil, Chile and Mexico."

Keir Lieber awarded an International Affairs Fellowship    

Keir Lieber was awarded an International Affairs Fellowship from the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).  The grant is intended to enable him to pursue his research project, "The Challenge of Nuclear Proliferation in an Era of U.S. Primacy," by spending a year in a policy making setting -- most likely at a high level in the National Security Council or Department of State .More news>

Dianne Pinderhughes elected President of the American Political Science Association (2007-2008)

Dianne Pinderhughes was elected to the forthcoming position of President of the American Political Science Association at the August 2006 meeting.  She holds the position of President-Elect during 2006-2007 and works with the current President of the Association, Robert Axelrod of the University of Michigan.  Pinderhughes is working at selecting the 2008 Program Co-Chairs, and identifying the leadership for the Association’s policymaking and award committees for the 2007-2008 year when she will be President.  She will be focusing on themes associated with the study of race, gender and class in the 2008 Meeting Theme, and in policy development for the American Political Science Association in the coming decades of the 21st century.

Rodney Hero to serve as president of the Midwest Political Science Association April 2007-April 2008

Rodney Hero will serve as president of the Midwest Political Science Association. His term as president begins in April 2007 and ends in April 2008. The Midwest Political Science Association is the discipline’s largest regional scholarly association.  Hero has served as president-elect during 2006-07.

Catherine Zuckert awarded NEH fellowship

Catherine H. Zuckert has been awarded a 2007-08 Fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities to write a book-length study of “Machiavelli’s politics.”    In contrast to Patrick Coby and in partial opposition to Quentin Skinner, she argues that Machiavelli used Rome to criticize Sparta as the model of republican government, but that having displaced the classical “aristocratic” notion of republicanism with a nascent model of checks and balances, he then became critical of Roman practice as well.  Machiavelli explicitly recognized that Roman conquests eventually destroyed freedom not only in the rest of the world but also in Rome itself.  Rome was not and could not, therefore, be simply the model of a free government.  Machiavelli was presenting and recommending a new understanding of republican politics. 

Machiavelli’s ideas about the basis and preservation of free government by means of checks and balances and defense by means of federation were adopted by Montesquieu and imported from his works into the formation of the United States.  Since Machiavelli’s ideas were combined with a teaching about natural rights whose foundations have been seriously, if not irremediably brought into question, it may be useful to look back at his more purely republican analysis.  Not only have Machiavellian ideas contributed to the formation of modern constitutional republics; he also seems to have identified the major political alternative.  In the midst of peoples devastated by wars, we have seen the emergence of series of “armed prophets,” beginning with Napoleon and his republican army, but including Lenin, Hitler, Stalin, and Mao, who organized their followers in a military fashion and forced them to continue “to believe.”  They founded “people’s republics,” but did not institute or maintain effective checks and balances. 

Anthony Messina awarded prize for "Best Article"

Anthony M. Messina was recently awarded a cash prize for co-authoring (with Gallya Lahav) the best article in the Journal of Common Market Studies in 2005.  The article, "The Limits of a European Immigration Policy" appeared in the November special issue on Migration and Minorities in Europe edited by Gwendolyn Sasse and Eiko Thielemann.

Guillermo O’Donnell Receives Lifetime IPSA award

Guillermo O’Donnell, Helen Kellogg Professor of Political Science, has been chosen as the first ever recipient of the prize for Lifetime Achievement by the International Political Science Association. O’Donnell presented a lecture and received the award at the IPSA World Congress in Fukuoka, Japan, in July 2006.

Wolbrecht Elected President of Midwest Women’s Caucus for Political Science

Christina Wolbrecht, Associate Professor of Political Science, has been elected President of the Midwest Women’s Caucus for Political Science.  Wolbrecht works in the area of women and politics and political parties.

 

Graduate Student News

Grad Student Wins Job at Bucknell

David Thunder, graduate student in political theory, has been appointed to a visiting assistant professor position at Bucknell.  Thunder works in the area of critiques of contemporary liberal theory.

Political Science Student Awarded First McWilliams Fellowship

Derek A. Webb, a doctoral student in political science from Wyncote, Pa., has been awarded the first Wilson Carey McWilliams Fellowship in American Politics and Political Theory from the Miller Center for Public Affairs at the University of Virginia. He was chosen from a field of 99 applicants across the country in a variety of fields that included history, political science, economics, American studies, international relations, and sociology.

Graduate Students Complete Sweep of Publications in Top Journals

During the last year, political science graduate students have had articles accepted by all three of what are generally regarded as the field’s top journals: American Political Science Review, The American Journal of Political Science, and The Journal of Politics.

The articles are:

  • “Drawing the Line of Equality: Hannah Mather Crocker on Women’s Rights” by Sarah Houser and Assistant Professor Eileen Hunt Botting, in American Political Science Review, May 2006
  • “Descriptive Representation and the Composition of African American Turnout” by Michael Keane and Assistant Professor John Griffin, forthcoming in The American Journal of Political Science
  • “A Rawlsian Argument Against the Duty of Civility” by David Thunder, forthcoming in The American Journal of Political Science
  • “Information, Expectations and Racial Differences in Accountability” by Patrick Flavin and Assistant Professor John Griffin, forthcoming in The Journal of Politics
  • “Morality in Politics” by Jeff Church, forthcoming in The Journal of Politics

Undergraduate Student News

McCullough Scholarship Winners

We are pleased to announce the winners of the first annual Sandra A. and John E. McCullough Scholarships, awarded to juniors and seniors who are planning a career in government, journalism, or politics.

Congratulations to all the winners!

  • John Avila
  • Stephen Bielecki
  • Christopher Brennan
  • John Busch
  • George Chamberlain
  • Andrea Laidma
  • Daniel Mahon
  • Cailan Remedios


Sophomores and juniors: consider applying next year.

Three Political Science majors received prestigious fellowships:

  • Rafael Diaz (senior) received the Pickering Fellowship
  • Monica Boomer (2007 graduate) received a Fulbright Fellowship
  • Naomi Hansen (2007 graduate) received the Humanity in Action Program Fellowship

Undergraduate book reviews accepted

The following book reviews were written by students in Professor Luc Reydams’ International Law course. They were submited to various journals and were accepted. Notre Dame Spotlight, May 15, 2007 (by Michael O. Garvey)

  • A review written by junior Paul Mower, of Nicole Deller’s “Rule of Power or Rule of Law? An Assessment of U.S. Policies and Actions Regarding Security-Related Treaties” has been accepted by the Journal of Conflict and Security Law.
  • A review of “The International Criminal Court: A Global Civil Society Achievement” by Marlies Glasius, written by non-degree-seeking student Arnaud Druelle, has been accepted by Criminal Law Forum.
  • Reviews of “The Limits of International Law” by Jack Goldsmith and Eric Posner, written by junior Catherine Kent and senior Tim Tryniecki were accepted by the Journal of International Law and International Relations and the International Community Law Review, respectively.
  • A review written by senior Caitlin May, of “Disarming Iraq,” by Hans Blix, was accepted by the Journal of Conflict and Security Law.
  • A review written by senior Will McAuliffe, of Jeremy Rabkin’s “The Case for Sovereignty: Why the World Should Welcome American Independence” was accepted by the International Organizations Law Review.

 

Political Science junior, Gary Barnabo, authors an article featured on the World Islamic Economic Forum

Mr. Barnabo's is the author of an article titled "Building a Worthwhile Future: Islam, Globalization and the WIEF Foundation" which is featured in the World Islamic Economic Form ( http://wief.org.my/ ).

Political Science Major Wins Alumni Award

Peter Quaranto, a political science major and peace studies minor, was selected as the recipient of the University of Notre Dame Alumni Association’s 2005–2006 Distinguished Student Award. Quaranto graduated in May with a 3.9 grade point average and is one of 43 students nationwide who won a 2006 Marshall Scholarship. During his time at Notre Dame, Quaranto and a fellow student founded the Uganda Conflict Action Network, an advocacy campaign working to bring peace to the war-torn country.

College of Arts & Letters