TEACHING AWARDS: A POLI TRADITION
Department of Political Science
Fall 2012
Volume 7, No. 1
POLI Newsletter
Greetings from the Chair
This edition of the Department’s Newsletter coincides with
the beginning of another very busy and exciting academic
year for our faculty, students and staff. Most exciting is
the addition to our ranks of several quite exceptional new
faculty, all six of whom are introduced on the inside pages
of this issue. Their presence is the result of our successful
hiring efforts last year, and they bring to twenty eight the
number of tenure-track faculty now in the department. We
need and expect to increase that number in the near future,
beginning with three searches now underway (for two positions in International Relations and one in Public Administration/Policy). These recent and future hires could not
happen without the continuing support of the Dean of our
College, Mary Anne Fitzpatrick, and our University Provost, Michael Amiridis. We are grateful to them, even as
we know that their support is appropriately conditioned on
our continuing success in meeting our mission to educate
our students, generate and disseminate knowledge, and
serve our local and more distant communities.
As all of our regular readers surely recall, the beginning of
this academic year was also marked by a most unusual
event, a celebration of the Department’s 75th Anniversary
on Friday, September 14. Described in greater detail inside
this edition of the Newsletter, the event included two truly
delightful and informative alumni panels in the afternoon,
followed by a reception for nearly one hundred alumni,
faculty, students and other friends of the department, and
then a dinner for about sixty guests, including the Dean and
Provost. I was able at the dinner to speak to both the extraordinary quality and the critical importance of our alumni, but I was unable, given time constraints, to describe in
any detailed fashion the equally extraordinary quality of
our past and present faculty, even though the success of our
alumni reflects in no small measure the devotion and diligence of the faculty. Hence, I want to take a moment here
to very briefly elaborate on this, focusing on the quality of
our current faculty.
It is certainly a hard working faculty. Our faculty teaches
over 5,000 students each year, and has nurtured for many
years well over 800 undergraduate majors in two undergraduate programs, and close to 100 graduate students in
the doctoral program and two professional programs.
Close mentoring of our graduate students is the norm, and
is manifest, for instance, in the large number of our doctoral students who produce and present professional conference papers, secure publications of their own research,
engage in independent teaching, and find positions in institutions of higher education throughout the nation and
world. At the same time, ever growing numbers of our
faculty are engaged in the business of closely mentoring
more and more undergraduates, whether in research activities, community work, the development of leadership
skills, study abroad, or preparation for prestigious scholarships and other awards.
The current faculty has also worked very hard producing
appropriate and up-to-date curricula that reflect the expectations of workforce employers and of admissions officers
at professional and graduate schools, and that reflect, too,
changes in the world of politics and in our ever-growing
knowledge base about that world, as well as changes in our
professional standards and expectations. Examples of this
Dan Sabia
Editor, Department Chair
Jill Frank
Vice-Chair
Lee Walker
Graduate Director
Mark Tompkins
MPA Director
Charles Finocchiaro
Undergraduate Director
Kirk Randazzo
Placement Director
Janis Leaphart
Undergraduate Coordinator
Melissa Gross
Administrative Assistant
Tyler Bledsoe
Technical Assistant
Kiel Downey
Internship Director
Volume 7, No. 1
USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
aspect of our work include ongoing revisions in and additions to
our undergraduate course offerings, our engagement with the
Business School in a cooperative Master of International Business degree program, a recent revision of our own Master of
International Studies degree program, and the equally recent
addition of a Minor in Leadership Studies housed in our department.
Of course the quality and success of our faculty is measured in a
great many other ways as well. We have for a long time been
able to boast of our deserved reputation in, especially, the fields
of International Relations and Public Law/Judicial Politics, but
in fact we have leading faculty in every major field in Political
Science, including in American and Comparative Politics, Political Methodology, Political Theory, and Public Administration/
Policy. The depth and breadth of our faculty is particularly impressive, now, in the field of Political Methodology. We have a
large and very promising contingent of junior faculty. And virtually all of our faculty members are publishing in increasing
numbers in the leading journals and university presses of the
discipline, and they continue to compete for and secure both
internal and external research grants. Their quality and success
are also evidenced by the many individuals who occupy positions of leadership throughout the discipline. Specifically, many
of our faculty serve or have recently served as elected and appointed leaders in professional associations, journal editors and
members of journal editorial boards, organizers of and hosts for
professional conferences, program and section leaders for professional conferences, makers and hosts of data resource bases,
and more.
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wider public, for instance by appearing at public events sponsored by the department and by other units within the University, as well as by public groups and organizations, and also by
agreeing to many media interviews and appearances. The faculty has in addition a long record of providing distinguished service to the wider University community. Todd Shaw and Laura
Woliver, for example, have played critical leadership and pedagogical roles in, respectively, the African-American and the
Women’s and Gender Studies interdisciplinary programs; Lee
Walker is Principal of the new Carolina International House,
while David Whiteman continues as Principal of the Greed Quad
Learning Center; Bob Oldendick has provided many years of
service as Director of the Institute for Public Service and Policy
Research, while Bob Cox has recently taken over as Director of
the Walker Institute for International and Area Studies; and Jill
Frank developed the College’s interdisciplinary Classics in Contemporary Perspectives Initiative and, more recently, has played
a critical role in the development of its new Social Advocacy
and Ethical Life Initiative in the Humanities.
As I said at the 75th Anniversary dinner celebration, the accomplishments and successes enjoyed by so many of our alumni are
due, in the main, to their own individual talent and hard work-the contribution made by a talented POLI faculty who welcomed, encouraged, nurtured and challenged them as students is
of secondary importance. Nevertheless, that secondary contribution, by a talented and dedicated faculty, has always been critical
to student success, and it is heartening to know that, among the
current department faculty, the supply of talent and dedication is
abundant.
This faculty also provides ongoing and valuable service to the
Department Welcomes New Faculty
We are delighted to announce and to welcome the addition of six new faculty members to the Department. Assistant Professors Kelan (Lilly) Lu, Terilan (Tima) Moldogaziev, and Douglas Thompson joined the Department this August. Assistant Professor Brad
Epperly has also joined the Department, but will be spending the academic year at the European University Institute in Italy. Professor Robert Cox, formerly at the University of Oklahoma, was appointed this summer as the new Director of the Walker Institute of
International and Areas Studies, and has joined the Department as a tenured full professor. Finally, the Department also welcomes
Adjunct Faculty Member Kiel Downey, who will be serving as the Department’s Internship Director and Director of its recently revised Masters of International Studies Program.
Robert Cox comes to USC after 23 years at the University of Oklahoma. At Oklahoma, he served as the
founding director of the School of International and Area Studies, an interdisciplinary program that during
his tenure grew from 17 to 430 undergraduate majors. In addition, he established and served as co-director
of OU's European Union Center, and received generous support from the European Commission in Brussels
to create a variety of programs to spread awareness of the EU in the United States. For the past ten years
Robert has been the co-editor of Governance, an academic journal that is rated among the top journals in
Political Science as well as Public Administration.
Robert Cox
Robert's research focuses on public policy challenges in Europe. He has written extensively on the creation, expansion and reform of welfare states in Europe. His recent research examines the politics of sustainability in Europe, a broad topic that encompasses reforms to pensions, public finances, environmental
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policy, immigration laws and labor market regulations. His most recent major publication is Ideas and Politics in Social Science Research (Oxford University Press, 2011) co-edited with Daniel Beland. This volume brings together a number of high profile scholars
who document how ideas about policy challenges allow politicians and policy entrepreneurs to build support for different policy options.
Robert will teach and work in our Department while also serving as Director of the Walker Institute for International and Area Studies.
He is excited about the opportunity to carry on the Walker Institute's strong legacy of raising awareness of international issues and
helping students and faculty internationalize the campus, and we in POLI are in turn excited about the expertise and experience he
brings to the department.
Kiel Downey
Kiel Downey received his undergraduate degree in International Relations and Linguistics from Stanford
University and a Master of Arts in Law and Diplomacy from the Fletcher School, Tufts University. Between his undergraduate and graduate education, Kiel spent two and a half years as a Program Officer for a
grant-making foundation in Taipei, where he administered grants for projects around the globe that focused on democracy, human rights, civil society, education, and governance issues. In this capacity, he
also planned and organized regional and international events, served as a mentor for the foundation’s interns, and edited publications. Immediately prior to joining USC, he was a Senior Research Associate at
the Congressional-Executive Commission on China (CECC), in Washington, DC. At the CECC, Kiel analyzed and reported on a variety of human rights and rule of law issues, including developments in conditions for China’s religious communities, conditions for its workers, and its criminal justice system. He
researched and authored occasional short analyses of these issues, as well as sections of the CECC’s annual reports, which are delivered to Congress and the President. He also provided background memoranda,
commentary on the language of letters and resolutions, and in-person briefings to Congressional and State
Department staff.
At the Fletcher School, Kiel’s research focused on intellectual property rights in China and technology transfer in the energy sector.
He is currently working on a related article for publication in the South Carolina Journal of International Law & Business. Kiel is professionally proficient in Mandarin Chinese and conversant in Cantonese and Spanish. He has translated academic articles, business
materials, and a full-length book from Chinese to English and has performed simultaneous interpretation in professional settings in
English, Mandarin Chinese, and Spanish. In addition to developing and administering internships for our undergraduate and MAIS
students, and serving the MAIS Program as Advisor, Kiel will be teaching in the Department; currently he is teaching our introductory
world politics course as well as a special topics class on human rights.
Brad Epperly received a BA in Politics from the University of California, Santa Cruz in 2002, and an MA in Russian Studies from the
European University, St. Petersburg in 2004. This year he received his PhD in Political Science from the University of Washington,
with emphases in comparative politics, political economy, and methods. While at UW he received research support from the US Department of Education, the European Commission, the American Bar Foundation, and the Ellison Center for Russian, East European,
and Central Asian Studies.
Brad's research focuses on political institutions and the rule of law and governance in the post-communist states of Eastern Europe and
the former Soviet Union and beyond. His dissertation argued that theories designed to explain judicial independence in democracies
apply and are in fact more important in non-democratic contexts. He has published work on political institutions in Comparative Political Studies, on the rule of law in an edited volume, and currently has multiple
papers under review.
During the 2012-13 academic year Brad is a Max Weber Fellow in the Political and Social Sciences at the
European University Institute in Florence, Italy. When he arrives in Columbia in August of 2013, he will
teach courses on comparative politics, including comparative law and politics, democratization, institutions, and post-communist politics.
Kelan Lu received her Masters degree in International Affairs and Administration from Missouri State
University in 2007, and her PhD in 2012 from the University of North Texas. Her specialization is in
Comparative/International Political Economy with an emphasis on Chinese politics. While at North Texas, Kelan taught introductory comparative politics courses, tutored undergraduates in SPSS, and won a
Kelan Lu
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Graduate Student Interdisciplinary Award.
Kelan’s research interests include decentralization of political power and its impact on foreign direct investment, gender studies, and
civil conflicts. Her dissertation examined the political determinants of investment locations by foreign firms in China. Kelan has already published articles in International Studies Perspectives, Pacific Affairs, and the Journal of Chinese Political Science.
Temirlan Moldogaziev received his undergraduate training in international economics and comparative
politics from the American University in Central Asia (AUCA), in addition to a year-long exchange program in Political Science at Valdosta State University in Georgia. His BA Honors dissertation surveyed
economic partnerships of Turkey and central Asian states in the wake of the collapse of the USSR. Tima
earned his MA in Political Science from Indiana University with primary interests in survey research,
group dynamics, and transitions to democracy. His PhD is also from Indiana, with concentrations in the
fields of Public Finance and Public Management, and a minor in statistical science. His dissertation surveyed pricing dynamics in primary and secondary municipal securities markets and the impact the recent
financial crisis has had on the municipal finance industry.
Tima’s primary research and teaching interests are in matters of financial intermediation, municipal securities pricing and liquidity, municipal debt market regulation, and econometric modeling and applications in
financial management. His work on municipal finance and public management has been published or is forthcoming in several journals including Public Finance Review, Public Budgeting & Finance, the Journal of Public Budgeting, Accounting, and Financial Management, American Review of Public Administration, Eurasian Journal of Business and Economics, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Tima has taught undergraduate courses in comparative politics and statistics for four years at AUCA
and undergraduate courses in financial management, public management, and statistics at Indiana for five years. Before his doctoral
studies, Tima consulted on survey research matters with the World Values Survey and the Small Arms Survey in the Kyrgyz Republic.
He has also served as the Deputy Director for the Organization for Security & Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Academy in Bishkek. A
native of Kyrgyzstan, Tima speaks Russian and Kyrgyz languages fluently in addition to English.
Temirlan Moldogaziev
Doug Thompson received his BA and MA in French Studies from UMass Amherst, and his PhD in Political Science from Northwestern University. At Northwestern Doug concentrated in the field of Political
Theory, and served as Assistant Editor of Political Theory: An International Journal of Political Philosophy, widely regarded as the premier journal in that field.
Doug’s research interests include the history of political thought, with a special focus on Renaissance and
early-modern political ideas; contemporary theories of democratic citizenship; and religion and politics.
His current research project involves turning to the Essais of Michel de Montaigne as a historical resource
for imagining contemporary citizenship practices in new ways. His article, “Fortuna’s Revenge: Montaigne’s Critique of Classical Virtue,” appeared recently in Montaigne Studies; another article,
“Montaigne’s Political Education: Raison d’État in the Essais,” is forthcoming in History of Political
Thought. This semester, Doug is teaching the introductory course to social and political philosophy as well
as a course in contemporary political thought.
Doug Thompson
Department’s 75th Anniversary Celebration
The Department’s 75th Anniversary, celebrated on Friday, September 14, was on all accounts a huge success. Particularly
successful—and great fun--were the two well-attended alumni
panels, which were held on campus during the afternoon. Both
panels enabled a diverse group of alumni to reminisce about
their experiences in the department and at Carolina, to recognize and thank favorite teachers and classes or seminars, and to
share with the audience and amongst themselves memorable
events and lessons learned. Many of the panelists earned their
doctorates in the Department, but many others earned their
bachelor degrees here and then went on to graduate schools
elsewhere, or to law schools, or moved directly to the “real”
world. Whatever their degree(s), and wherever they went, they
all have made a real mark on others, and on other communities
and institutions. The first of the two panels, populated by alums who earned their PhDs in the Department, focused on how
their graduate education shaped and helped their careers, including, in several cases, careers that included administrative
positions. The second of the two panels, comprised of panelists
with deep community and political connections, discussed the
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USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
effect of their educations on their careers, and also engaged in
an insightful and lively discussion of the past and current state
of South Carolina politics.
The first panel, pictured below, was chaired by Dr. Lois Duke
of the Department of Political Science at Georgia Southern
University. Lois earned her PhD in our Department in 1986,
and she went on to teach at Auburn, Alabama, and Clemson
(where she became the first female full professor in its Political
Science Department), before moving on to Georgia Southern.
Her panel included five other political scientists, three of
whom, like Lois, received their PhDs in the Department: Drs.
Shannon Blanton, Mary Guy, and Stefanie Lindquist.
Shannon is currently the Vice Provost for Undergraduate Programs and a Professor of Political Science at the University of
Memphis. She received her doctorate in 1986, working with
Emeritus Distinguished Professor Charles Kegley in the area
of International Relations, a relationship that continues as she
and Chuck are co-authors of the widely used text, World Politics: Trend and Transformation. Mary Guy received her degree
in 1981, and is currently a Professor in the School of Public
Affairs at the University of Colorado, Denver. An eminent
academic, a Fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration, and a past President of both the Southern Political
Science Association and the American Society for Public Administration, Mary has received numerous awards for her research, leadership and mentoring. Stefanie is currently an Associate Dean and a Chaired Professor in Law at the University
of Texas Law School, and holds a courtesy appointment as Professor of Government as well. She earned her PhD in judicial
politics in 1996, and she also earned a law degree from Temple
University in 1988. Stefanie has also held positions at Vanderbilt and Georgia, and she once clerked for the Honorable Anthony J. Scirica at the U. S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia.
From right to left, Dr. Mary Guy, Dr. Ken Benoit, Dr. Jamie Monogan, Dr.
Lois Duke, Dr. Shannon Blanton, and Dr. Stefanie Lindquist. At the podium, introducing the panel, is Department Chair Dan Sabia.
Also on the first panel were Drs. Kenneth Benoit and Jamie
Monogan. Ken is Professor of Quantitative Political Methodology at the London School of Economics and Political Sci-
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ence, and he also holds the Chair in Quantitative Social Sciences at Trinity College, Dublin, where he taught full time from
1998-2010. Ken graduated from USC in 1991 with honors
from the South Carolina Honors College as a major in Political
Science, and earned his PhD in 1998 from the Department of
Government at Harvard. Jamie also received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from USC, in 2003. He earned
his doctorate from the University of North Carolina in 2010,
where he developed his current specializations in political
methodology and American political behavior. He is now an
Assistant Professor of Political Science at the University of
Georgia.
From left to right Dr. Steve Dillingham, Mayor Steve Benjamin, Dr. Fred
Carter, Dana Bruce, Thad Westbrook, and Otis Rawl, Jr.
The second panel, pictured above, was chaired by Dr. Steve
Dillingham. Steve earned his PhD from this Department in
1987, and he also holds a MBA from George Washington University, a Master of Laws from Georgetown University, a JD
from our USC Law School, and even a MPA from our Department. He is currently Director of the Office of Registration and
Safety Information for the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration in the Department of Transportation. He has
served for 25 years in numerous federal agencies, including
agencies within the Departments of Energy, Justice, and Transportation. In 2008-09, Steve served as Senior Rule of Law Advisor to the Departments of Justice and of State in the U. S.
Embassy in Baghdad. He has also worked in the private and
non-profit sectors, and has engaged in university teaching, including here at USC in the Department of Criminal Justice and
at George Mason University. Steve is a loyal and active member of the Department’s Partnership Board.
Steve’s panel included Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin, a
1991 graduate of our undergraduate program in Political Science, who earned three years later a law degree from our USC
Law School. Elected in 2010, Steve is the first black mayor of
South Carolina’s capital city, and his good work has already
drawn national attention and accolades; he was, for instance,
named one of the 100 most influential African Americans in
USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
Volume 7, No. 1
2011 by The Washington Post. The Mayor was joined on the
panel by Dana Bruce, who earned a MA in our International
Studies Program in 2004, and who then worked as a program
coordinator in the Office of International Support for Faculty
and Staff here at USC, before joining the Palmetto Chapter of
the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, where she now
serves as Executive Director. When not raising millions of
dollars and doing all her other good work for the Foundation,
Dana teaches international relations as an adjunct professor at
Midlands Technical College. A fourth member of this panel
was Dr. and University President Luther Fredrick Carter,
President of Francis Marion University since 1999. Fred
earned his PhD from our Department in 1979, and has served
both the academy and the public, perhaps most notably as a
faculty member and also Chair of the Political Science Department at the College of Charleston and later in time Executive
Director of the South Carolina Budget and Control Board. He
is the author of many books and articles, a community as well
as academic leader, and the winner of many honors and
awards. He is also a retired colonel in the U. S. Marine Corps
Reserve.
Yet another distinguished alumnus on this panel was Otis B.
Rawl, Jr., the President and Chief Executive Officer of the
South Carolina Chamber of Commerce. Otis earned his BA
from our Department in 1977, and served for decades as a distinguished South Carolina public servant, mostly in the Department of Revenue in several positions of leadership. After
retirement from state government, Otis took the position of
Vice President of Public Policy for the Chamber in 2001, and
three years later was given the additional responsibility of
Chief Operating Officer. He assumed his current position as
President and CEO in October of 2008. The fifth member of
the panel was Thad Westbrook, a 1996 USC Honors College
graduate with a BA from our Department. Currently a partner
at the Columbia law firm of Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough, Thad earned his law degree from our USC Law
School in 1999. He is a member of the South Carolina Supreme Court’s Committee on Character and Fitness, an active
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member of both the ABA and the SC Bar, and a community
leader in many roles, including member of the Board of Trustees of our University.
Unable at the last minute to attend as the sixth member of this
panel was SC State Representative James Emerson Smith,
Jr. James earned his BA from our Department in 1990, and
his law degree in 1995 from our Law School. He was elected
to the House of Representatives in 1996, and served for many
years in a variety of roles in that body, including Chief Minority Whip and Minority Leader. He was re-elected to the House
in 2010, and currently serves as First Vice-Chair of the Judiciary Committee. James runs his own law firm, is President of
The Congaree Group of Columbia, and he is also a Captain
and Executive Officer of 1-118th Combined Arms Battalion in
the SC Army National Guard--he served in Afghanistan and
was awarded the Combat Infantryman’s Badge, the Bronze
Star, and the Purple Heart. An active community leader too,
James was awarded the Outstanding Young Alumni Award
from our University in 1997, and the Distinguished Service
Award from our College in 2010. We missed his presence at
the event.
After the panels, a very large group—the panelists and their
guests, other distinguished alumni and department friends,
retired and current POLI faculty, and a number of POLI graduate students—enjoyed themselves at a reception held at the Inn
at USC. That event was followed by a dinner for 60 guests,
which included, among others, the panelists and our Dean, Dr.
Mary Anne Fitzpatrick and our University Provost, Dr. Michael Amiridis. The featured speaker was our great friend
and Partnership Board member, Adjunct Professor Dr. Donald
Fowler. A former faculty member of the Department, Don
shared a few of his memories about the department and the
University, as well as his wisdom on the current state of our
politics. A good time was had by all. Our only regret is that
we could not include at all the events the many thousands of
our alumni and all of our retired faculty.
Other Events
th
In addition to the 75 Anniversary Celebration, the Department has organized
and sponsored several other events during the Fall semester. The first two of
these events were part of the visit to USC
of Dr. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo, a wellknown proponent of global human rights
and of women’s rights in Iran, and a former member of the Iranian Parliament.
She served from 2000-2004, and was the
first member to resign when the anti-
reform Guardian Council banned thousands of reformist candidates from the 7th
Parliamentary election in that country. A
former academic at Tehran University,
Dr. Haghighatjoo was on campus for a
two week visit as a Provost Visiting
Scholar, brought here through the collaborative efforts of the POLI Department
and the Department of Religious Studies,
the Women’s and Gender Studies Program, and the Walker Institute of Inter-
national and Area Studies. The Department took the lead in organizing, first, a
talk by Dr. Haghighatjoo on August 30
on “Islam, Politics, and Gender Equality
Movements,” and then, on September 5,
a Panel discussion, on which Dr.
Haghighatjoo served as a member, focused on the Iran nuclear controversy.
She was joined in this discussion by
three other panelists, POLI Professor
Harvey Starr, POLI Adjunct Faculty
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USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
member Dr. Josef Olmert, and Law
School Professor Dr. Tommy Crocker.
Walker Institute Director and POLI Professor Robert Cox served as the Panel
Moderator. Both events, held in the
evening in Gambrell Hall, were open to
the public and well-attended.
The Department again this year organized and helped sponsor the Annual
Constitution Day lecture for the University and surrounding community. The
speaker this year was political theorist
Dr. Robert Martin, Professor and Chair
of the Department of Government at
Hamilton College in New York. Professor Martin’s research has focused principally on American political thought. His
lecture, entitled “Occupying Philadelphia
in 1787: The Constitution’s Critics and
the Birth of the American Democratic
Culture,” took place on Constitution
Day, September 17, at 7pm in Gambrell
Hall Auditorium. Sponsors included the
Office of the Provost, the College of Arts
and Sciences, and the School of Law, in
addition to the Department.
On Wednesday October 3, Morely
Winograd delivered a fascinating lecture
about the millennial generation. Along
with Michael Hais, Mr. Winograd has
authored two books on the millennials—
including their political and social attitudes and behavioral characteristics—the
first entitled Millennial Makeover:
MySpace, YouTube and the Future of
American Politics (2008), the second
Millennial Momentum: How a New Generation is Remaking America (2011).
The two authors have lectured around the
country, and are considered leading authorities on this generation of young
Americans. Winograd is a Senior Fellow
at the University of Southern California’s
Annenberg School’s Center on Commu-
nication Leadership and Policy. He has
served as a senior policy advisor to Vice
President Al Gore and Director of the
national Partnership for Reinventing
Government from December 1997January 2001. His visit and lecture were
arranged by Adjunct Professor Donald
Fowler.
With support from the Provost’s Office,
the College of Arts and Sciences, the
Philosophy Department, and the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures, the Department hosted the Tenth
Annual Conference of the Association
for Political Theory October 11-13.
Founded in 2000, the APT has well over
1200 members from colleges and universities across the globe (as well as copycat
organizations in at least a few other
countries). It is devoted to promoting
scholarly exchange between and among
political theorists and political philosophers, and the value and place of political theory and political philosophy inside
and outside the academy. About 150
participants participated in the conference, held at the Clarion Hotel on October 11 and 12, and on the campus, principally in Gambrell Hall, on October 13.
Dan Sabia and Jill Frank, and also Justin Weinberg of the Philosophy Department, were the individual hosts; Dan is
one of the founding members of APT.
Four faculty members of the Department
will serve as panelists to discuss the
2012 November elections on Monday
evening, October 29, in Gambrell Hall
Auditorium.
This open-to-the-public
event should prove especially popular
since it is slated only one week before
Election Day. Donald Fowler, an Adjunct faculty member in the Department
and the USC Honors College, and a former South Carolina and National Demo-
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cratic Party Chair, will lead and moderate the Panel. The panelists include
Professors Charles Finocchiaro, Robert
Oldendick, Todd Shaw, and Laura
Woliver. Organized and hosted by the
Department, the event is also supported
by the College of Arts and Sciences.
Cheryl Benton, Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for the U. S. State Department’s Bureau of Public Affairs, will
be visiting the Department and University on October 23, 2012. Included in her
planned visit is an expected talk on U. S.
Foreign Policy Priorities of the Obama
Administration, and also a discussion of
current programs and opportunities for
students at the Department of State. The
audience will include the students in
Professor Amanda Licht’s POLI 330
(International Organization) class, which
meets in that room at that time.
Polifest aims each Fall semester to help
our undergraduate majors identify, learn
about, and secure the many opportunities
and resources available to them. This
year’s Polifest, organized by Undergraduate Director Charles Finocchiaro, will
take place on October 24 and 26. It will
include three workshops for our majors
and also for our Masters’ students. The
first will be led by Adjunct Professor
Kiel Downey, the Department’s new
Internship Director, and it will focus on
both the value of internship experiences
and resume writing. The second will be
led by Professor Kirk Randazzo; it will
focus on self-marketing. The third will
be led by Professor Finocchiaro and Career Center staff member Alicia Bervine,
and it aims to deepen students’ understanding of the strategies and resources
they can pursue to increase their chances
of success in finding internships and
jobs.
Undergraduate News
Each Fall semester, we are proud to recognize and pleased to congratulate the many POLI students who were awarded various honors during University Awards Day, held late in the Spring semester. This Spring, sixteen of our students won a variety of awards.
Janet Abena Amparpeng won the Rising Senior Award in International Studies, Caroline Cease won an Outstanding Senior
Award in Sociology, Rachel Despres was named Outstanding Junior in International Studies, Christopher Fedalei won the Josiah
Morse Award in Philosophy, Daniel Hains was named a USC Outstanding Senior and was named to Who’s Who Among Students
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in American Colleges and Universities, Anna Janosik won the Hampton Rogers Award in History, Scott Maclatchie was named
the Outstanding Senior in Political Science, Auriel Matin won the Rising Senior Award in Political Science and also Outstanding
Junior in Political Science, Sneha Minisandram won a Rising Senior Award in Languages, Neha Parthasarathy won the Maximillian Laborde Award in English, Taylor Seale received the Phi Beta Kappa Freshman Award, Alexander Severson was named
to Who’s Who, James Strickland was also named to Who’s Who and won recognition as a USC Outstanding Senior, Laura
Smentek and Warren Durrett were both named Fulbright Scholars, and Jasmine Whelan was named a USC Outstanding Senior, the Outstanding Senior in International Studies, and was named to Who’s Who.
In addition, many of our students were also inducted into honor societies Pi Sigma Alpha and Sigma Iota Rho on Awards Day.
Sigma Iota Rho inductees were Eleanor Brown, Rachel Despres, Anna Estes, Charles Justin Henry, Russell Moss, Jr., Hannah Odio, Julianne Rhinebeck, Brittany Walls and Colby Wilborn. Pi Sigma Alpha inductees were Kyle Applegate, Lauren
Armatis, Kristy Baker, David Beamer, Michael Englehart, Anne Evangelista, Robert Gibson, Meghan Green, Auriel Matin, Austin McCullough, Danya Nayfeh, Hannah Odio, Taylor Owens, Emily Padget, Neha Parthasarathy, Megan Root, Jillian Rosche, Jared Smith, Matthew Snyder, Emily Washburn, Samanth Watson, and Alyssa Weeks.
Janet Abena Amparpeng, the POLI International Studies major who won the Rising Senior Award in that major, attended the
Emerging Scholars Mini-Conference at the University of Michigan, September 20-22, 2012. Abena was one of nine students and
five undergraduates to attend and present work at the mini-conference. Abena presented the paper “Women and Executive Power:
Citizens’ View of Women Executives in Ghana and Liberia.” The Emerging Scholars Mini Conference aims to encourage young
scholars to attend graduate school in political science, and to encourage these emerging scholars to consider attending the University of Michigan. The meeting was hosted by professors and graduate students of the University of Michigan’s Department of Political Science. One of the graduate students who helped host the meeting was our own Hakeem Jefferson (BA Political Science
2011), currently a doctoral student in Political Science at Michigan.
Kathryn Miles has been chosen by the National Security Education Program (NSEP) for a yearlong Boren Scholarship which will
support her language and culture study in China. Kathryn is a senior majoring in Political Science and Dance. She is a member of
the Department’s Undergraduate Advisory Committee, an International Dinner volunteer, and a member of the USC Dance Company. She has developed her interest in both political science and dance through research conducted this past spring entitled The
Politics of Dance, which compared dance during the Chinese Cultural Revolution and dance in American political culture. Her
Boren Scholarship has taken her to Nanjing, where she continues to study and write about the relationship between dance and political culture in modern-day China, while also focusing on the impact of public affairs on Sino-US relations. Interested in East
Asian International Relations, Mandarin Chinese, and dance in political culture, Kathryn hopes to one day work in the Department
of State.
David L. Boren Scholarships and Fellowships are sponsored by the National Security Education Program (NSEP), and are intended
to build a broader and more qualified pool of U.S. citizens with foreign language and international skills. In exchange for funding,
Boren award recipients agree to work in the federal government for a period of at least one year. Upon learning of the award,
Kathryn said, “Finding out that I got the Boren was one of the most exciting moments of my life and I am so honored to have been
chosen. This would not have been possible without the support of my family, friends, and many professors and advisors, to whom I
am extremely grateful. I am thrilled that I get to embark on this once-in-a-lifetime adventure and do what I love.”
As noted above, two POLI undergraduates, Warren Durrett and Laura Smentek, have won Fulbright Scholarships to engage in
study abroad. The highly competitive Fulbright Program provides participants with the opportunity to study, teach or conduct research, exchange ideas and contribute to finding solutions to shared international concerns in over 155 countries.
Warren majored in International Studies and was a May graduate of the South Carolina Honors College (Dan Sabia was his Thesis Director).
He is a member of Phi Beta Kappa, and the recipient of the Confucius Institute Chinese Ambassador Award. On campus, Warren
was active with the English Tutoring Program, as well as the Professional Society of International Studies. For the past three
years, he participated in relief work in Chinese Earthquake Zones. Because Warren plans to earn his PhD in International Relations and Political Economy at the University of Washington, he hopes to be able to use his Fulbright in the future for dissertation
research. Laura is also a May graduate of South Carolina Honors College, having majored in International Studies and minored in
Chinese Studies. She is the recipient of the Palmetto Fellows Scholarship, the Dean’s Leadership Scholarship, and the Patricia
Ann Tangney Dumiak Honors College Scholarship for Political Science, and a member of Sigma Iota Rho and Phi Beta Kappa.
She was awarded a Critical Languages Scholarship for studying Chinese in 2011, and tutored students in English both in China and
through USC’s EPI program. A student worker in the Honors College, she also spent several months as an intern with the Conser-
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USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
Page 9
vation Voters of South Carolina. Following her year in Taiwan teaching English, Laura plans to attend law school and pursue a
career in international law, environmental policy, and US-Chinese relations.
Congratulations are also due Hannah Odio, a senior majoring in International Studies, for winning the Kenneth E. Haas Memorial
Scholarship Award. This one-time award was given by the Department after a highly competitive process among rising International Studies seniors.
Graduate Student News
Hearty congratulations are due Will Jennings, who received
his PhD in May, and to Michael Martindale, Soonkun Oh,
and Jennifer Tyson who received their doctoral diplomas in
August. Will has served for several years as a full time Lecturer at the University of Tennessee, and he was able to complete
his dissertation on economic integration in southern Africa by
working closely with Professors Dan Sabia and Anu
Chakravarty. Michael and Soonkun both worked under the
supervision of Professor Harvey Starr; Michael is now at the
Air Force Academy (in the Department of Military and Strategic Studies), and Soonkun, as one might infer from the picture
below (he is on the right), is now completing his service to the
Korean Navy as Lieutenant Commander Oh on his ship
“Sejong the Great.” Jennifer’s dissertation was directed by
Professor Laura Woliver.
Graduate Student Research Conference. The theme of the Conference is “Political Change in the 21st Century,” and it is
hoped that students from throughout the United States will present papers and that undergraduates will present posters. Sponsored by the PSGSO and the Department, the event will take
place on Saturday, February 23, at the Inn at USC. The keynote address will be delivered by Professor Donald P. Green of
Columbia University.
Both Melissa Beaudoin and Soonkun Oh received Departmental and Walker Institute support to attend the 2012 Consortium for Qualitative Research Methods during this past summer.
Clay Fuller will be presenting a paper on “The Dictator’s
Toolkit” at the Southern Political Science Association annual
meeting in Orlando, Florida in January. Clay will also be presenting at that conference a co-authored paper with fellow doctoral student Paige Price entitled “Non-Democracy With (or
as) Adjectives: Attributive and Structural Typologies.” Yet
more, Clay will be presenting a solo paper at the International
Studies Association annual meeting in San Francisco next April
on “The Institutionalization of Collective Action in NonDemocracies: Special Economic Zones,” and a co-authored
paper with POLI Professor Lee Walker on “The Persistence of
Autocracy: A Process Model of Authoritarian Regime Survival."
T.J. Kimmel will be publishing his article, co-authored with
POLI Professor Kirk Randazzo, on “Shaping the Federal
Courts: The Obama Nominees,” in Social Science Quarterly
(forthcoming).
Congratulations are also due two students who received the
MA in Political Science, Nicholas Mostardo in May, and Ashley Burnside in August. And to five students who were awarded the MAIS degree in May: Thomas Boland, Katherine Conyers, Travis Leitko, Jason Simmons, and Muhammad Samat. And to the nine students who received their MPA degrees, all in May: Benjamin Bullock, Jamie Coslett, Celia
Goetowki, Richard Jones III, Lauren Parker, Jamie Rush,
Robert Sinners, Andrew Walker, and Rebecca Wych.
Hsiao-chuan (Mandy) Liao was awarded an Academia Sinica
Fellowship for Doctoral Candidates in the Humanities and Social Sciences for 2011-12 by the Institute of Political Science,
Academia Sinica, Taipei, Taiwan (considered the pre-eminent
academic institution in Taiwan). Mandy also delivered a talk at
the Academia Sinica on May 10, entitled “The Relationship
Between States’ Dissatisfaction and the Level of Conflict In
State Dyads.”
Our graduate students, organized as the Political Science Graduate Students Organization, are busy preparing for a spring
Monica Lineberger will be presenting two papers at the Southern Political Science Association’s annual meeting in January,
Volume 7, No. 1
USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
one co-authored with Professor Lee Walker on "Judicial Decision Making and Regime Change: The Attitudinal versus the
Legal Model in Nicaragua," and a single-authored paper entitled "A Comparative Analysis of Human Rights Litigation of
the European Union.”
Ali Masood, with POLI Professor Donald Songer, will be publishing a forthcoming article on “Re-evaluating Decision Making Models: The Role of Summary Decisions in U. S. Supreme
Court Analysis,” in the Journal of Law and Courts. Also, Ali
will be presenting two papers at the annual Southern Political
Science Association meeting in January, one on “Deciding
How To Decide: Re-evaluating Decision Making Stages in U.
S. Supreme Court Decision Making,” and the other on “A
Cross-National Analysis of Gender Effects on Judicial Outcomes” (with Professor Songer). Ali was also scheduled to
present a paper co-authored with doctoral candidate Ben Kassow and entitled “Uncertain Compliance, Salient Decisions?
Compliance with U. S. Supreme Court Decisions,” at the hurri-
Page 10
cane-cancelled annual meeting of the APSA in September.
Doctoral candidate Alex Nicholson’s book, Fighting to Serve:
Behind the Scenes in the War to Repeal D
" on’t Ask, Don't Tell
was recently published by Chicago Review Press (2012). It
tells the story of the struggle to repeal Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
and for gay rights in the military based on Alex’s insider view
as the founder and Director of Servicemembers United, the
nation’s largest organization of gay and lesbian military service
members.
Doctoral student Paul White will be presenting two papers at
the January annual meeting of the Southern Political Science
Association, one on "Not For the People or By the People: Special Interest Congruency In the American Democratic Process" (co-authored with Anthony Daniels), and "Southern Political Culture: Friedrich Nietzsche and Antonio Gramsci in Dixie."
Alumni News
Daniel Hains, a May 2012 Honors College/Political Science graduate whose
Honors Thesis focused on reforming our
K-12 public school system, is working
on the Young Advocates Leadership
Training Program for the Children’s Defense Fund in Washington, D. C. Daniel
won the position after being interviewed
by well-known activist and founder of
the Children’s Defense Fund, Marian
Wright Edelman.
Scott Howell received the Dean’s Award
at USC’s College of Arts and Sciences’
annual Recognition of Excellence Dinner
on March 30 of this year. Mr. Howell
received a BA in Political Science in
1983, and is considered one of the top
political media strategists in the country.
He formed his own political advertising
firm, Scott Howell & Company in 1993,
called by The Washington Post one of
the most impressive political firms of the
last decade. Mr. Howell is also President
and CEO of The Wolf Group, a nonpartisan, strategic messaging firm, and
serves on the College’s Board of Visitors
and a variety of business and professional organizations.
Genevieve Kehoe, who earned her PhD
in the Spring of 2011, is serving as a
Visiting Professor at Goucher College.
Also at the College’s annual Recognition
of Excellence Dinner, Nicholas Ray
Morris was honored with the College’s
Distinguished Young Alumnus Award.
Nicholas earned his BA in Political Science in 2008. While at Carolina, he
joined the South Carolina National
Guard and, in 2009, transferred to the
Iowa National Guard with the hope of
being deployed in 2010. In October of
that year, he was deployed to Afghanistan as a 1st Lieutenant with the 34th Infantry Division. While on a mission, in
June of 2011, Nicholas’s vehicle encountered an IED and he suffered severe bodily damage and trauma ultimately requiring, among other things, the amputation
of his right leg. He was transported to
Walter Reed Military Medical Center,
where he now resides with his wife, Caroline, whom he met while at Carolina.
He has since made tremendous progress
in his rehabilitation.
Upon receiving his PhD from this Department in 2008, Lucas McMillan
secured a position as Assistant Professor
at Lander University in Greenwood, SC.
His exemplary teaching, research
productivity and service at Lander was
recently recognized by his being awarded
the Monica Martin Stranch Endowed
Professorship. Lucas is the first untenured faculty member at Lander ever to
win this prestigious award.
Lorri Shealy Unumb received her BA
in Political Science and Journalism in
1990, before earning a law degree from
the USC Law School. In 2010, Lorri and
her husband founded the Autism Academy of South Carolina, a nonprofit organization that serves children and families
affected by autism. For this work she
was recently selected as a finalist for the
NASCAR Foundation’s Betty Jane Humanitarian Award, a prestigious honor
that included a $25,000 donation to the
Autism Academy, and that could secure
for the Academy another $100,000 if the
public selects Lorri as their favorite finalist for the award. You can vote for
her by going to this website: NASCAR.com/award before November 30,
2012. The winner will be announced on
November 30th at NASCAR Champions
Week in Las Vegas. Our fingers are
crossed.
Volume 7, No. 1
USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
Page 11
FacultyNews
Katherine Barbieri was recently elected to the Correlates of
War Advisory Board.
Harvey has accepted an invitation to join the Editorial Board of
the Asian Journal of Peacebuilding.
David Darmofal, currently on sabbatical and serving as a Visiting Scholar in the Department of Political Science at the University of Michigan, served as Program Co-Chair for the 2012
Midwest Political Science Association annual conference,
which was held in Chicago from April 12-15. The conference
featured more than 5,200 presenters from the United States and
55 other countries. The conference’s Pi Sigma Alpha speaker
was Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer. Over the summer,
David also provided a number of media interviews on electoral
politics, including for the SC Radio Network, The Atlantic, and
the Italian newspaper Il Riformista.
Lee Walker, who serves as the Department’s Graduate Director, was recently appointed the first Principal of the Carolina
International House at Maxcy College. Fluent in Spanish and
affiliated with the Latin American Program, the Walker Institute, and the Rule of Law Initiative, Lee has extensive experience mentoring both undergraduate and graduate students, including taking undergraduate students to Central America in
2009, 2010, and 2011 to assist in field research. With his
strong affinity for international students and U. S. students interested in international issues, Lee is committed to fostering a
vibrant international living-learning community in the new International House. The House opened this Fall semester with
about 180 students from around the world.
Distinguished Professor Emeritus Bill Kreml’s latest book,
The Bias of Temperament in American Politics, has been accepted for publication by the Carolina Academic Press
(Durham, NC). When not writing, Bill has among other things
been serving as an active member of the Bosnian Constitution
working group at DePaul University.
Dan Sabia’s article, “Democratic/Utopian Education,” appears
in Utopian Studies (October, 2012) 21:374-405.
During the Spring semester, Todd Shaw was nominated for
election to the American Political Science Association Executive Council.
Don Songer, with co-authors Susan Johnson, C.L. Ostberg, and
Matthew Wetstein, has published Law, Ideology and Collegiality: Judicial Behaviour in the Supreme Court of Canada
(McGill-Queen’s University Press, 2012). And with former
student Michael Fix and current student Ben Kassow, Don has
published an article on “The Influence of Precedent on State
Supreme Courts” in Political Research Quarterly 65: 372-384.
Don has in addition co-authored two professional conference
papers, the first with former student Tajuana Massie and POLI
colleague Kirk Randazzo, on “A Comparative Assessment of
the Politics of Judicial Retirement in Canada and the United
Kingdom” which, because of the hurricane, could not be presented at the Annual Meeting of the American Political Science Association in New Orleans this past September. The
second paper, with Rob Christensen and former student John
Szmer on “Diversity, Conflict, and Performance: Observational
Analysis from the Supreme Court of Canada, 1976-2005,” was
presented at the European Group for Public Administration
conference in Bergen, Norway, September 5-8.
Harvey Starr’s book, On Geopolitics: Space, Place, and International Relations (Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers) is currently in press and scheduled for an early 2013 release. Also,
David Whiteman’s article, co-authored with Meredith Powers
and entitled “Environmental Leadership Through Campus Project Teams: Green Structures for Linking Students, Faculty,
and Staff,” appears in Deborah Rigling Gallagher, ed., Environmental Leadership (Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, 2012).
During the Spring semester, Laura Woliver was awarded a
competitive Teaching Excellence Grant sponsored by the Center for Teaching Excellence and the Carolina Leadership Initiative.
Neal Woods has co-authored three recent articles with David
Konisky: “Environmental Free Riding in State Water Pollution
Enforcement,” in State Politics and Policy Quarterly 12:3
(September) 227-251; “Measuring State Environmental Policy,” in Review of Policy Research 29:4 (July) 544-569; and
“Environmental Policy,” in Politics in the American States,
10th ed. Virginia Gray, Russell L. Hanson, and Thad Kousser,
eds. Washington, DC: CQ Press.
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If you know of anyone who is an alumnus of the Department, or who simply wants to be informed of what is going on
in the Department, please let us know so that we can add their name to our Newsletter distribution list. Of course,
we are especially interested in hearing news from alumni. Send your news or suggestions to: Professor Dan Sabia,
Chair, Department of Political Science, Gambrell Hall, University of South Carolina, Columbia, S.C. 29208.
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