TEACHING AWARDS: A POLI TRADITION
Department of Political Science
Spring 2012
Volume 6, No. 2
POLI Newsletter
Greetings from the Chair
The current academic year is nearly over, and that is always a
good time to look back several months and identify major accomplishments. I want very briefly to describe three of our recent
accomplishments in this space, but inside this issue of the Newsletter you will read about many other accomplishments and
achievements of our Department, its students and faculty and
alumni.
The first accomplishment concerns our success at faculty recruitment. As I described in the last issue of the Newsletter, the Department was authorized to recruit for five new faculty members.
In addition, the College planned to recruit a senior scholar to
serve as the new Director of the Walker Institute of International
and Area Studies, a hire that we hoped would be a political scientist. During the Fall and Spring semesters, we interviewed a
number of bright, young, prospective faculty, and I am pleased to
report that we have succeeded in hiring three of them, and fully
expect to hire a fourth. One of the new hires works in the area of
Public Administration and hails from Indiana University, a second has been trained in Comparative Politics with expertise in
Asia and China and will be coming to us from North Texas University, and the third, from the University of Washington, is also
a Comparative Politics specialist with particular interest in the
rule of law. The fourth, expected, hire, specializes in the field of
Political Theory. All four of these new hires will be formally
introduced to you in the Fall Newsletter, after they arrive here in
August. I hope also to introduce at that time yet another new
hire, as the search for a new Walker Institute Director has resulted
in what is expected to be a formal offer being made to a senior
political scientist. If successful, this individual would also become a valued addition to the Department.
The second achievement relates to another matter mentioned in
the last Newsletter. The year 2012 marks the Department’s 75th
Anniversary, and considerable progress has been made on our
plans to mark that remarkable fact with a September celebration
Dan Sabia
Editor, Department Chair
Kirk Randazzo
Placement Director
Jill Frank
Vice-Chair
and, also, a fund-raising campaign. We have been organizing a
day of celebration for September 14 that will include panels of
alumni followed by a reception and dinner at the Inn at USC.
Although we would love to have everyone attend all three events,
the size of the Inn and the limits of our pocketbooks mean that we
will be able to invite only a tiny portion of the thousands of alumni who have earned their undergraduate or graduate degrees in the
Department. We will reach many of those thousands—including
all of our Newsletter readers--with letters and a pamphlet which
we are currently composing in hopes that we can raise a significant amount of money to support our many students and academic programs. We think the pamphlet, now in production and soon
to be mailed, captures in a few words and pictures the current
excellence and future promise of the Department. I hope you
agree.
The third accomplishment I want briefly to mention is the Department’s success at becoming the host department for the University’s new Minor in Leadership Studies. Leadership has always
been a topic of interest and sustained study by political scientists
and theorists. In fact, all leadership is political, if by “politics”
we mean something like the guiding and organizing of collective
life. As I often tell students, show me a group and I will show
you leadership and leaders: individuals trying to influence, direct, guide, and/or organize the affairs of the group. Under the
leadership of our President, Harris Pastides, the University has
recently decided to make leadership a top area of focus for its
students, and this has led in turn to the development of the Minor
in which this department will play a major role. Not only will the
Minor be hosted in the department, we will also be offering
courses that students can take to fulfill its requirements, and we
will be offering the foundation course that all students interested
in earning the Minor on this campus must take. The initial version of the foundation course is in fact being taught this semester
by POLI Professor Kirk Randazzo, who has been instrumental in
shaping the Minor and in getting it housed in the department. As
Lee Walker
Graduate Director
Janis Leaphart
Undergraduate Coordinator
Mark Tompkins
MPA Director
Melissa Gross
Administrative Assistant
Todd Shaw
Undergraduate Director
Tyler Bledsoe
Technical Assistant
Volume 6, No. 2
USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
part of the broader vision of educating students to leadership, the Minor
will also require that students engage in experiential work such as community engagement projects where the skills and insights they learn in
the classroom can be put to the test, expanded, adjusted, and honed.
The hiring of several new faculty, the initiation of a new University
Minor housed in this department, a 75th Anniversary---this and all the
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other news you will read about in what follows provide considerable
evidence that the Department of Political Science remains a busy and
productive place. I hope you will keep abreast of our news as it appears
not only in this twice-yearly publication, but also on our website at
http://www.cas.sc.edu/poli/. As always, please send us your news for
inclusion in future issues.
Events
The Department was pleased to sponsor—
along with the National Political Science
Honor Society Pi Sigma Alpha, its local USC
Gamma Chi Chapter, and the College of Arts
and Sciences—the Second Annual Pi Sigma
Alpha Lecture, which featured Professor
James Fowler from the University of California, San Diego. Professor Fowler, a recently named Fellow of the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, is Professor of Political
Science in the Division of Social Sciences
and Professor of Medicine in the Medical
Genetics Division at UCSD.
His talk,
“Connected: The Surprising Power of Our
Social Networks and How They Shape Our
Lives” on February 8, reflected his awardwinning book of the same title, written with
Nicholas Christakis. One of the few political
scientists to ever appear on Stephen Colbert’s
Comedy Central (where he discussed his
research), the February 8th talk in Gambrell
Hall was both well-attended and wellreceived. Thanks are due to POLI Professor
Charles Finocchiaro, Faculty Advisor to the
USC Chapter, for organizing the event.
Another POLI Professor, Katherine Barbieri, presented a fascinating talk on “Peace or
Profits: Understanding Israeli-Palestinian
Economic Cooperation,” in celebration of
International Education Week for the Department and University on November 18. Professor Barbieri shared a number of findings
and insights based in part on her field research while a Fulbright Senior Research
Fellow in Israel, and in part on her broad
knowledge of and research on the intersection
between international political economy and
conflict studies.
Another November event, sponsored by the
Department, the Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, and the Department
of International Business, featured a talk by
Professor Dan Kelemen of Rutgers University. Kelemen is an Associate Professor of Political Science whose November 3rd talk explored what he calls “Eurolegalism: The
panel was moderated by POLI and Women’s
and Gender Studies’ Professor Laura Woliver.
The Department recently played the role of a
co-sponsor for the visit to campus of Roy
Germano to inaugurate a new film series in
and for the Latin American Studies program.
Germano is a political scientist who directed
the film The Other Side of Immigration,
which he screened and discussed on the evening of April 4 and at a brown bag lunch event
the next day.
Professor James Fowler
Transformation of Law and Regulation in the
European Union,” which is also the title of his
recent Harvard University Press book.
The Department and College of Arts and
Sciences were pleased to sponsor an open-tothe-public and well-attended Panel Discussion on The South Carolina Republican Primary a few days before that statewide electoral event. Organized by POLI Adjunct Professor Don Fowler, participants included
three nationally prominent news correspondents: Daniel Balz of The Washington Post,
Lynn Sweet of the Chicago Sun Times, and
Jeff Zeleny of The New York Times. The
As always, the Department—under the organizational leadership of Professors Amanda
Licht and Andrea McAtee—was pleased to
sponsor a number of PSRW events during the
Spring semester. The Political Science Research Workshop provides opportunities for
faculty, graduate students, and outside speakers to share current research ideas, projects
and papers. Outside guests during the Spring
semester have included Nate Monroe from
the University of California, Merced, who on
January 20 presented his work on
"Amendments, Roll Rates, and Agenda Setting in the U.S. House of Representatives";
Desha Girod from Georgetown University,
who presented her work on “Regime Survival
and Development Without Institutions” on
February 24; Rice University Professor Cliff
Morgan, who presented a paper on March 16
entitled “How Could I Have Been So
Wrong?: When Evidence and Theory Diverge"; and, on March 23, Elizabeth Maggie
Penn of Washington University presented
work on “Scoring with Contests.” POLI Professor Holger Kern also participated in the
PSRW this semester on March 30 by presenting his research on "Investigating Candidates'
Office-Seeking Behavior: A Field Experiment
in Brazil."
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Harvey Starr Elected ISA President
Distinguished Professor Harvey Starr, the Dag Hammarskjold Professor in International Affairs, has been elected
to the position of President-elect of the International Studies Association. Harvey, who has been a member of the
Department since 1989 and served as its Chair from 1998-2006, will serve as President-elect of the ISA for one
year (2012-13), and then as President for one year (2013-14). The last member of our faculty to earn this prestigious honor was retired Distinguished Professor Charles Kegley, and it means that this Department and University
can boast two Presidents of this prominent, international, professional association. Harvard and Ohio State have
each produced three ISA Presidents, and only five other schools have produced two (the Universities of Southern
California, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Pittsburgh, and George Washington University). This is a fact not lost on
Harvey, who observed that, while he is “extraordinarily pleased to represent ISA and its diverse and vibrant community of scholars,” he is equally pleased to know that his election provides for the university and department
another opportunity to “help raise their visibility and it will also help our graduate students with their placement
prospects as well as attending and presenting at conferences.”
Harvey is a prolific author and a nationally/internationally recognized and respected scholar. He has written more
than a dozen books and monographs and 90 articles that have broadened modern understanding of geopolitics
during a time in which the Berlin wall tumbled, the Cold War ended, political ideologies shifted, China emerged
Professor Harvey Starr
as a dominant economic power and mobile technology evolved as a vehicle for empowering citizens. Harvey has
also been a critical part of the POLI faculty, in particular a key mentor to many of our graduate students past and
present, and not just to those graduate students whose dissertations he directed because they concentrated in International Relations, his primary field
of research and teaching interests. Rather, all of our graduate students have benefitted over the years from Harvey’s example and enthusiasm, his
teaching of empirical research methods and strategies, and his sage advice about how to succeed in the profession.
The International Studies Association is the most respected and widely known scholarly association in the broad field of international studies, with a
membership of 5,000 representing 80 countries across the globe. Founded in 1959, ISA creates communities of scholars within the broad field of
international studies by dividing into six geographic regions and twenty-three section groups, providing opportunities to scholars to exchange ideas
and research with local colleagues and within specific subject areas. Its signature journal, International Studies Quarterly, is considered by many to
be the premier journal in the International Relations field. Harvey says that, in addition to exploring new publications, the ISA will be focusing greater attention on women and diversity issues as well as on professional development and professional rights and responsibilities.
Undergraduate News
Danya Nayfeh, a junior in the Honors College majoring in International Studies and minoring in Islamic culture and civilization, has
been awarded a Spring 2012 scholarship to assist her participation in
the International Program titled “Two Nations and Three Religions in
Israel and Palestine” at the Galilee International Management Institute
in Nahala, Israel. The scholarship is funded by the Jewish Studies
Program, the College of Arts and Sciences, and the Department. Danya’s interest in Islamic culture and civilization reflects in part her heritage as a Palestinian-American. Danya’s father is a Palestinian who
lived at one point in the West Bank before the 1967 Six-Day War
forced his family to relocate to Kuwait and Jordan and eventually to
the United States. Danya was born in Virginia, but her family moved
to Lugoff, SC when she was in the fifth grade. Danya’s aspirations
include earning a degree in law with a focus on human rights. She
knows that this study-abroad experience in Israel will help her secure
that goal while allowing her to improve her Arabic and broaden her
understanding of the Middle East.
Ebony Sumpter, who graduated with a BA degree in Political Science
in December, wants everyone to know that her last semester at USC
“was amazing.” She was able to attend the Women, Law, and Public
Policy Seminar in Washington, DC, a three day seminar hosted by
PLEN, the Public Leadership Education Network. Ebony’s participa-
tion was made possible by her having won one of only two national
scholarships dedicated for this purpose. Ebony hopes that other USC
students can in the future follow her, as the seminar experience was
not only informative but empowering. Says Ebony, “the information I
received and the network that I created by attending this seminar will
definitely be useful in the near future, as I anticipate a career in health
law and health policy….I learned about networking skills, resume
building, seeking internships, international opportunities, the importance of travel [and much more, and] I also learned the importance
of personal motivation as well. Simple truths such as valuing yourself,
being confident, working from your moral compass, and never being
afraid to be a woman and be strong.”
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Graduate Student News
Congratulations are due to Suzanne Schorpp who was awarded the
PhD degree this past December, and who has won a tenure-track position as an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University starting in
the Fall of this year. Suzanne is currently serving in a postdoctoral
fellowship position at the University of Washington in St. Louis. Professors Kirk Randazzo and Lee Walker were co-directors of Suzanne’s
dissertation.
Also due congratulations are two December graduates of our MAIS
Program, Jakub Andrews and Teresa Brazell, and one from our
MPA Program, Ian McCormick.
And congratulations are due as well to several of the Department’s
current doctoral students, each of whom received a small West Forum
fellowship to further their dissertation research during the summer.
The students were selected by the Department’s Graduate Committee
based on their demonstrated excellence in the program and their progress toward completion of their dissertation projects. Collectively,
the students received twelve thousand dollars. The recipients were
Melissa Beaudoin, Miriam Dekanozishvili, Ashley MurphSchwarzer, Soon Kun Oh, Allie Reckendorf, Eun Joeng Soh, Brian
Warby, In Tae Yoo, and Rebecca Reid.
Miriam Dekanozishvili, a doctoral candidate in the PhD Program, is
working on a dissertation focused on the European Common Energy
Policy, and for this reason will be engaged during the summer months
conducting interviews in Germany, France, Poland and Brussels. This
is Miriam’s second such field trip, the main purpose of which is to
conduct interviews with representatives of EU institutions and review
EU institutional documents from the EU Council Secretariat Ministries. Miriam has also put together a book proposal, currently under
consideration by Ashgate Publishing, on The European Union and Its
Eastern Neighborhood. And she recently presented two papers, one
in March at the 19th International Conference of Europeanists in Boston on “Toward Common European Energy Security of Supply Policy,” the other in April at the annual International Studies Association
meeting in San Diego on “The EU as a Soft Empire and Its Eastern
Neighborhood.”
Doctoral candidate Ali Demirdas, currently teaching at the College of
Charleston, participated in the Young Leaders Dialogue Forum in
Charleston on March 15. The Forum is sponsored by the U. S. Embassy Prague and by the State Department’s Bureau of European and
Eurasian Affairs. Ali, a native of Turkey, discussed “Diversity and
Tolerance in Turkey” on a Panel focused on “Promoting Tolerance
and Diversity: Local Issues, Global Challenges.”
Clay Fuller, a student in the doctoral Program, traveled to Tokyo over
the Spring break and interviewed several prominent government and
media people (including the US Ambassador, the Japan Director of the
Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and the National Security Correspondent
for the Political News Department) concerning the use of special economic zones to rebuild after last year’s triple disaster (earthquake,
tsunami and nuclear meltdown), and to explore Japan’s relations with
China and Korea. Much of the information gathered will serve as the
basis for a conference paper Clay is preparing. Also, congratulations
are due Clay for having won first place at the USC Graduate Student
Awards Day competition on March 27, for his poster on “Special Economic Zones in Non-Democracies: Do They Matter?”
Doctoral candidate Nadia Jilani was the recipient, during the Fall
semester, of a Mortar Board teaching award. Also, Nadia will be presenting a research paper at the Midwest Political Science Association
annual meeting in April on "Trading Partners: The Effects of Economic Sanctions on International Trade in the Sender State."
Doctoral candidate Ben Kassow has published an article, co-authored
with Professor Charles Finocchiaro, on “Responsiveness and Electoral
Accountability in the U. S. Senate,” in the November 2011 issue of
American Politics Research.
Doctoral student TJ Kimmel will be presenting a paper co-authored
with Professor Kirk Randazzo on “Party Capability Theory in African
High Courts: A Comparative and Strategic Analysis” at the April Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting.
Congratulations to doctoral student Monica Lineberger, who was
awarded a Presidential Teaching Fellowship to serve in the Program
on Social Advocacy and Ethical Life in what was a very competitive
University-wide selection process. This new Program begins in the
Fall when a small number of graduate students from across the College
of Arts and Sciences will be trained to prepare for becoming instructors in a new core curriculum undergraduate class (entitled Social
Advocacy and Ethical Life). This team of graduate students will then
become instructors of the new course beginning in the Spring of 2013.
The Fellowship award is for four years.
Doctoral student Ali Masood has been very active on the professional
paper front. At the Southern Political Science Association meeting in
January, Ali presented a paper co-authored with Professor Kirk
Randazzo on “Supreme Court Summary Decisions and Lower Court
Compliance: Reexamining the Principal-Agent Model in a Judicial
Hierarchy,” and, with Professor Donald Songer, a second paper on
“Was the Rehnquist Court Really Conservative?” In addition, Ali is
scheduled to present a third paper, co-authored with Professor Songer
and fellow student Benjamin Kassow, at the April Midwest Political
Science Association meeting on “Legal Salience and the Impact of
Supreme Court Precedent on the Courts Below.” Also, Ali presented
at the Graduate Students Awards Day competition on Marcy 27 a revised version of the “Supreme Court Summary Decisions” paper, and
was recognized with an honorable mention.
Congratulations are in order for doctoral candidate Ashley MurphSchwarzer for winning the USC Graduate School’s Rhude M. Patterson Graduate Fellowship award for excellence in graduate study, research and scholarship.
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USC—Department of Political Science Newsletter
Jonathan Rauh, a student in the doctoral Program, presented a paper
on “The Ethics of Practicality: Ethical Instrumentalism in Public Administration” at the Southern Political Science Association annual
meeting in January, and he will be presenting both a paper and a poster
at the upcoming Midwest Political Science Association annual meeting in April. The paper is entitled “Filigree Work? Increased Transparency and the Fiscal Decisions of Local Education Agencies.” The
poster examines “Strategies Under Changing Voting Schemes: An
Experimental Economic Analysis.”
Doctoral candidate Allie Reckendorf will be earning her Preparing
Future Faculty certification from the University’s Center for Teaching
Excellence this Spring. Allie is also the Department’s nominee for the
Graduate School’s USC Educational Foundation Outstanding Graduate Teaching Assistant Award.
Another student in our doctoral program, Rebecca Reid, is the recipient of an Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models Certification
Scholarship that will help her attend the Inter-University Consortium
for Political and Social Research Summer Program at the University of
Michigan this summer. This is a new and highly competitive scholarship, sponsored by the EITM Institute, that aims to develop the methodological and game theory skills of students before they apply to the
EITM Summer Institute in later years.
Doctoral candidate Lauren Smith has authored with Professor Lee
Walker an article on “Belonging, Believing and Group Behavior: Religiosity and Voting in American Presidential Elections,” that has been
accepted for publication in Political Research Quarterly. Lauren, who
was awarded last year the Graduate School’s Rhude M. Patterson Fel-
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lowship Award, also presented a paper at the Southern Political Science Association meeting in January on “Attitudes about Abortion and
Same-Sex Marriage among Religious and Secular Youth,” a paper coauthored with Clemson University political scientist Professor Laura
Olson.
Doctoral candidate Eun Jeong Soh was selected to participate in a
South Korean training program sponsored by Korea University on
“Civil Society and Grassroots Politics in New Democracies and Hybrid Regimes.” Ms. Soh found the Program very useful, as it explored
the relationship between civil society and democratization in a collaborative context featuring students and faculty from Hong Kong, Korea,
Taiwan, the USA and Central Europe. Ms. Soh also used the trip to
Korea as an occasion for conducting field research with NGO workers
for her dissertation.
Judit Trunkos is also in the PhD Program. She attended the February
International Conference on Cultural Diplomacy and the UN in Washington, DC, which explored “Cultural Diplomacy and Soft Power in an
Interdependent World: The Opportunities for Global Governance.”
She also presented a paper on “Democratization in Hungary and in
Russia” at the annual meeting of the SC Political Science Association
in March at Presbyterian College.
Doctoral student Paul White, Jr. presented a paper on “I Will Never
Vote: Political Participation in the Landowning South,” at the 43rd
National Conference of Black Political Scientists in Las Vegas in
March, and will be presenting it also at the Midwest Political Science
Association annual meeting in Chicago in April.
Neal Woods: Profile
Associate Professor Neal Woods received his Ph.D. in 2003 from The University of Kentucky. His
dissertation “Rethinking Regulation: Institutions and Interests in State Regulatory Enforcement” won
the Leonard D. White Award for Best Dissertation in Public Administration from the American Political
Science Association, a portent of the reputation he would soon earn as a leading scholar in the policies
and politics of states in the American federal system. Prior to his graduate education he was a student
at the University of Kansas where he received bachelor’s degrees in Economics, Business Administration, and Political Science. He joined USC as a tenure-track faculty member in 2003, with research and
teaching interests in public policy, public administration, state politics, and federalism.
Neal’s research agenda has yielded over 20 articles published in a variety of public administration and
political science journals, including Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Public
Administration Review, Political Research Quarterly, Legislative Studies Quarterly, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, and State Politics and Policy Quarterly. He has established himself as a prominent
scholar in the areas of state environmental policy, environmental federalism, and state bureaucratic
politics, and has contributed chapters on these topics in the Oxford Handbook of State and Local Government and other books.
Professor Neal Woods
Neal’s research focus lies at the nexus of political institutions and public policy, with an emphasis on
how differing institutional arrangements affect policy outcomes. His recent research has examined
administrative rulemaking, and how institutional features such as mechanisms for public participation,
economic analysis requirements, and review by political officials affect the substance of agency rules.
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Neal has also published several articles looking at policy competition and cooperation among the American states. He is currently working on a
book project that examines federal environmental regulation of surface coal mining, including controversial mining practices such as mountaintop
removal. As with most major pieces of U.S. environmental legislation, federal surface mining regulations are implemented through a system that
allows state agencies to assume authority to implement and enforce the law. Neal’s book project empirically assesses the effects of state dependence on the coal industry and interstate competition for industry on the stringency of state regulation.
In addition to his ambitious research agenda, Neal is active in the areas of service and teaching. He is a core faculty member in the department’s
Master in Public Administration program, for which he teaches courses on public policy, public accountability, and data analysis. He has coorganized the department’s Political Science Research Workshop and has served on numerous departmental committees. Neal is also active in
service to the political science profession. He has served as a peer reviewer for more than 25 different academic journals. This past year he
served as a member of the award committee for the American Political Science Association’s Leonard D. White Award for Best Dissertation in
Public Administration. He is on the Executive Council of the Public Policy Section of the American Political Science Association, and has just
finished a term on the Executive Council of the State Politics and Policy Section. He is serving as Section Chair for two major political science
conferences in 2013: the annual meetings of the Southern Political Science Association (State Politics Section) and the Midwest Political Science
Association (Bureaucratic Politics Section).
Alumni News
Columbia Mayor Steve Benjamin (BA Political Science, 1991) has
been elected to the Advisory Board of the U. S. Conference of
Mayors.
Dana Anne Bruce (MA 2004) was recently honored as one of The
State newspaper’s “20 under 40,” referring to twenty young men and
women widely and justifiably recognized as leaders in their communities. Dana is the Executive Director of the South Carolina chapter
of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, and her work for that
and other philanthropic and civic organizations and groups has helped
a great many individuals, families and communities. Dana is also the
latest addition to the Department’s Partnership Board.
Also selected as one of The State’s “20 under 40” leaders was Moryah Jackson (MPA 2006). Moryah is working as an Apprenticeship
Consultant in the South Carolina Technical College System Office,
promoting economic development throughout the state through workforce development. She has served and continues to serve in a variety
of other educational, economic, and civic organizations.
The current President of the South Carolina Political Science Association is Lander University’s Political Science Professor Lucas
McMillan (PhD 2008). Lucas organized the SCPSA’s 2011 annual
meeting and enjoyed seeing some fellow Carolina alumni and faculty.
Lucas is also the recipient of the 2011 Young Faculty Scholar Award
at Lander, and is currently completing a book manuscript for publication by Palgrave Macmillan.
Mekell Mikell (PhD 2009) has taken on the position of Communications Network Co-Chair at the Women’s Information Network, while
continuing as Communications Specialist at the National Wildlife
Federation. WIN is Washington’s premier professional, political, and
social network dedicated to empowering young, Democratic, prochoice women.
Kevin Liles (MPA 1998) was recently named Chief of Police in the
city of Aiken, SC.
Patrick Nelson Lindsay (MPA 1993) has been named the first Director of Economic Development for Richland County in South Caroli-
na.
Steven Busch Panus (BA International Studies, 1991) has joined the
National Thoroughbred Racing Association as Vice President of
Communications.
Although not everyone will remember, Carol Reeves (MAIS 1982)
was a very fine intramural softball second-base-person for the Department’s “Leviathan” co-ed softball team back in the day! After her
softball (and academic!) work with us, Carol went on to earn a PhD
from the University of Georgia in 1988, and is now Associate ViceProvost for Entrepreneurship in the Sam Walton College of Business
at the University of Arkansas. Carol says that her MAIS degree has
proven helpful, as she has led quite a few study-abroad trips and only
recently returned from Ghana where she is helping create an internship program for students at Arkansas and for Ghanaian women entrepreneurs.
Dan Rickenmann (BA Political Science, 1992), a Columbia City
Council member, is also the co-founder of Waste 2 Energy, a Columbia start-up firm that will build a $25million anaerobic-digestion facility to convert organic waste into electricity using anaerobic bacteria.
Sarah Penick Smith (1994 MPA) was recently appointed Director of
the Waccamaw Regional Council of Governments in Georgetown
South Carolina.
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Faculty News
Katherine Barbieri has published a co-authored article with Omar M.
G. Keshk entitled “Too Many Assumptions, Not Enough Data” in
Conflict Management and Peace Science (April 2011). Together with
Keshk, Professor Barbieri has also just released Version 3 of the Correlates of War International Trade Data Base; the data base, now available online, includes national and dyadic trade figures for the period
1870-2009. Professor Barbieri also presented two conference papers
this past Fall, both co-authored with Adrian Lewis of the University of
Kansas History Department. The first examined Israeli-Palestinian
economic cooperation and was
delivered at the American Political Science Association annual
meeting in September; the second
examined trade in conflict zones
and was delivered at the New
Horizons in Conflict System
Analysis conference held here at
USC in October. Finally, Professor Barbieri was among a small
group of scholars selected to
participate in the inaugural Bridging the Gap Program, International Policy Summer Institute at the
Elliot School of International
Affairs at the George Washington
University during June of 2011.
Anu Chakravarty spent several
days in the Democratic Republic of Congo as a member of the Carter
Center’s international election observer team of the highly contested,
volatile, and flawed November 28 Presidential and Legislative elections in that country. A comparative political scientist with African
research interests and expertise, Professor Chakravarty describes this
recent experience as having provided “a fascinating inside look at
these historic elections, in a more or less failed state, but also nerve
wrecking and emotional at times.” Based on her observations, Professor Chakravarty wrote a piece for the Carnegie Council's web-based
monthly column, Carnegie Ethics, titled "The strategic uses of electoral mismanagement in the DRC".
Charles Finocchiaro’s article, “Responsiveness and Electoral Accountability in the U.S. Senate,” coauthored with POLI graduate student Benjamin Kassow, appeared in American Politics Research. Also,
the Congressional Bills Project – an endeavor to build a database of all
congressional legislation from the mid-1800s through the mid-1900s –
received seed funding from the Humanities Grant Program at USC.
Kirk Randazzo was selected by the College of Arts and Sciences as a
March 2012 “Featured Scholar” for the University Office of the Vice
Provost for Research. Featured scholars are selected from across the
University campus for their “excellence, innovation, and creativity.”
The characterization describes very well Professor Randazzo, whose
research productivity, curricula innovations, student mentoring, and
departmental and professional service and leadership, have often been
noted in this publication. In the area of research, Professor Randazzo’s most recent news is that his co-authored book (with Reginald
Sheehan and Rebecca Wood Gill) on The Judicilization of Politics on
the High Court of Australia has been accepted for publication by Carolina Academic Press. And in the area of teaching, Professor Randazzo, over the spring break, took
fifteen of the students in his class
on The Politics of Leadership to
Washington D. C. in order to
meet with several prominent
politicians, judges, and policy
leaders to discuss aspects of leadership development and learn
from their personal experiences.
The meetings included the following individuals: Senator Lindsey Graham, Representative
James Clyburn, the Honorable
David Sentelle (Chief Judge of
the Federal Court of Appeals for
the DC Circuit), Richard Cordray
(Director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau), and Dr.
Erik Herron (Political Science
Program Director for the National Science Foundation). The group of
students is pictured above, with Senator Graham in the center and
Professor Randazzo standing sixth from the right.
Lee Walker’s co-authored paper with graduate student Lauren Smith
on “Belonging, Believing and Group Behavior: Religiosity and Voting in American Presidential Elections” was accepted for publication
in Political Research Quarterly. Also, Professor Walker was elected
to the Executive Board of the Southern Political Science Association,
and was appointed Chair of the Selection Committee of the Society for
Political Methodology Janet Box-Steffensmeier and John A. Garcia
Scholarship. The scholarship awards are intended to encourage women and minority graduate students to attend the ICPSR Summer Program. Professor Walker has also recently been selected to serve as
the first Principal of the Carolina International House at Maxcy College, a new residential dorm at USC with an international focus set to
open this Fall.
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POLITICAL SCIENCE
University of South Carolina
Columbia, S. C. 29208
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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.
South Carolina’s Flagship University