Department of Political Science Bulletin September

Department of Political Science Bulletin
NOVEMBER, 2002

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Getting Ink

Dave Mason and Jonathan Clements (a former undergraduate student of Dave's) published "Tianenmen Square Thirteen Years After: The Prospects for Civil Unrest in China" in the latest issue of Asian Affairs.

Acceptances

Jim Battista's "An Ambition Theoretic Approach to Legislative Institutional Choice" was accepted for publication in Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Julie Harrelson-Stephens and Rhonda Callaway's, (Ph. D. 2001) "Does Trade Openness Promote Security Rights in Developing Countries: Examining the Liberal Perspective" was accepted for publication in International Interactions.

James Meernik's "Victor's Justice or the Law: Judging and Punishing at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia" was accepted for publication in the Journal of Conflict Resolution.

James Meernik, Joseph Ignagni and Rebecca Dean’s (UT-Arlington), “Trends in the Solicitor General As Amicus, 1953-1997” was accepted for publication in Judicature.

Phil Paolino's "Can the Internet Help Outsider Candidates Win the Presidential Nomination" (co-authored with Darin Shaw) will be published in a symposium on the nomination process in the April issue of PS.

Appearances

Steve Forde took part in the Liberty Fund Conference on "State Sovereignty" in Toronto, Oct. 17-20.

Alex Tan presented, "Basic Human Needs: Do Institutions Matter" (co-authored with Steve Poe) during a visit to Soochow University in Taipei, Taiwan, while James Meernik presented, "The United States and Crisis Prone Regimes: Explaining Crisis Occurrence and Crisis Response". At the Taiwan Elections and Democracy Conference, Karl Ho, Alex Tan and James Meernik presented "In a Different Voice: A Comparative Study of Political Efficacy in Taiwan and Western Democracies" on October 20.

Michael Greig presented "Stepping into the Fray: When Do Mediators Mediate" at the Annual Peace Science Society conference in Tucson, AZ, Oct. 31 - Nov. 2.

Andrew Enterline and Seonjou Kang presented, "The Impact of the UN Security Council Resolutions on Civil War Dynamics, 1816-1997 at the Annual Peace Science Society conference in Tucson, AZ, Oct. 31 - Nov. 2.

Patrick Mcleod presented, "Rock, Paper, Scissors: Post Settlement Environments, Human Rights and Durable Peace, 1945-1995" at the International Studies Association South meetings in Richmond, VA, Oct. 19.

James Meernik presented, "Victor's Justice or the Law: International Judicial Decision Making at the ICTY" at the Annual Peace Science Society conference in Tucson, AZ, Oct. 31 - Nov. 2.

Don Smith, Jim Battista and Wenda Sheard presented, "Committee Jurisdictions, Specificity, and Policy Outcomes in the States" at the Southern Political Science Association meeting in Atlanta GA, Nov. 7-10.

Kimi King and Neal Tate both made presentations to the Woodrow Wilson Teachers as Scholars Program at UNT and funded by the US Department of Education.

Awards

Gloria Cox has won two awards! The first is the "Outstanding Service Award" from the McNair Program. The second is "Student Athlete Choice Award". Congratulations!!!

Alumni News

Scott Walker defended his dissertation, "Does Cultural Heterogeneity Lead to Lower Regime Respect for Basic Human Rights". Scott is currently a visiting professor at Wayne State University in Detroit.

Sherry Lewis Shipman (BA, 1995) is a prosecutor in the Denton County District Attorney's Office.

Caryn Francis (BA, 1986) now works at the Ohio Division of Securities as Legal Counsel to the Licensing Section.

Julie Strand Fleisher (BA, 1992) works as Assistant to the City Manager of Plano and Head of Intergovernmental Relations.

Events

The Annual Holiday Party will be Saturday, December 14th at the Meernik/King home on 3105 Broken Bow starting at 7 pm. As usual it is a potluck. See you there!

Congratulations!

To Peter and Chris VonDoepp on the birth of Asher Raymond VonDoepp.

To Christina Schneider on her successful Master's Thesis defense of "The Political Economy of Organizational Enlargement: Finding the Link Between Insider and Outsider in the European Union".

To Jason Smith on his successful Master's Thesis defense of, "Extreme Politics: An Analysis of the State Level Conditions Favoring Far Right Parties in the European Union".

Weird, Wide World

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What does it take to get expelled from Congress?

This has only happened five times in the 213-year history of Congress. The first three times were during the Civil War when three members were charged with treason and expelled. The fourth time was in 1980 when Rep. Michael Myers, D-Pa., was kicked out for accepting bribes from FBI agents posing as Arab sheiks trying to change immigration law. Finally, James Traficant rounds up the group after he was expelled from Congress for the 10 counts of bribery, racketeering, and income tax evasion filed against him. Interestingly in the 420-1 vote that sealed his fate, the only House member to vote against his expulsion was none other than Rep. Gary Condit who has faced accusations himself relating to his relationship with his intern, now deceased, Chandra Levy. (Thanks to Brianna Finley for this bit of political intrigue).

The desperation of a dept. chair has never been so clearly evident as when Jim asked me to write something, anything, to fill out the December Bulletin. Thus, in keeping with his query, the following is a brief reflection on where we have been as a department, and where we are now. The future I clearly, and happily, leave to you.

When I accepted this position almost 26 years ago, I was a refugee from the Buffalo Blizzard of ’77, and the imploding SUNY system. The thought was that this could be a pleasant respite for a few years, and we could then move on. The department at that time seemed pleasant enough, on the whole, and the better weather was something to consider. Of course, the presence of a 10-day cold snap at zero degrees just a few years later made us question our sanity!

On arrival, we found a department that was barely publishing, and was doing fair-to-good teaching. The graduate students were a mixed lot at best. The faculty was highly politicized, or at least this describes the junior faculty. Votes could be “lined up” on the basis of personality before proposals were made. Nothing could have been less healthy.

How and why have we changed? A lot of it comes down to good hires, good departures and good chairs. As we stressed greater professionalism, one thing led to another and better publishing faculty as well as more able students, graduate and undergraduate, were attracted to the department. Our present national ranking is no accident, and is the product of a consensus that we could be as good or better than others. Standards were established and adhered to and difficult personnel decisions were made. This includes striking a balance with teaching, wherein we never accepted the teaching/research dichotomy. By my count, we win more teaching awards than any two departments of anything on campus, and we are far from being the largest department! Charldean Newell, Neal Tate (6 years!), John Booth, Ken Godwin, and Steve Forde worked overtime at making this department not only professional but collegial.

Presently, a couple of the junior faculty refer to this department as “The Fellowship.” Well, yes, it is, and may it always be so. Working in a professional atmosphere, with people you like and respect, is a rarity in academe as well as more generally. I wish you, individually as well as collectively, the best. Future e-mails, if any, should be directed to feigert1@yahoo.com.