Department of Political Science Bulletin
MAY, 2007

Political Science News

Events

The Department of Political Science Annual Spring Banquet honoring our graduating students, and student and faculty award winners will be held at the UNT Union Golden Eagle Suite from 5:00 - 7:00 pm Friday, May 11. If you are interested in attending please phone the department at 940 565-2276 to make your reservations.  All PSCI alumni are welcome to attend.

Awards:

Fred Gantt Award for Outstanding Undergraduate Student in Political Science: Victoria Muniz

Sam B. McAlister Award for Outstanding Graduate Student in Political Science: McKinzie Craig

Best Undergraduate Student in International Studies: Holly Guthrey

Clovis Morrisson Award for Best Pre Law Student: Brittanie Smith

E.C. Buell Award for Best Comparative Politics Student: David Dubinsky

Ralph Yarborough Award for Best Undergraduate paper award: Andrew Binovi, "Oil, Islam and Democracy"

Pender Award for best Graduate paper award: Christopher Fariss, "Breadbasket or Basket Case? Determinants of US Foreign Food Aid 1977-2000"

Frank Feigert Scholarship Award to Karis Durant

Faculty Mentor of the Year 2007: Prof. J. Michael Greig

Graduate Student Mentor of the Year 2007: Cathy Johnson

Graduate Student Spirit Award Winners: Megan Greening; Kinzie Craig, Amber Aubone, Ryan Salzman and Todd Spinks.

Onward & Upward

Many of our Masters students on going on to pursue PhD's.  These include:

Kinzie Craig, Texas A&M

Geoff Dancy, University of Minnesota

Megan Greening, Emory University

James Ragland, Emory University

Karen Sullivan (BA), Penn State

Thorin Wright, University of Illinois

and

Brian Calfano has accepted a tenure-track job at Chatham College.

Alumni News

Christian Alvarado (BA, 2006) will be clerking at the Texas Supreme Court this summer.

Acceptances

Prof. Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha's "The Impact of Presidential Speeches on the Bureaucracy" was accepted for publication in Social Science Quarterly.

Prof. Kimi King and Megan Greening's (MA, 2006) article, "Gender Justice or Just Gender? The Role of Gender in Sexual Assault Decisions at the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia" was accepted for publication at Social Science Quarterly for a forthcoming special issue on "The Role of Women in a Global Society".

Prof. James Meernik's "A Supply and Demand Theory of US Military Policy" was accepted for publication in Conflict Management and Peace Science.

Prof. Idean Salehyan's "No Shelter Here: Rebel Sanctuaries and International Conflict" was accepted for publication in the Journal of Politics.

In Print

Prof. Idean Salehyan's Climate Change and Conflict: the Migration Link. With Nils Petter Gleditsch and Ragnhild Nordas. Coping With Crisis Paper Series has been published by the International Peace Academy.

Sharon Lunsford (MA, 2001) “Guatemala: 1974-1994.” March 2007. In Karl De Rouen Jr. and Uk Heo, eds.Civil Wars of the World: Major Conflicts Since World War II. Santa Barbara, California: ABC-CLIO.

Grants

Prof. James Meernik was awarded a $7500 contract with the U.S. Army War College, Strategic Studies Institute to write a monograph on the effects of US foreign policy on instability in foreign states.

Recognition

Professors Kimi King and Wendy Watson appeared as part of a Fox 4 in-depth piece on eyewitness identification on Monday, April 30.

Prof. Idean Salehyan was awarded a British Academy fellowship to visit the University of Essex from June-August.

Prof. Mathieu Turgeon's paper "'Just Thinking': Attitude Authenticity and Citizen Competence" has been named the winner of the 2007 Seymour Sudman Student Paper Competition from the American Association for Public Opinion Research.

Moot Court Team. Friday April 13, UNT competed in the last competition of the year and UNT received more year end awards then any other school in the state of Texas. The team took 3 of the top five team awards. Nate Gies and Emily Ownby ranked as the number one team in the state of Texas, Shawn Stout and Jesus Gonzales came in fourth overall, and Amy Reeves and Tiffany Warner ranked fifth. The UNT Moot Court team also received four out of the ten top orators for the year. Nate Gies ranked 2nd, Emily Ownby ranked 3rd, Tiffany Warner ranked 6th, and Shawn Stout ranked 9th! No other school received more then one top five team award or more then three top ten orator awards. At the Texas Wesleyan Tournament two teams advanced to quarterfinals: Amy Reaves and Tiffany Warner; Graham Rainer and Theo Brown (student from SFA). Four students received speaker awards: Shawn Stout (3rd), Emily Ownby (5th), Nate Gies (9th), Amy Reaves (10th).

Appearances

Midwest Political Science Association Meetings, April 12-14, Chicago, IL.

Prof. James Battista presented, "Survey-Based Preference Estimates and Conditional Party Government".

Prof. John Booth presented, "Social and Political Capital in Latin American Democracies".

McKinzie Craig and Christopher Fariss presented "Saw No Evil? The Influence of Attitudes on Decision Making at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY)". Christopher Fariss also presented this paper at The University of Southern Mississippi's Center for Human Rights and Civil Liberties Second Annual Conference—Genocide in the 20th and 21st Centuries: Cases, Causes and Cures. (March 23–24).

Natalie Elliot presented, "On the Political Lessons of Francis Bacon's New Organon."

Prof. Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha presented, "Local Newspaper Coverage of the Presidency".

Megan Greening presented, "Under the Shelter of My Roof": The Sentencing of Sexual Assault Defendants in Texas Trial Courts" co-authored with Prof. Kimi King.

Prof. Ko Maeda presented, "Has the Electoral System Reform Made Japanese Elections Party-Centered? A Preliminary Analysis".

Prof. Mathieu Turgeon presented, "Explaining Presidential and Prime Ministerial Approval Ratings in Fifth Republic France (1959-2006)".

Prof. Wendy Watson presented,  "Considering the Source: Attorney Representation and the U.S. Supreme Court's Certiorari Decisions".

Other Presentations

Prof. John Booth presented, "Social and Political Capital in Eight Latin American Countries" at the Electoral Institute of the State of Mexico and Autonomous University of Mexico State in Toluca, Mexico on April 25.

Prof. Steve Forde attended two Liberty Fund colloquia. One, on the subject of War, the State, and Liberty, took place from March 25-27 in Cleveland, Ohio. The other, on Benjamin Franklin, took place April 19-22, in Denver, Colorado.

Prof. Idean Salehyan presented, The Externalities of Civil Strife: Refugees as a Source of International Conflict. Conference on "Migration, International Relations, and the Evolution of World Politics. Princeton University. March 16-17.

Graduating Seniors