Department of Political Science Bulletin
July, 2009

Political Science News

Publications

Mehmet Gurses.(2009) ‘State-Sponsored Development, Oil and Democratization’, Democratization,16:3, 508–529. (Mehmet is one of our PhD's who is now teaching at Florida Atlantic University.)

John Ishiyama had his article "Explaining ‘Minor’ Party Nominations in Sub Saharan Africa: The Cases of Ethiopia, Zambia, and Malawi" published in the Journal of Asian and African Studies.

Awards

Paul Collins was awarded the 2009 C. Herman Pritchett Award for the best book on law and courts written by a political scientist for Friends of the Supreme Court: Interest Groups and Judicial Decision Making. The award is given by the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association and there will be a formal presentation at this year’s APSA meeting in Toronto.

Professional Leadership

Marijke Breuning serves as a member of the visitation committee for re-accreditation of the four political science programs (Bachelor and Master) in the Netherlands, organized under the auspices of the Quality Assurance Netherlands Universities (QANU).  In June the committee visited the Free University of Amsterdam and the University of Amsterdam.  The accreditation visits to the Radboud University Nijmegen and the University of Leiden are scheduled for September.

Andrew Enterline was selected by the membership of the Peace Science Society for a 4-year term as councilor.

John Ishiyama conducted a program review of the political science department at Texas A&M University-Corpus Cristi in June.

Graduate Students Finishing

Marie Chalkley successfully defended her masters thesis on May 7, 2009. Her thesis is entitled, “Saying Sorry: Conflict, Atrocity, and Political Apology.” Andrew Enterline was her major professor.

Jared Kahanek successfully defended his MA thesis, “National Events and Midterm Elections: Voter Turnout in the 2006 Midterm Election,” on June 17, 2009. Jared will graduate in August or December, pending final changes to the thesis. Jared is Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha's student.

Kirk Polk successfully defended his masters thesis in July. His thesis is entitled, “The Primacy of Ideas: The Policy Relevance of the Sociological Turn in Security Studies as illustrated by The Global Jihadist Insurgency and the Culture of Activated Rivalry Between the U.S. and Iran.” Kirk is Michael Greig's student.