NEWS AND ACHIEVEMENTS – Calendar Year 2004

Department of Political Science
San Diego State University

ADDITIONS

Latha Varadarajan: has been hired to the Political Science faculty as an Assistant Professor starting in Spring 2005.  Her Ph.D. is from the University of Minnesota, and her dissertation examined the impact of transnational ethnic communities on the political relations among countries, in the context of increasing globalization.  Dr. Varadarajan will teach courses on American Foreign Policy and National Security, and contribute to the university’s growing program on International Security and Conflict Resolution.

Yi (Edward) Yang:  is our new lecturer in East Asian Politics and International Relations, temporarily replacing Professor Guang who is spending the year on a fellowship at Yale University.  Edward received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University, with a dissertation on foreign policy decision-making under risk.

Heather Smith:  is our new lecturer in Public Law, temporarily replacing Professor Heck who has become the Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters.  Heather is working on her Ph.D. at the University of California, San Diego, writing a dissertation on individual petition mechanisms in global human rights institutions.

The department also announces with pride that three of its junior faculty – Farid Abdel-Nour, Carole Kennedy, and Madhavi McCall – were promoted to Associate Professor during 2004 and awarded tenure.  These promotions were based on outstanding contributions in teaching, research, and service, and were approved after a full review by committees at the department, college, and university level.  

RETIREMENTS

Robert Keiser:  Professor Keiser joined the Political Science Department in 1968, after receiving his Ph.D. from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.  He taught courses in American government and public policy, from the introductory level through the graduate seminar.  He also coordinated undergraduate senior theses and administered the Sacramento Semester program.  His published work focused on the impact of campaign contributions on issue visibility and policy legislation.  He will continue his research on “presidents of contraction” over the course of American political development.

Paul Strand:  Professor Strand retired one year after returning to the Political Science Department, following his service as Dean of the College of Arts and Letters.  Paul taught research methods to our students, and was known professionally for his work on jury selection.

George Bergstrom:  Dr. Bergstrom has retired after more than 25 years as a Lecturer at SDSU.  He instructed thousands of our students in comparative government and international relations.  He is best known for heading, for more than a decade, the Institute on World Affairs, which brings distinguished speakers on international relations to the campus.  Fortunately, George has agreed to remain with us part-time as Director of the Institute, in order to help guide its future development. 

RECENT ACTIVITIES

Farid Abdel-Nour (Ph.D. Rutgers University 1999, Associate Professor).  Specialization:  Political Theory.  Faculty Coordinator of the Center for Islamic and Arabic Studies.  Published three major articles in 2004:  “Responsibility and National Memory,” (International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society); “An International Ethics of Evil,” (International Relations), and “Farewell to Justification:  Habermas, Human Rights, and Universalist Morality,” (Philosophy and Social Criticism).  He was also invited to address the Conference on Democracy and Reform in the Arab World, held in Qatar in June 2004.  He was honored for his contribution to students by Mortar Board and was named most influential professor the department’s best graduating senior.

Brian Adams (Ph.D. University of California, Irvine 2003, Assistant Professor).  Specialization:  Urban Politics.  Published during 2004 “Public Meetings and the Democratic Process,” (Public Administration Review).  He also delivered papers at the annual meetings of the American Political Science Association, the Urban Affairs Association, and the Western Political Science Association, and won two separate SDSU research grants to advance his scholarly studies.

Mikhail Alexseev (Ph.D. University of Washington 1996, Associate Professor).  Specialization:  International Relations, Migration and Ethnic Conflict, Politics of the Former Soviet Union. Published two articles during 2004, “Back to Hell” on the Russian wars in Chechnya (The Military and Society in Post-Soviet Russia) and “Chinese Migration into Primorskii Krai” (Slavic Eurasia’s Integration into the World Economy and Community).  He delivered papers to the American Association of Advanced Slavic Studies and the International Studies Association, and gave invited lecturers at the University of Chicago and Claremont McKenna College.  He has a book forthcoming from Cambridge University Press and, as principal investigator, has won prestigious research grants from the John and Catherine MacArthur Foundation and from the National Science Foundation.

David Carruthers (Ph.D. University of Oregon 1995, Associate Professor).  Specialization:  Comparative Politics (Latin America) and Environmental Politics.  Undergraduate Studies Director.  Coordinator of the SDSU Study Abroad Program in Oaxaca, Mexico.  Published during 2004  “From Opposition to Orthodoxy:  The Remaking of Sustainable Development,” (Debating the Earth:  The Environmental Politics Reader).  He was a guest lecturer at the Oxford (England) Study Abroad Program in July 2004, and he gave presentations at two special workshops on environmental justice, on lessons to be learned from the U.S.-Mexico border region. 

Lyndelle Fairlie (Ph.D. Indiana University 1973, Associate Professor). Specialization:  Comparative Politics (Europe).  Internship Coordinator.  She gave an invited paper on border management policy for the newly expanded European Union to a conference of the East-West Institute, “Bridging New Divides,” held in Moscow during May 2004.

Jonathan Graubart (Ph.D. University of Wisconsin 2002, Assistant Professor).  Specialization:  International Relations and International Law.  Published one major article during 2004:  “Legalizing Politics, Politicizing Law:  Transnational Activism and International Law” (International Politics),  and one co-authored chapter: “Is the U.S. A Rogue State” with Professor Dipak Gupta (Strategy for Empire).  He was an invited participant at the Official Tri-National Assessment of NAFTA’s Environmental Accords, in Puebla, Mexico, June 2004, and he gave presentations to the International Studies Association and the Rocky Mountain Conference on Latin American Studies.

Lei Guang (Ph.D. University of Minnesota 1999, Assistant Professor).  Specialization:  Comparative Politics (China) and Development Studies.  Published three major articles during 2004:  “Pathways of Rural-Urban Migration,” (Harvard China Review), “Rural China in Transformation,” (China Review International), and “From National Identity to National Security,” (Pacific Review).   Was awarded a research fellowship to the Program in Agrarian Studies, Yale University, and gave invited lectures at Yale, the University of Michigan, and the University of California-Irvine.

Dipak Gupta (Ph.D. University of Pittsburgh 1977, Professor).  Specialization:  Ethnic Conflict, Public Policy Analysis.  Director of the SDSU program on International Security and Conflict Resolution.  Named “Distinguished Professor in Political Science” by San Diego State University. A leading expert on terrorism, he was consulted by the 9/11 Commission and has been invited by the King of Spain to attend a conference on the first anniversary of the train bombing in Madrid.  In 2004, he published “Roots of Terrorism,” sponsored by the Norwegian Institute for Peace; participated in a workshop on South Asian policy issues in Katmandu, Nepal; and delivered an invited lecture to the American Psychological Association.  His project, “A Winnable War? Fighting Terrorism on the Global Front,” was awarded a grant from the United States Institute of Peace.

Edward Heck (Ph.D. Johns Hopkins University 1978, Professor).  Specialization:  Public Law and American Politics.  Named Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Letters. 

C. Richard Hofstetter  (Ph.D. Indiana University 1967, Professor).  Specialization:  U.S. Politics and Mass Political Behavior.  Published seven co-authored articles in refereed journals during 2004, including:  “Peace Culture as a Strategic Problem of National Youth Policies in Europe,” (Towards Non-Violence and Dialogue Culture in South East Europe), “The Security Dilemma and Migration Phobia,” with Professor Mikhail Alexseev (Political Science Quarterly), and “Acculturation and Health Risk Behaviors among Californians of Korean Descent” (Preventative Medicine).  He also served as consulting methodologist for a number of studies in clinical epidemiology, with presentations to the American Public Health Association, the Society for Research on Nicotine and Tobacco, and the American Academy of Neurology.  He is completing a survey on the Clean Syringe Exchange Program in San Diego, and his project on Korean-American acculturation and changes in health behavior has won a major grant from the National Institute of Health.

Carole Kennedy (Ph.D. University of California, Riverside 1998, Associate Professor).  Specialization:  U.S. Politics, including Women’s Politics and Electoral Politics.  Graduate Studies Director.  Published in 2004 “Unfortunately, America Is Not Ready For a Minority or Woman President” (Debating the Presidency).  She served as faculty adviser to the SDSU “Forum on War and Peace” and “Students for Economic Justice” and was the department’s most visible media personality, appearing often on local television to comment upon the issues, procedures, and impact of the 2004 presidential election. 

Ronald King (Ph.D. University of Chicago 1981, Professor).  Specialization:  U.S. Politics and Public Policy.  Chair of the Department.  His book, Strategia cercetarii:  Treisprezece cursuri despre elementele stiintelor sociale  (The Strategy of Research:  Thirteen Lessons on the Elements of Social Science), is in production from Polirom Press:  Iasi, Romania.  He also published in 2004 one co-authored article, “Race, Reform, and Desegregation in Mississippi Higher Education” (Law and Social Inquiry) and delivered a paper on the development of Romanian political science after communism to a conference commemorating the 100th anniversary of the founding of the American Political Science Association.  He serves as a Fulbright Senior Specialist, delivered guest lectures to the Oxford (England) Overseas Student Program, and conducted a special short-course on “The Craft of Making Political Science,” at Arhus University, Denmark.

Brian Loveman (Ph.D. Indiana University 1973, Professor).  Specialization:  Comparative Politics (Latin America).  Fred J. Hansen Chair for Peace Studies.  Published during 2004 one co-authored book, Politicas de Reparacion:  Chile 1990-2004 (Santiago:  LOM Editores), and one edited book, Strategy for Empire:  U.S. Regional Security Policy in the Post Cold-War Era (Wilmington, DE: Scholarly Resources/Rowman & Littlefield).    He also published four articles as book chapters, including:  “Constitutional and Political Foundations of Impunity in Chile” (The Pinochet Case), and “Authoritarianism, Corporatism, and Chilean ‘Exceptionalism’” (Authoritarianism and Corporatism in Latin America-Revisited).  He has been awarded grants from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation for a project on “Judicial Reform and the Rule of Law in Chile in Comparative Perspective,” and from the Ford Foundation for a project, “From the War on Drugs to the War on Terror:  U.S. Security Policy in the Andean Region.”

Kristen Hill Maher (Ph.D. University of California, Irvine 1999, Assistant Professor).  Specialization:  U.S. Immigration and Border Politics, Nationalism.  Published four articles during 2004:  “Borders and Social Distinction in the Global Suburb” (American Quarterly), “Good Women ‘Ready to Go’” (Labor: Studies of Working Class History of the Americas), “Natural Mothers for Sale” (Immigrant Life in the U.S.), and “Globalized Social Reproduction” (People Out of Place).  She also gave presentations to the Latin American Studies Association and the Rocky Mountain Council for Latin American Studies, and was invited to research workshops on translocal populations held at Social Science Research Council in New York and the Rockefeller Foundation Retreat Center in Bellagio, Italy.

Madhavi McCall (Ph.D. Washington University 1999, Associate Professor).  Specialization:  Public Law and Judicial Behavior.  Pre-Law Adviser.  Published in 2004 “Criminal Justice and the 2002-2003 United States Supreme Court” (Capital Law Review).  Her first book, Law and Criminal Justice:  Emerging Issues in the Twenty-First Century is forthcoming from Peter Lang Publishing.  She also served as President of the Women’s Caucus of the Western Political Science Association.

Ronnee Schreiber (Ph.D. Rutgers University 2000, Assistant Professor).  Specialization:  U.S. Political Institutions, Women and Politics. Was on maternity/family leave for half of 2004.  She continued to make progress on a book manuscript investigating conservative women’s political organizations.  She also served a Treasurer of the Women’s Caucus of the American Political Science Association.

Latha Varadarajan (Ph.D. University of Minnesota 2004, Assistant Professor).  Specialization:  International Relations and Conflict Resolution.  Published two articles in 2004:  “Constructivism, Identity and Neo-Liberal Insecurity” (Review of International Studies);  and “On the Practical Significance of Critical International Relations Theory” (Asian Journal of Political Science),  co-authored with Raymond Duvall, which was translated and reprinted in Chinese.