Letter from the Director
Dear Friends,
In 2015 we continued to execute the School’s mission to generate and diffuse knowledge that contributes to society’s understanding of politics and governance at local, national and global levels. [[{"fid":"798","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: right;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]
In our efforts to provide students with a greater base of knowledge, The School of Politics and Global Studies has partnered with the American Indian Studies Program to create the American Indian Nation Governance Certificate.
The School has also worked on bridging the gap between alumni and students with career panels, guest speakers and tailgate mixers. These initiatives will continue with the launching of a Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series that will host at least one speaker per year.
Our faculty have remained very active in 2014 as well. Through the generous gift from Alumnus Brian Kopf, SPGS was able to host two Conferences in 2015. In the spring we hosted the Ethnic and Religious Conflict Conference which our faculty working group “NERD” organized. Then, this past fall, we hosted a conference titled, “How does Gender Shape Violence and Coercion?”.
The School has also hosted events to enrich the college experience for our majors such as Night of the Open Door, Fall Welcome and Homecoming. As we reflect on another successful year at the School of Politics and Global Studies, we want to thank you for your continued support and involvement. We hope that this newsletter and the stories it contains reaches you well.
Sincerely,
Dr. Cameron G. Thies
Director of the School of Politics and Global Studies
Faculty News
New Faculty
Will H. Moore joined the SPGS faculty in Fall of 2015. He taught previously at Florida State and UC, Riverside, and was a visiting scholar at Emory and Notre Dame. He was 2014-15 President of the Peace Science Society, co-directs the Conflict Consortium, and is an editor and contributor to the Political Violence @ a Glance blog.
Daniel Berliner is an Assistant Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies. He studies the intersections between information, politics, and institutions, with specific focuses on government transparency and access to information, as well as environmental and social governance in global supply chains. His work has appeared in journals including American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and Policy Studies Journal.
Jennet Kirkpatrick is an Associate Professor in the School of Politics and Global Studies. She is the author of Uncivil Disobedience (Princeton) and her work has appeared in Political Theory, The Review of Politics, Dissent, Contemporary Political Theory, and Perspectives on Politics.
Retiring Faculty
Jack Crittenden taught Political Science at ASU from 1988 to 2015. Professor Crittenden is the author of three books: Beyond Individualism (1992), Democracy's Midwife (2002), and Wide as the World (2011). His research and teaching centered on political theory and the human condition.
Marilyn Dantico has been on the ASU faculty from 1981 to 2015. Her teaching and research interests included urban government and politics, political action, minority politics, women and politics, and research methods. She has published in a variety of outlets including Social Science Quarterly, American Journal of Political Science, State and Local Government Review, and the International Journal of Canadian Studies.
In Memoriam
Michael Mitchell was an Associate Professor of Political Science from 1990 until his passing in the fall of 2015. The author of book chapters and articles on race and ethnicity, he has contributed articles to Comparative Politics, Afro-Diaspora, Centennial Review, Social Forces and Law and Society Review. Professor Mitchell's teaching and research focused on democratization in Latin America and the politics of ethnic minorities.
Plans for the Future
The School of Politics and Global Studies is looking forward to another great year in 2016. There will be a continued effort to develop innovative approaches to major emerging challenges based on transdisciplinary perspectives to the greatest extent possible.
The School of Politics and Global Studies plans to expand its academic offerings by proposing a Political Economy Undergraduate Degree. This joint degree with the Department of Economics would also allow students seeking a Political Science (BS) degree to complete a concentration in Political Economy.
In February, the School will host a conference titled “Symbolic Representation: Groups and Representation in Contemporary Democratic Politics”. This conference will highlight work by SPGS faculty members Kim Fridkin, Miki Kittilson and Magda Hinojosa. The journal Politics, Groups, and Identities has agreed to a research symposium featuring some of the papers from the conference.
This spring the School of Politics and Global Studies will also hold the inaugural Kramer Lecture where an expert on national elections will provide a public lecture and meet with students. This lecture series was made possible by an endowment from Victor Kramer.
ASU will host two new Barry Goldwater Chairs this year: John Dean and Professor of Politics Morris Fiorina. Holders of the chair are scholars who have distinguished themselves in the fields of political science, history, economics, law and public policy.
John Dean will be using his experience as Counsel to the President of the United States during the days of the Nixon White House to teach a course in the spring titled “Understanding the Watergate Scandal”.
In April, there will be a conference that will focus on themes resonating with Professor Fiorina’s work in American politics. Invited scholars will present papers during the day, leaving time for extensive discussion afterwards.
Many of the School’s initiatives would not be possible without the help of donors and alumni. If you would like be a part of the growth of SPGS, please visit the SPGS Invest page to learn how you can help!
Invest / Support
Get Involved!
[[{"fid":"797","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: right;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]The School of Politics and Global Studies encourages all of our alumni to remain involved in our School community. One way to be a part of the growth of the School is to participate as a guest speaker at various events or classes. This helps provide students with real world examples of life after graduation.
SPGS is pleased to announce the launching of a Distinguished Alumni Speaker Series that will host at least one speaker per year. The series will serve a variety of goals, including honoring outstanding alumni for their accomplishments, raising the visibility of SPGS to both internal and external audiences, educating undergraduate and graduate students about career possibilities associated with our degrees, and learning from honorees about ways we might improve our degree programs.
Alumni have also been an integral part of the School through their investments in student success. Through your support, SPGS has been able to assist students in professional development, provide internships, study abroad opportunities and research positions. As we have welcomed more students into our School community, we have continued to grow and adapt to meet their needs.
Please consider supporting our students by investing in a program, scholarship or general fund. Any contribution is helpful as we aim to help each student reach their full potential. To learn more about becoming more involved in the School of Politics and Global Studies or to make a donation, please visit our invest page.
Kopf Conference
How does Gender Shape Violence and Coercion?
We are the fortunate recipient of a gift from Brian Kopf, former J.P. Morgan Chase Bank vice-president and a Political Science alumnus. One use we make of the gift is to host conferencesorganized by members of the School's working groups where we invite leading researchers from around the world to visit Tempe and share with our students and faculty.
[[{"fid":"796","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: left;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]On October 16-17, 2015 our Conflict and Human Rights working group hosted 10 researchers from the US and UK who presented their work on the impact of women on politics, especially coercion and violence. Two ASU faculty also presented ongoing research, and another four researchers from around the country also visited to provide commentary along with ASU faculty and students. You can see the list of papers and presenters here.
“I enjoyed the conference's intimacy and openness: an interdisciplinary mixture of researchers, students, and experts coming together in one space to make gender a central point of conversation,” says Brandon Marks, a Political Science, BA major at ASU. “To create space for discussions of gender and its relation to conflict, international relations, and politics overall is to sustain a critical and multifaceted dialogue.”
The two days of sessions generated animated, lively discussions and debate. We also made sure to schedule time and space during the day and evenings where the visitors could interact with SPGS faculty and students, and one another, to pursue more in depth discussion spurred by the sessions, and explore additional opportunities for research and public engagement.
“I especially enjoyed interacting with the junior scholars at the Gender and Violence workshop. Not only are they asking important questions about phenomena like sexual violence, female rebel combatants, they’re also developing solid explanations for how legal institutions, social structures, and ideology give rise to them,” reflects Kelly Kadera, Associate Professor at the University of Iowa. “Moreover, these savvy investigators show us how understanding the causal underpinnings of gender-violence linkages has tangible consequences for the success of peacekeeping, ending civil wars, and social trust.”
Working Groups
The School of Politics and Global Studies at ASU is a Knowledge Enterprise that focuses on advancing research. The School emphasizes research that links theory with real world issues and action through policy. Faculty members of SPGS have organized into working groups to advance research in the following fields:
Conflict and Human Rights
Questions of political violence and rights have motivated scholars, thinkers, and policy-makers for generations. This working group represents several different perspectives of this important area of research. Our researchers come from several different methodological perspectives and conduct research on topics ranging from why states go to war, the dynamics of civil conflict, the scope of repression in states, the development and dynamics of Human Rights institutions, how conflict shapes state development, and the role of gender in conflict.
Recently, the working group has sponsored or co-sponsored two conferences hosted at ASU, supported by the Brian A. Kopf Fund.
In the Fall of 2015, members of the working group organized the conference entitled: "How does Gender Shape Violence and Coercion?" The conference addressed several important questions in the study of gender, violence, and coercion.
In the Spring of 2015, members of the working group organized (along with the Center for the Future of War) the conference entitled “How Do We Know What We Know? Charting the Future for Human Rights Documentation and Analysis.” Bringing together different methodological perspectives, participants presented on several cutting-edge research practices to try and better understand where and how many abuses of Human Rights occur and how better Human Rights practices develop.
Women and Politics
The Women and Politics Working Group has been active in the School of Politics and Global Studies since 2013. Within the working group, we have a large group of scholars whose research focuses on women’s role in politics.
[[{"fid":"795","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: right;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]In 2013, the Women and Politics Working Group won the inaugural SPGS Annual Conference Competition and held a successful conference with national and international participants in April of 2014. The conference, “Women, Media, and Politics: A Comparative Perspective” explored the media’s potential impact on women’s role in politics within a comparative perspective. Papers delivered at the conference explored both traditional and new media coverage of women in the United States and around the world. A group of papers from the conference will be published in a special issue of Politics & Gender shortly.
In 2014, three members (Magda Hinojosa, Miki Kittilson and Kim Fridkin) of the working group received a USAID award to study symbolic representation through a “natural experiment” in Uruguay. Based on interest in symbolic representation, the working group proposed and secured funding for a second conference “Symbolic Representation? Groups and Representation in Contemporary Democratic Politics” which will take place in February of 2016 at Arizona State University. The editor of the journal, Politics, Groups, and Identities will publish a special issue of the journal devoted to the proceedings of the conference.
Nationalist and Ethno-religious Dynamics (NERD)
A major source of political activity, as well as violent conflict, is generated by nationalist movements, ethnic and religious-based groups. Our working group, Nationalist and Ethno-religious Dynamics (NERD), seeks to better understand the role of religion and ethnicity in collective political action, variations in patterns of behavior by such groups, their interactions with states and other international actors, their influence on the promotion or violation of human rights, and the sources and impact of their motivations and capacities for organization and any subsequent political action.
The group features a mix of disciplines, substantive foci, methodological approaches, and area expertise. Faculty regularly collaborate and co-author with graduate students, and have a successful, strong record of winning external grants to fund their research, and are affiliated with a variety of research centers at ASU: Center for the Study of Religion and Conflict, Center for Social Dynamics and Complexity, Center on the Future of War, Center for Jewish Studies, the Melikian Center on Russian, Eurasian and East European Studies, and the Pat Tillman Veterans Center, to name a few. They also have affiliations and memberships in research and academic organizations nationally and internationally.
With the support of SPGS and the Center for Studies of Religion and Conflict at ASU, our Working Group organized an international Conference on Ethnic and Religious Conflict that took place in February 2015 at ASU. The conference, attended by leading scholars in political science, sociology, anthropology and history, analyzed the implications of these different kinds of groups for political mobilization, violence and conflict.
2015 Event Recap
It was another banner year of events for the School of Politics and Global Studies. Whether it was an alumni dinner, a guest lecturer or Fall Welcome, SPGS strived to provide the best experience possible.
[[{"fid":"792","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: left;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]In the spring each year ASU opens up its campus for the Night of the Open Door. In 2015 SPGS welcomed students and families to the 6th floor of the Coor building to learn more about The School. Kids were able to partake in globally themed arts and crafts, vote on their favorite Frozen character and test their trivia knowledge all while listening to live music. We invite you to join us next year for Night of the Open Door on February 27th, 2016.
SPGS has worked closely with the Alumni Association to put on two career panels in 2015. These events bring back various alumni from diverse backgrounds to share their experiences with students. The panels have consisted of established professionals in international business, non-profit, politics, teaching and more. If you have interest in participating in an SPGS Career Panel, please reach out to Gisela Grant at gisela.grant@asu.edu.
The School of Politics and Global Studies has joined ASU in honoring its military veterans in our Salute to Service events. Leading up to Veterans Day, SPGS held a Veteran Alumni Talk in Dr. Charles Ripley’s Professional Career Development class. Army veteran and SPSG alumnus, Corey Harris was able to share his experiences in working on staff for Congressman Ruben Gallego and his contribution to passing and implementing the Post 9-11 GI Bill.
Also during Salute to Service Week, The School was able to join the Alumni Association at Sparky’s Touchdown Tailgate. The tailgate was held on historic Old Main Lawn featuring food, drinks, music, lawn entertainment and plenty of maroon and gold. SPGS alumni were able to network with one another as well as Associate Director, Dr. Richard Herrera. [[{"fid":"793","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: right;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]
The School participated in the festivities for this year’s homecoming as well. SPGS had a booth of activities just off of University Drive that welcomed students, alumni and families. Guests of all ages were able to test their knowledge with our trivia on politics and global events. They were also able to practice the electoral processes by voting on their favorite character from the movie Inside Out. Visitors got to see the world from the eyes of our students as our yearly photo contest winners were proudly on display.
The School of Politics and Global Studies looks forward to another great year of events in 2016. You can stay up to date with the news and events of our school by going to our dedicated webpage.
American Indian Nation Governance Certificate
The School of Politics and Global Studies and the American Indian Studies Program are excited to announce the new American Indian Nation Governance Certificate.
The American Indian Nation Governance Certificate is designed to prepare students to develop greater understanding of government and governance in Native American communities. The curriculum covers several themes that range from the historical experiences, policies and the sovereign status of American Indians to the legal and political relationships between Native American Nations and the U.S., state and local governments. Students will be better prepared to work with or within American Indian nations, federal and state agencies and non-profits regardless of their academic major or place of employment.[[{"fid":"791","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: right;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]
“Arizona is Indian country with 22 tribal nations, each with its own tribal government,” states Dr. John Tippeconnic, Director of the American Indian Studies Program. “There are 566 tribal governments nationwide. The American Indian Governance Certificate gives students an opportunity to become familiar with important tribal governance concepts like tribal sovereignty, self-determination, government-to-government relationship, and contemporary Indian issues. The result will be Individuals who will be better equipped to work the tribal nations.”
The requirements include coursework in American Indian Studies (AIS) and Political Science (POS), including optional applied internships. Students may be awarded the certificate upon the completion of 15 specific credits. To learn more about the program requirements click here.
"The new American Indian Nation Governance Certificate, created by the School of Politics and Global Studies and the American Indian Studies department, offers students the unique opportunity to obtain specialized knowledge about the intersection of American government and politics and the national, state and local levels and the American Indian nations governments," says SPGS Associate Director, Dr. Richard Herrera.