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Our faculty are national leaders in their fields of expertise; they are also among USC's most distinguished teachers and mentors. We cover such traditional areas of study as American Politics, Comparative Politics, Law and Public Policy, Political Theory, and International Relations, but our faculty also have expertise in exciting new areas such as Human Rights, Race/Ethnic Politics, Urban Politics, Political Communication, Civic Engagement, Political Behavior/Psychology, and Environmental Politics. |
Dear Colleagues: April 23, 2009 -- Jane Junn will be joining our faculty this fall! Please feel free to send her a welcome email at junn@rci.rutgers.edu. Thank you all for helping to recruit her to the department! More good news, Anthony Kammas has been promoted to Assistant Professor (teaching) of Political Science. Please join me in congratulating Anthony! - Ann N. Crigler, Chair, Department of Political Science. Sad News. Professor George Oakely Totten III passed away March 2, 2009 of heart failure. His family will announce plans for a memorial service to be held in Los Angeles this summer. If you would like to be notified of this, please reply to Vicken Totten or Linnea Catherine Totten-Day and they will be sure you are informed. Veronica Pete, former Associate Director for Political Science, retired in August 2008. We are so sorry to see her leave but celebrated her retirement at a gala event on August 19, attended by Veronica's family and friends, her Political Science family, and University administrators. We are sad to announce that Professor Herbert Alexander, Distinguished ProfessorEmeritus, died of cancer in Rockville, Md., on April 3, 2008. He was 80. We are also sad to announce that Professor Harlan Hahn passed away on April 23, 2008. ________________ Dear POIR community, it is with great joy that we welcome baby Shaili (pronounced shylee, "my gift" in Hebrew) into the POIR family. Yamit Gavrieli is obviously a proud mother. Here are her comments and baby stats: "She weighed 7.1 pounds and was born on Feb 28. She has big blue eyes and already knows how to smile really big. She has already grown 2 inches, so she's well on her way to becoming a future Trojan!" Congratulations to Yamit and her husband. If I am not mistaken, this is the first POIR baby. I like being around for firsts. -- Alex [Venegas] Professor Alison Dundes Renteln's new book, Multicultural Jurisprudence: Comparative Perspectives on the Cultural Defense (Hart Publishing), has been published. The book analyzes how culture is treated in a range of legal systems. Read the interview of Professor Renteln in the University of Southern California Chronicle. Professor Ange-Marie Hancock has been selected Director of the Center for Feminist Research "New Directions Seminar" for 2009-2010. The CFR Steering Committee was both impressed and enthused by her proposal for a seminar entitled Intersectional Solidarity. The seminar seeks to ". . .integrate issues of race, ethnicity, class, and sexualities," and ". . .'encourage(s) conversations about solidarity into an institution where GS scholarship is so widely dispersed'." Apichai Shipper's book, Fighting for Foreigners: Immigrants and its Impact on Japanese Democracy (Cornell University Press, 2008) has been published (Publisher's reviews) Congratulations Apichai! USC Mock Trial Team students perform client intake for $13 million civil rights class action. The case was filed in response to the LAPD's actions against peaceful protesters in MacArthur Park in May of 2007. Members of the Team interviewed and helped distinguish between witnesses and plaintiffs. Professor Olu Orange, Coach of the Team and co-counsel on the case, trained the students on 42 U.S.C. §1983 and the Unruh Civil Rights Act. The students' work is a significant contribution in pursuit of justice for hundreds of Los Angeles residents. More about the case. Politics and International Relations (POIR) graduate student Jillian Medeiros was sponsored by Professor Jeffery Sellers for the Center for Excellence in Teaching Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award. The 18th Annual Reception was held on November 19, 2009. The Award “recognizes exceptional contributions by teaching assistants to the missions of both their department and the university.” Congratulations Jillian! Jefferey Sellers is a 2008 Advancing Scholarship Research Grant Awardees. Professor Sellers will organize a workshop (Governance and Metropolitan Inequality: A Global Analysis) at which he and his colleagues will analyze data that have alaready been assembled on metropolitan regions in developed and developing or transitional countries. Dan Schnur, a veteran of four presidential and three gubernatorial campaigns, has been named Director of the Jesse M. Unruh Institute of Politics. Schnur served as the national director of communications for Sen. John McCain’s 2000 presidential campaign, and as the chief media spokesman for former California governor Pete Wilson. Nick Weller joined the faculty fall 2008. His research addresses political economy and human behavior/decision making. Professor Weller has a joint appointment with the School of International Relations. Undergraduate Advisor Paul Kovich has been selected to receive one of Pi Sigma Alpha's Chapter Advisor Recognition Awards for 2008. These awards are intended to recognize those ". . . who have served as Advisors to their chapters of the political science honor society with extraordinary dedication, commitment, and leadership for a long period of time." Paul has served as Advisor to Lambda Chater at USC for over twenty years. Cheers Paul!!! Ricardo Ramirez is featured in the Spring 2008 edition of the USC College Magazine. The article, Against the Grain: A young political scientis breaks ground studying the immigrant vote, highlights Professor Ramirez's many achievements. I have excellent news to share--Jeb Barnes has been awarded tenure. Please join me in extending our heartiest congratulations for a job well done to Associate Professor Barnes! -- Ann N. Crigler, Chair Jefferey Sellers has been awarded one of the grants from the Advancing Scholarship in the Humanities and Social Sciences Initiative. His project is entitled "Governance and Metropolitan Inequality: A Global Analysis." Congratulations Jeff on a well deserved recognition of your excellent research! Congratulations to Jasmine Hernandez and Tiffany Ward who have been accepted into The Milennium Momentum Foundation, Inc. Best & the Brightest Scholarship Program for 2007-2008. ABD Graduate Student Seda Unsar has been granted a highly selective postdoctorate visiting fellowship at the London School of Economics. Many congratulations to Seda! Assistant Professor Apichai Shipper and Guest Lecturer Anthony Kammas have received the Department's Outstanding Teaching Award for 2007. Diverse Issues in Higher Education has selected Professor Ricardo Ramirez as one of the Emerging Scholars: The Class of 2008 among under-40 intellectuals. Apichai Shipper has been awarded a highly prestigious Social Science Research Council Abe Fellowship. He will be funded for 12 months to conduct his comparative study of Japan, Sweden and the United States. Many congratulations again to Apichai! In addition, congratulations to Professor Shipper on his recently accepted book manuscript. The book, Foreigners and Democracy in Contemporary Japan, will be published soon by Cornell University Press. Alum Salutes Professor With Scholarship - Two political science majors are selected as recipients of the first Lesher Family Scholarship established in the honor of professor Alison Dundes Renteln. (Details) Every year The Honor Society of Phi Kappa Phi awards sixty Fellowships to members entering their first year of graduate or professional study. Colin Koproske, 2007 Valedictorian and Political Science major, received on of those prestigious fellowships. Congratulations Colin! Jeb Barnes was formally recognized for outstanding teaching by the American Political Science Association (APSA) and Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, at a ceremony during APSA’s Annual Meeting in Chicago summer 2007. Professor Ann Crigler's new book, The Affect Effect: Dynamics of Emotion in Political Thinking and Behavior has been published. On behalf of President Steven B. Sample, Provost C.L. Max Nikias has announced the appoint of USC professor Howard Gillman as dean of USC College! (Details) Many congratulations to Professors Ann Crigler, Olu Orange and Ricardo Ramirez who have been honored with 2007 USC-Mellon Awards for Excellence in Mentoring. The award is given by the Center for Ecellence in Teaching and supported by a grant from the Mellon Foundation. Our department is very fortunate to have many outstanding teachers and mentors and it is most fitting that they are honored in this way. (Details) Professor Richard Dekmejian's new book titled Spectrum of Terror has been published. The Second Revised Edition of International Law and U.S. Foreign Policy, written by Distinguished Emeritus Professor of Political Science Carl Q. Christol has been published. Professor Ann Crigler is the first recipient of the David Swanson Award for Contributions to Political Communication Scholarship. The Department applauds her for this recognition by the discipline.
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