Recent Faculty Achievements
The Department's External Review
In 2006-07, the Department was reviewed by an external tetam of three distinguished political scientists: Professor Robert Erikson of Columbia University, Professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita of New York University, and Professor Robert Rohrschneider of Indiana University. The report indicated that the Department had established a strong record in recent years. The reviewers concluded that,
UB’s political science department is well regarded in the discipline and by its students; indeed, considering the extraordinary burdens under which it operates, it is an overachiever that could be made into a really significant department with the right investments by the administration... We see placing future resources into the department as money well spent.
Faculty Achievements in 2008-09
The Department's faculty remains productive, nationally and internationally visible, and professionally active. In the last two years, faculty have published two books, 19 journal articles, five book chapters and edited two special issues of professional journals. Faculty also presented numerous convention papers, talks on campus, and invited presentations at other universities.
Philip Arena published an article on “Politics or the Economy? Domestic Correlates of Dispute Involvement in Developed Democracies” in International Studies Quarterly. He was also selected to serve as a Faculty Mentor-in-Residence at the eighth annual Summer Institute on the Empirical Implications of Theoretical Models (EITM) held at the University of Michigan from June 15 to July 10, 2009. Professor Arena also gave an invited presentation at the “Symposium on the 2008 Presidential Election” held the University of Iowa.
James Battista published "Why Information? Choosing Committee Informativeness in State Legislatures” in Legislative Studies Quarterly. He continues to serve on the editorial board of State Politics and Policy Quarterly.
Michelle Benson co-authored an article in the British Journal of Political Science entitled “The Dynamics of Ethnonationalist Contention.” She also served in 2008-09 as the Department’s Director of Undergraduate Studies, the Chapter Advisor to Pi Sigma Alpha (the political science honor society) as a Councilor of the American Political Science Association’s Conflict Processes Section, and as the Chair of the International Studies Association’s Nominating Committee.
Now beginning a second term as Chair of the Department, James Campbell began his two year term as President of Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Honor Society of Political Science. He also edited a symposium in the October 2008 issue of PS: Political Science and Politics on forecasting the U.S. national elections, wrote the introduction to the symposium and contributed “The Trial-Heat Forecast of the 2008 Presidential Vote: Performance and Values Considerations in an Open Seat Election.” He also published “The 2008 Campaign and the Forecasts Derailed,” in the January 2009 issue of PS: Political Science & Politics and “An Exceptional Election: Performance, Values, and Crisis in the 2008 Presidential Election” in The Forum. He also gave talks about his research on elections at Iowa State University, Temple University, and to both the UB Emeritus Faculty Club and the UB Almuni Association. Professor Campbell also was one of three presenters at a special American Political Science Association panel on election forecasting held in late October. 2008 at the National Press Club in Washington and broadcast by C-SPAN. He also served on the Executive Council of the Political Forecasting Group, a related group of the American Political Science Association, and as a Member of the Academic Advisory Board of the Campaign Finance Institute. He wrote several articles about the 2008 election for Larry J. Sabato’s Crystal Ball website and for the Britannica Blog. His research and commentary on the 2008 election received extensive coverage in the media from National Public Radio, and the Washington Post to the Los Angeles Times and USA Today, and numerous other media outlets.
Vesna Danilovic co-authored a chapter entitled “Deterrence and Crisis Bargaining” in the International Studies Association Compendium of International Studies, Volume on Scientific Study of International Processes (SSIP), co-edited by Paul Diehl and James Morrow (Wiley-Blackwell). She also serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Politics and International Interactions. Professor Danilovic also served as a Council Member of the International Studies Association’s section on the Scientific Study of International Processes.
Dinissa Duvanova published a book chapter entitled “Business Representation in Eastern Europe: The Failure of Corporatism?” in Interest Groups and Lobbying: Volume Two– Europe, edited by Conor McGrath (Edwin Mellen, 2009).
Joshua Dyck co-authored “The End of Welfare as We Know It? Durable Attitudes in a Changing Information Environment” in Public Opinion Quarterly. He also has five forthcoming articles. “Political Distrust and Conservative Voting in Ballot Measure Elections” is forthcoming in Political Research Quarterly and “Initiated Distrust: Direct Democracy and Trust in Government” is forthcoming in American Politics Research. Professor Dyck is also the co-author of a forthcoming article in American Politics Research entitled “The Effect of Local Political Contexts on How Americans Vote,” a forthcoming article in Political Behavior entitled “Direct Democracy and Political Efficacy Reconsidered,” and a forthcoming article in Public Opinion Quarterly entitled “Process Preferences and Voting in Direct Democratic Elections.” In October, 2008, he gave an invited talk in the Bose Lecture Series at the University of Iowa. He also received the Lisa Hertel Teaching Award in the Department of Political Science for 2008.
Munroe Eagles serves as the Director of the Canadian Studies Program. He also gave invited presentations at the University of Maine at Orono, Saint Bonaventure University, and the University of Québec. He serves on the editorial boards of The Open Geography Journal, the Canadian Political Science Review, and the ACSUS Occasional Papers Series. Professor Eagles also served on the President’s Review Board at UB.
Charles Lamb co-authored “Presidents, Bureaucracy, and Housing Discrimination Policy: The Fair Housing Acts of 1968 and 1988” in Politics and Policy. He also has a forthcoming article in the Public Administration Review on “Civil Rights, Federalism, and the Administrative Process: Favorable Outcomes by Federal, State, and Local Agencies in Housing Discrimination Complaints.” Professor Lamb also received the Lucius Barker Award from the Midwest Political Science Association for the best paper presented on race or ethnicity and politics at their 2008 convention.
Harvey Palmer served admirably as the Department’s Director of Graduate Studies. He also gave invited presentations at Texas A&M University, Syracuse University, Binghamton University, and Cornell University.
Jason Sorens co-authored a report published by the Mercatus Center at George Mason University on Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom. He also published “Nationalists Against Secession: Regionalism and the Politics of Territory in Advanced Democracies” in Nationalism and Ethnic Politics. He is also the author of “The Politics and Economics of Official Ethnic Discrimination: A Global Statistical Analysis, 1950-2003” in International Studies Quarterly, “The Partisan Logic of a Decentralized Europe” in Regional and Federal Studies, and “Developments and the Political Economy of Foreign Aid” in Journal of Private Enterprise. He also received a grant from Donors Trust to support a series of research workshops on “Markets and States.”
Claude Welch published “Defining Contemporary Forms of Slavery: Updating a Venerable Institution” in Human Rights Quarterly. He served as the Academic Director of UB’s new undergraduate Global Perspectives Academy. Professor Welch continues to serve on the editorial boards of Armed Forces and Society, Human Rights Quarterly, and the Buffalo Human Rights Law Review. He also received the Lisa Hertel Teaching Award in the Department of Political Science for 2009.
Frank Zagare published “Explaining the 1914 War in Europe” in the Journal of Theoretical Politics and “After Sarajevo: Explaining the Blank Check” in International Interactions. He also contributed a chapter entitled “Game Theory and Security Studies” to Security Studies: An Introduction, edited by Paul D. Williams (Routledge, 2008) and has a chapter entitled “Game Theory and Other Modeling Approaches” in the International Studies Compendium Project, edited by Robert A. Denemark (Wiley-Blackwell). Professor Zagare serves on the editorial boards of both International Interactions and Game Theory and Strategy.