News / Events
Memoriam to Emeritus Professor Lester Milbrath
Recent UB Reporter Stories About the Department
Election Forecasters Preparing For Historic Election (James Campbell)
Palmer Brings Broad Interests to UB
Eagles Urges U.S. to Learn About Neighbors to the North
Munroe Eagles on the Advanced Certificate Program in Canadian Studies
James Campbell on "America Divided" Symposium
James Campbell on Election Forecasting and Plans as Chair
Welch on Sabbaticals Enriching Teaching and Research
Welch Receives First TIAA-Cref Lifetime Achievement Award
Faculty/Department Awards
Department Ranked Highly in Recent Worldwide Evaluation -- UB's Political Science Department fared well in a recent study of political science departments around the globe. In "A Global Ranking of Political Science Departments" published in 2004 in Political Studies Review, Simon Hix ranked 400 political science departments based on publications in 63 political science journals from 1993 to 2002. UB's department ranked 66th out of 400 departments by Hix's overall index and 43rd in terms of quantity of publications per faculty member.
Joshua Dyck received the 2008 Lisa Hertel Outstanding Professor Award at the Department’s 2007-08 graduation ceremony.
Faculty Changes/New Faculty Hires
There are a number of good reasons to be optimistic about the Department’s future. Although the Department continues to be understaffed, it has had some notable successes in recruiting faculty in recent years and continues to have the support of the University’s administration to bring faculty numbers up to 20 faculty as soon as possible. In the last few years, the Department has made a number of excellent faculty hires. Both Harvey Palmer, an Associate Professor in Political Behavior (both comparative and American), and James Battista, an Assistant Professor in American politics, joined the Department in 2007-08. Both are exceptional scholars and colleagues who have already contributed greatly to the Department’s mission. The two most recent additions are also reasons to be optimistic. Dinissa Duvanova, an Assistant Professor of Comparative Politics, joins the Department in the Fall of 2008 after having had a productive post-doctoral year at Princeton. Philip Arena, a very promising scholar of International Relations from Penn State, also joins the faculty as an Assistant Professor in the Fall of 2008.
Faculty Research and Achievements
The faculty remains productive, visible, and professionally active. In the 2007-08 academic year, faculty published two books, eight journal articles, three book chapters and edited two special issues of professional journals. Faculty also presented 26 convention papers and, in addition to numerous talks on campus, gave six invited presentations at other universities.
A number of specific achievements by individual faculty are:
James Battista, in his first year in the Department, continued his service on the editorial board of State Politics and Policy Quarterly.
Michelle Benson guest edited a special issue of International Interactions on “Extensions of Power Transition Theory.” She contributed an introduction as well as “Status Quo Preferences and Disputes Short of War” to this issue. She also co-authored “Means, Motives, and Opportunities in the Expression of Ethno-Nationalist Demands” in the a later issue of the journal. Professor Benson also served 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.
Serving in his second year as Chair, James Campbell published a second edition of The American Campaign: U.S. Presidential Campaigns and the National Vote (Texas A&M University Press, 2008). He also co-edited with Michael Lewis-Beck a special issue of the International Journal of Forecasting (May 2008) on Election Forecasting. Professor Campbell contributed a co-authored introduction as well as “Evaluating U.S. Presidential Election Forecasts and Forecasting Equations” to this issue. He also published chapters on “Do Swing Voters Swing Elections?” in The Swing Voter in American Politics (Brookings 2008) and “Presidential Politics in a Polarized Nation” in The George W. Bush Legacy (CQ Press, 2008). He gave invited presentations at the University of Florida and at SUNY Geneseo. He continued to serve as president-elect of Pi Sigma Alpha (the national political science honor society), on the editorial board of Political Science Quarterly, on the advisory council of the Campaign Finance Institute, and on the Executive Councils of both the APSA’s Presidency Research Group section and the APSA’s affiliated Political Forecasting Group. He was frequently interviewed about American politics by international, national, and local news media outlets.
Vesna Danilovic published “Global Power Transitions and Regional Interests,” in the International Interactions. The article was co-authored with Joe Clare.
Dinissa Duvanova received a prestigious Postgraduate Research Fellowship at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Democratic Politics. Before starting this post-doc, she published “Bureaucratic Corruption and Collective Action: Business Associations in the Post-Communist Transition” in Comparative Politics. This journal is ranks among the top ten in the discipline.
Joshua Dyck published “Election Year Stimuli and the Timing of Voter Registration” in Party Politics. He co-authored the article with James Gimpel and Daron Shaw. Professor Dyck also gave an invited talk at Binghamton University and participated in a workshop on “Spatial Analysis in the Social Science Curriculum” at UC Santa Barbara.
While continuing to serve as an Associate Dean in the College and as a Research Scientist in the National Center for Geographic Information and Analysis, Munroe Eagles published the third edition of Introduction to Democratic Government (Broadview Press, 2008). He also co-authored a book chapter on “Politics and Government” in Canadian Studies in the New Millennium (University of Toronto Press, 2007). Professor Eagles continues to serve on the editorial boards of the Canadian Political Science Review and the ACSUS Research Papers in Canadian Politics, and on the Academic Advisory Committee of the Centre for Election Studies.
Although only in his first year in the Department, Harvey Palmer served admirably as the Department’s Director of Graduate Studies and has been a very valuable source of methodological advice to other faculty and graduate students.
Jason Sorens received a grant from Donors Trust to support a series of research workshops on “Markets and States.”
Claude Welch continues to serve on the editorial boards of Armed Forces and Society, Human Rights Quarterly, and Human Rights and Human Welfare. He was named in April by the U.S. Human Rights Network as one of three who had made “notable contributions” in the field of human rights scholarship.
Frank Zagare published two articles:“Toward a Unified Theory of Interstate Conflict” in International Interactions and “Explaining Limited Conflicts” in Conflict Management and Peace Science. He continued to serve on the editorial board of International Interactions. Professor Zagare also received the Department’s Lisa Hertel Teaching Award for 2007.
External Evaluation
The Department and its graduate and undergraduate programs were reviewed during 2006-7. The review process was a lengthy and thorough one, involving the preparation of an extensive self-study and the on-site review by three eminent scholars: Professor Robert Erikson of Columbia University, Professor Bruce Bueno de Mesquita of New York University, and Professor Robert Rohrschneider of Indiana University. A brief passage from their report conveys their understanding of where the Department has been and why there are reasons to be optimistic about its future:
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.
The current administration...appears committed to growing and improving the department.... We see placing future resources into the department as money well spent.
Invited Speakers in Political Science at UB
In addition to holding a nearly weekly research workshop series organized by Professors Dyck and Johnson, the Department in 2007-08 hosted four outside speakers who shared their research with the Department’s faculty and students.
Through the sponsorship of a chapter activity grant from Pi Sigma Alpha, Professor Michael S. Lewis-Beck of the University of Iowa gave a presentation at the annual initiation ceremony for new members of Pi Sigma Alpha in April. The title of Professor Lewis-Beck’s talk was “The American Voter: 50 Years Later.” It was based on his new and much anticipated book, The American Voter Revisited (University of Michigan Press, 2008) co-authored with Helmut Norpoth, William Jacoby, and Herbert Weisberg.
Three other speakers were brought to the Department through a grant that Jason Sorens received for a series of research workshops on “Markets and States.” The first speaker in this series was Professor Erik Gartzke of University of California at San Diego who presented his research on “The Relevance of Power in International Relations.” Professor David M. Konisky of the University of Missouri, Columbia followed with a presentation on “Exporting Air Pollution? Regulatory Enforcement and Environmental Free Riding in the United States.” The final speaker in the series this past Spring was Professor Nita Rudra of the University of Pittsburgh. Professor Rudra discussed her research project “Have Governments Gone Too Far?”
Faculty Service to the Profession and the Community
In addition to fulfilling their research and teaching commitments and to serving the Department, College, and University in various administrative capacities, a number of the faculty were also active in providing service to the political science profession and to the public more broadly.
Several members of the Department held national leadership positions in professional organizations, on editorial boards of scholarly journals, and in organizing professional meetings and conferences. Professor Campbell served as president-elect of Pi Sigma Alpha and will begin his two-year term as President at the Labor Day national convention of the APSA. Professors Battista, Campbell, Eagles, Welch, and Zagare each served on at least one editorial board of a scholarly journal. Professors Benson, Campbell, Danilovic, and Eagles each served on at least one executive council or advisory council of a national professional organization.
Scholarship involves both the production and the dissemination of knowledge and the dissemination does not stop at the classroom door nor at the professional conference, several political science faculty have been active in sharing their research and ideas with the public through the media, bringing their professional expertise into the public arena--a key aspect of civic engagement. In this vein, Professor Franco Mattei also was interviewed a number of times by both national and local media about nominating campaigns. Professor Claude Welch was called upon by international (Pravda in Bratislava, Slovakia) and local (WBEN, WHAM, WBFO radio, WGRZ, WKBW, and Bridges-TV television, and The Buffalo News) news media for commentary on many international political issues.
Professor James Campbell was often called upon by international (Fokus in Sweden and Yomiuri Shimbun in Japan), national (NPR, The Washington Post, NBCsports.com), various local (WOSU in Columbus, Ohio; WMAC in Macon, Georgia; KGAB in Cheyenne, Wyoming; Newsday on Long Island), and Buffalo area (WBFO, WBEN, WKBW-TV, and The Buffalo News) news media about his election research and commentary on American elections. During an August 2007 appearance on NBC’s Meet the Press show, then Senior Presidential Advisor Karl Rove positively referenced Campbell’s research on election forecasting. Professor Campbell also was an invited regular contributor to the Encyclopedia Britannica’s “Britannica Blog” on the 2008 presidential election.
Professors Halpern and Dyck also brought their political science expertise into the public arena. Professor Steve Halpern used his expertise in law to supervise law school interns and to serve as a pro bono counsel to a number of clients, including the Buffalo Living Wage Commission. Professor Josh Dyck served as volunteer consultant to Voter’s Direct, a non-partisan group focused on voter turnout.
Our Students
The high quality of many of the Department’s undergraduates was recognized in several ways this past year. A total of 23 of our graduating students were admitted to Phi Beta Kappa and 32 were initiated into Pi Sigma Alpha.
The Graduate Paper Award in Political Science is awarded annually from among papers nominated by members of the faculty. First awarded in 2005, the prize is intended to recognize original research that makes a significant contribution to understanding political phenomena. The 2007 recipient is Brian Nottingham. His paper is titled, "Native American Dispute Onset."
Robert H Stern Award for 2008 (Most Outstanding Undergraduate Paper) went to Sarah Tanbakuchi and Phillip Morris.
Samantha Horn was selected by the Department as its outstanding senior.
Nine students participated in the Washington Semester Program organized by SUNY Brockport
Paul Senese Graduate Assistantship
The Department of Political Science is delighted to announce the selection of Jesse T. Wasson as the first graduate student designated to hold the Paul D. Senese Graduate Assistantship. He holds this designation for the 2007-2008 academic year. In the fall of 2007, the Department’s faculty approved the naming of a graduate assistantship in honor of Paul D. Senese. Professor Senese was a highly accomplished and very promising scholar in International Politics who joined the Department in 1998, was promoted to Associate Professor in 2005, and passed away in the summer of 2006. This graduate assistantship is named in his memory and reflects Paul’s commitment to UB, political science, its graduate students, and the study of international politics. The Department’s Graduate Committee will award the distinction of the Paul D. Senese Graduate Assistantship annually to a continuing graduate student. The designation of the recipient of this honor is based on the Committee’s collective judgment of the student’s superior performance in the program, with a preference given to students in the international politics field. As well as the honor of this
designation, there will be two tangible forms of recognition. First, the Department is obtaining a plaque in which each annual award winner’s name will be inscribed. This plaque will be permanently displayed in the Department’s main office. Second, a copy of the forthcoming The Steps to War: An Empirical Study by Paul D. Senese and John A. Vasquez (Princeton: Princeton University Press, forthcoming 2008) will be presented to each annual award winner. Since The Steps to War is forthcoming later this year, its presentation must await that publication. The Department will, however, hold a brief ceremony celebrating the award when the department’s plaque is ready to be displayed.