University at Buffalo (UB)
Issue 9, 2022
In this Issue:
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Jake Kathman writes:
Dear Alumni and Friends of the Political Science Department,
As I start my second academic year as Department Chair, it is my pleasure to share an update with you on the Department’s progress of late and our plans for the future. Much has occurred over the last year, and the future for the Department is certainly bright.
We now seem to have come out on the other end of the pandemic. While the virus still affects life on our campus, it is heartening to note that we are in fact on campus! UB returned to in-person instruction in the previous academic year with such protocols as universal masking, reduced capacity classrooms, and hybrid course delivery methods. However, 2022-2023 brings a more normal return to full-capacity, in-person classrooms and a semblance of academic life as it was prior to the pandemic. While some of the course delivery innovations made necessary by the pandemic will remain as part of the pedagogical routine into the future, a return to campus was most welcome.
Even in the face of the many challenges posed by the pandemic, the health of the Department of Political Science remained, and the Department has strengthened, as we continue to serve over 400 undergraduate majors and a growing graduate program. Further, our newly developed programs in Global Affairs are gaining steam, as we seek to offer a curriculum that prepares students for the new challenges posed by an ever-changing world and the employment opportunities that come with it.
In part as an effort to support these existing strengths, the Department made several recent faculty hires. Drs. Carla Martinez Machain and Sam Bell were came on board as Full Professors by way of Kansas State University. Dr. Martinez Machain received her PhD from Rice University and studies conflict, international security, and foreign policy analysis. Dr. Bell received is degree from SUNY Binghamton and studies conflict, human rights, and global security. Boosting our reputation for being a methodologically rigorous department, we were also grateful to hire Dr. Shawna Metzger, who fills an important role in our methods sequence, specializing in duration models and studying international relations. Dr. Metzger received her PhD from the University of Pittsburgh, and most recently worked as an assistant professor in the James Madison College at Michigan State University. Last, as part of our goal to meet high student demand for our offerings, we were pleased to welcome Dr. Collin Anderson last year in our new Clinical Assistant Professor position. Dr. Anderson is a home-grown talent, receiving his Ph.D. from our own department. He joins Dr. Shawn Donahue as one of our two valued teaching instructors.
This impressive growth will be further supported by a new initiative at UB. President Tripathi has set a bold goal for pushing UB into the ranks of the top 25 public research universities nationwide. As part of that effort, the University has pursued a Disciplinary Excellence initiative, and the Department of Political Science was one of the few departments university-wide that were tapped for further growth. In doing so, we expect to hire an additional four esteemed faculty members in the coming years to build upon our existing strengths.
While these are indeed exciting times, we head into this new era without some of our core leadership. Dr. Jim Campbell, a renowned UB Distinguished Professor, retired at the end of the 2021-2022 academic year. Further, Dr. Munroe Eagles, who served in countless leadership capacities at UB during his career, will bid adieu at the end of the current academic year. As friends, colleagues, and mentors, both will be sorely missed, although their legacies will most certainly endure.
In other notable news, the Department held a festschrift conference in honor of UB Distinguished Professor Frank Zagare. Led by Dr. Vesna Danilovic in coordination with Department Administrator, Jeanine McKeown, scholars from around the country presented work inspired by Dr. Zagare’s research. Further, the first two Starr Awards were presented to Drs. Jieun Lee and Abby Matthews. The Starr Award, which supports junior faculty research and retention, was endowed by a generous gift made by UB alumnus, Dr. Harvey Starr. Dr. Starr is a valued friend of the Department of Political Science whose illustrious career in the study of international relations and conflict processes serves as an example to our faculty and students.
I hope you will agree that the recent progress in the Department is a positive leap forward as we move on from the pandemic and all of its unfortunate consequences for UB and the community. To maintain this progress, we invite you to consider donating to the department. It is with your help that the Department of Political Science can truly distinguish itself among the world’s most prominent programs.
Going forward, we wish you well, and please don’t hesitate to stop by the Department, drop us a note, or otherwise let us know how you have been doing.
Jake Kathman
Department Chair and Professor
Sophie May of Cheektowaga is the first UB student to receive a Charles B. Rangel International Affairs Fellowship to pursue a degree in a field relevant to the Foreign Service. She is the founder and president of the UB French Club, vice president of the Political Science Association, and a college ambassador for the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures. May has also interned at the Association for Diplomatic Studies and Training, the Hudson Institute, the Joint Baltic American Committee, and the National Defense University. May graduated in May with bachelor’s degrees in political science and French, along with a minor in history. She has deferred her Rangel award in order to take up a Fulbright Fellowship in Latvia during the 2022-2023 academic year.
Lisa Parshall was recently appointed to serve as an editor for the Federal History Journal, the journal of the Society for History in the Federal Government. Historically-focused, the journal also publishes scholarship on contemporary issues relevant to the history of federal work. “Particularly in this present moment of declining public trust in institutions and recent attacks on the federal administrative state, the informed and scholarly understanding of the role of the federal government as part of our democratic system of government is more important than ever,” said Parshall, a professor of political science at Daemen. The journal publishes the work of both academics and practitioners. As an open-access, peer-reviewed journal, “it serves an important role in promoting public interest in, and understanding of, the story of the U.S. government that is critical to civic engagement and public trust,” added Parshall, who also serves as president of the Faculty Senate at Daemen.
In the role, Parshall will primarily assist with the journal’s annual Law and Constitution roundtable, which curates and reviews essays on recent and outstanding work that addresses constitutional aspects of federal history or political development. Parshall will work under Benjamin Guterman, retired professor of Colonial American history and a long-time writer-editor for the National Archives and Records Administration.
“This new role will put to use my expertise in constitutional law, political development, and administrative politics,” said Parshall. “It’s also an honor and a learning opportunity – the journal and the Society for the History of Federal Government do such important work.” This fall, a second printing of Parshall’s most recent book will be released with a new title, Deconstruction: Distrust, and the Future of American Democracy – updated to include the end of the Trump Administration and transition to President Joe Biden’s first year in office. The additional material will highlight the two most recent administrations’ different approaches to the federal government and the role of federal powers.
Written by Harvey Starr
Blame COVID! As a “retired” faculty just sitting around the house during 2020 a number of factors led me to start writing an intellectual biography (that ultimately appeared in my 2021 book from Springer, Harvey Starr: Pioneer in the Study of Conflict Processes and International Relations). During that same time Claude Welch contacted me about providing material for the book he was preparing on the history of the UB department. Though I had acknowledged the importance of my undergraduate studies at UB in a number of public presentations, I had now fully thought out-- and articulated-- the enormous impact that the UB department and its faculty had on my development as a scholar. I now realized what a debt I owed and wanted to give back to the UB department in a meaningful way. Working with Munroe Eagles we focused on helping the department through faculty retention, focusing especially on junior faculty. Warren Lloyd (the Executive Director of Advancement in the College) was most helpful in working out the details of the award in my name, as was Jake Kathman when he followed Munroe as Chair. It has been my great pleasure to help.
Editor's note:
The first winner of the Starr Award for 2021-2022 was Jieun Lee; Abigail Matthews is the award’s second recipient for 2022-2023. The department sincerely thanks Professor Starr for his generosity and for wanting to give back to his alma mater.
The Department of Political Science has a richly established tradition in international conflict research with a lion’s share of internationally recognized work by UB Distinguished Professor Frank C. Zagare. It was in his honor that the Department organized a festschrift conference “The Scientific Study of Interstate Conflict.” It was held in October 2021 at the Center for Tomorrow, University at Buffalo, and generously supported by the UB Nuclear War Prevention Studies Endowment Fund which was established by Dr. Jonathan F. Reichert, a former faculty member in the Department of Physics.
The conference gathered several recognized scholars from the discipline, all of whom wanted to pay tribute to Professor Zagare’s distinguished and influential scholarship as well as his generosity as a colleague, mentor, and friend. The papers were presented by Professors Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Steven J. Brams (both of New York University), Professor D. Marc Kilgour (Wilfrid Laurier University), Professor Jacek Kugler (Claremont Graduate School), Professor John Vasquez (University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign), Professors Lisa J. Carlson and Raymond Dacey (both of the University of Idaho), Professor Stephen Quackenbush (University of Missouri), Professor Joe Clare (Louisiana State University), and Professor Vesna Danilovic (University at Buffalo, The State University of New York). Members of the Department faculty whose specialty lies in international politics additionally participated as the session chairs, joining the discussion as well. Numerous graduate students from the Department attended the conference.
The paper topics covered many facets of international conflict, ranging from the issues in successful deterrence and crisis bargaining to the international and domestic factors, including nuclear weapons, critical in the study of war. The high quality of all presented papers and the lively intellectual atmosphere in celebration of the honoree made it a memorable and successful event.
These make excellent gifts! 🎁
Reborn of Crisis: 9/11 and the Resurgent Superhero
PhD (2010) alum Annika Hagley (Associate Professor of Political Science at Roger Williams College, Rhode Island) has published a co-authored book on superheroes and American politics with Routledge. The book examines the dominant popular culture convention of the superhero, situated within the most significant global event of the last 20 years. Exploring the explosion of the superhero genre post-9/11, it sheds fresh light on the manner in which American society has processed and continues to process the trauma from the terrorist attacks. Beginning with the development of Batman in comics, television, and film, the authors offer studies of popular films including Iron Man, Captain America, The X-Men, Black Panther, and Wonder Woman, revealing the ways in which these texts meditate upon the events and aftermath of 9/11 and challenge the dominant hyper-patriotic narrative that emerged in response to the attacks. Spider-Man was the first major superhero film to be released after the terrorist attacks, and although filmmakers took the opposite approach from Marvel Comics by removing an advance trailer for the film that depicted Spider-Man capturing a helicopter full of bank robbers. In the aftermath of Avengers: Infinity War in which half of the population of the universe is snapped out of existence by the villain Thanos, the remaining heroes are shown processing and dealing with grief in distinct ways. When Wonder Woman premiered in 2017, the arrival of the first feature length superhero film centering around a female hero marked significant shift in the superhero landscape due in large part to female led creative team and the story of the film, which highlighted empowered femininity in ways theretofore unseen. Superhero television provides an excellent platform for the exploration of various aspects of identity and the more immediate nature of these programs as far as their timeline and episodic structure.
Directing the Whirlwind: The Trump Presidency and the Deconstruction of the Administrative State
PhD (2001) alum Lisa Parshall (Professor of Political Science, Daemen College) and former UB faculty member Jim Twombly have published a book with Peter Lang on Donald Trumps’ attack on the administrative apparatus in Washington. The book’s description reads: “Donald J. Trump ran on a platform that, among other things, promised to "drain the swamp" that is Washington, DC. Part of that draining would entail what his chief strategist, Steve Bannon, would call "the deconstruction of the administrative state." Set in the political environment of 2020, with a raging pandemic and nationwide protests, this work examines the philosophy that guides the Trump Administration’s approach and the mechanisms by which it seeks to accomplish the deconstruction. By combining journalistic accounts with presidential and public administration scholarship, the book raises questions about the impact of Trump’s approach on the future of public administration.”
Russian Studies, Political Science, and the Philosophy of Technology
Alums Guoli Liu (PhD, 1991) and Joanna Drzewienieki (PhD, 1996) co-edited a festschrift volume honoring the late UB Professor Frederic J. Fleron, Jr., who died in June 2022. Entitled Russian Studies, Political Science, and the Philosophy of Technology, the volume presents state-of-the-art creative scholarship in a variety of areas where Fred had made significant contributions, with an emphasis on Russia. The contributors are UB faculty and alums who worked with Fred and who share his conviction that advancement in the social sciences can only be achieved through plural methodological approaches and interaction with various disciplines. Their chapters in this collection provides critical analyses of key issues in Russian and post-Soviet studies. It explores the most fruitful ways of studying Russia with particular emphasis on the federal system, politics in the era of Putin, challenges of Russian foreign policy, and Russian attitudes toward democracy. The vagaries of democracy are also explored in articles on Georgia and Turkey. Additionally, this book examines the philosophy of technology with an emphasis on critical theory, eco-domination, and engineering ethics, areas that Fred worked on early in his career and returned to in the last years of his life.
Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision-Making
Rachael Hinkle (Associate Professor) has co-authored a book that on amicus curaie and efforts to persuade Justices on the US Supreme Court that has been published by the University of Kansas Press. Each year the public, media, and government wait in anticipation for the Supreme Court to announce major decisions. These opinions have shaped legal policy in areas as important as healthcare, marriage, abortion, and immigration. It is not surprising that parties and outside individuals and interest groups invest an estimated $25 million to $50 million a year to produce roughly one thousand amicus briefs to communicate information to the justices, seeking to impact these rulings. Despite the importance of the Court and the information it receives, many questions remain unanswered regarding the production of such information and its relationship to the Court’s decisions. Persuading the Supreme Court leverages the very written arguments submitted to the Court to shed light on both their construction and impact. Drawing on more than 25,000 party and amicus briefs filed between 1984 and 2015 and the text of the related court opinions, as well as interviews with former Supreme Court clerks and attorneys who have prepared and filed briefs before the Supreme Court, Morgan Hazelton and Rachael Hinkle have shed light on one of the more mysterious and consequential features of Supreme Court decision-making. Persuading the Supreme Court offers new evidence that the resource advantage enjoyed by some parties likely stems from both the ability of their experienced attorneys to craft excellent briefs and their reputations with the justices. The analyses also reveal that information operates differently in terms of influencing who wins and what policy is announced. Using those original interviews and quantitative analyses of a rich original dataset of tens of thousands of briefs, with measures built using sophisticated natural language processing tools, Hazelton and Hinkle investigate the factors that influence what information litigants and their attorneys provide to the Supreme Court and what the justices and their clerks do with that information in deciding cases that set legal policy for the entire country.
In the Fall of 2021 the Department began offering two new degree programs that take advantage of faculty strength in comparative politics and international relations. The BA in Global Affairs provides students with the opportunity to investigate questions related to international politics, global policies, international law and economics. Students interested in international relations, human rights, international conflict and law are well-suited for a BA in Global Affairs. The MA in Global Affairs offers students advanced understanding of the processes, institutions and challenges arising in the modern global system. Students will examine how international, regional and domestic factors affect relations between and within countries, and with non-governmental and international actors. A major focus of the program will be instilling the conceptual, analytical and methodological tools needed to ground a rigorous understanding of the factors structuring global affairs. See the Department for more information on these exciting new programs.
The conference gathered several recognized scholars from the discipline, all of whom wanted to pay tribute to Professor Zagare’s distinguished and influential scholarship as well as his generosity as a colleague, mentor, and friend.
The UB Political Science community was deeply saddened by the death of one of our long-serving and much-loved faculty members, Frederic Fleron, Jr. An expert on Soviet and Post-Soviet studies and the philosophy of technology and social science, Fred died in Westfield, MA, on June 2nd following a brief illness. He served for many years as the Department’s Director of Graduate Studies, and in a variety of other administrative roles at while at UB. Fred retired from UB in 2003 and served as an adjunct faculty member in the political science department of Westfield State College for a decade (2008-2018). Fred was working on several books at the time of his death. A festschrift edited by two of his former students, Guoli Liu and Joanna Drzewieniecki, in honor of Fred’s distinguished contributions to the study of comparative politics and the philosophy of social science was published in April 2022 by Lexington Books (see below). Fred was a tremendous friend and supporter of the department and our political science family and we miss him greatly.
The life of Fatoumala Drammeh, a promising young political science major, was tragically cut short in an apartment fire in the Bronx in January 2022. She was one of 17 deaths in the fire, which made national news at the time. Fatoumala was in her third year of our program and was a hard-working, well-liked, and dedicated student. We miss her.
MONKEY CAGE (Washington Post)
Analysis by Morgan L.W. Hazelton and Rachael K. Hinkle
October 3, 2022 at 7:00 a.m. EDT
The reasoning in amicus briefs shows up in the decisions. Lawyers’ experience makes a big difference as well.
The Supreme Court begins its 2022 term Monday (October 3, 2022), in the shadow of its momentous last term. In the final weeks, the court released important decisions that fundamentally changed constitutional law regarding gun rights, abortion and environmental protection, among other important issues. The upcoming term may grab just as many headlines. The justices will hear important cases about college admissions, states’ ability to regulate commerce and copyright law. Just in these first few days they will consider the standard under which the Environmental Protection Agency can regulate wetlands and the power of states to control elections in light of federal voting rights.
How do the justices make their decisions? Decades of research suggest that while their ideologies have an influence, that’s not the only influence. In our new book, we examine how information flows to the court and what the justices do with this information. Attorneys spend hours learning to craft arguments and clients spend large sums for such work. The parties in the lawsuits give the justices written arguments called “party briefs.” But other groups can weigh in, too. Interested groups and individuals can make written arguments in what are called “amicus curiae” or friend-of-the-court briefs.
These briefs matter, our research finds. They influence both who wins and how the justices write opinions that will shape future cases. But other resources, such as experienced attorneys, matter as well.
To do our research, we use measures from relevant texts. For instance, borrowing from text analysis, we use a measure computational linguists call “cosine similarity scores” to see which briefs are most like the resulting opinions. This approach weights unusual words more than common terms, so that everyday language contributes less to the score than rarer or more specific words. For instance, in Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr.’s opinion in Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, the case in which the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, we found frequent use of the term “quickening” — which was often used in the Thomas More Society’s amicus brief.
We also consider novel language within briefs using something called “term frequency — inverse document frequency.” This accounts for how much of a brief is devoted to discussing concepts that scarcely show up in other briefs. Finally, we measure many things about the parties themselves, the organizations filing amicus briefs, and their attorneys — for instance, the attorneys’ years of experience — that can shape the results.
PhD alum Annika Hagley (2010) has developed a course on superheroes for her students at Roger Williams College where she has taught for 8 years. The superhero genre is a great vehicle to explore domestic and international issues by making these topics more accessible to students, said Alexander Rebelo, a senior Political Science major and History minor who will attend George Washington University in the fall to pursue his master’s in security policy studies. Students read primary superhero texts and graphic novels and watch superhero movies to explore how their distinct identities reflect certain marginalized groups and notions of “other” and to understand the ways in which the genre ties into several academic fields of study, according to a course description. Students also study critical theory as it relates to the superhero genre drawn from fields of psychoanalysis, film studies, philosophy, queer theory, critical race theory, feminist theory, science, aesthetics, religion, and politics.
Recent turns in popular rhetoric have inspired discussions about what it means to be politically tolerant and the degree to which Americans believe in the principle of rights reciprocity. Do people imagine their fundamental rights of expression, worship and assembly as being secure in a government controlled by their political opponents who do not share their broader sensibilities?
To a point, according to the findings of a new paper by a University at Buffalo political scientist. But it’s not as much as you might think.
As a response to the invasion of Ukraine, the United States and European Union have imposed unprecedented economic sanctions against Russia. The sanctions are already creating major financial havoc, possibly sending the Russian economy into partial collapse. The intention of these actions is to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin to halt his country’s military assault on Ukraine. These financial maneuvers are becoming as important as the weapons on the battlefield as the U.S. and EU try to find a non-violent way to stop the Russian invasion.
Elena McLean, associate professor of political science and an expert in international political economy, says economic sanctions are becoming one of the most powerful weapons in response to military conflicts. “Economic sanctions can impose significant damage on targeted economies when they are designed with that goal in mind,” McLean explains. “The most severe sanctions can rival military conflict in the scale of economic and human costs they can generate.” The sanctions are in place to avoid direct military engagement with Russia. With the threat of the use of nuclear weapons at stake, the fiscal penalties levied are one of the few ways to neutralize Russia.
For those participating in the 11th annual Life Raft Debate, hosted by the Honors College, this doomsday scenario was their reality. Professors were asked to debate their worth in the fictional life-or-death situation. Students’ lives were decided by the audience’s final vote.
On Feb. 15 in the Student Union, each professor — Cari Casteel, David E. Gray, Joseph A. Costa, Kevin Burke, Paul Linden-Retek and Shawn Donahue — had to prove themselves to be indispensable for an improved quality of life, advocating for their accomplishments, knowledge and disciplines to build their case.
Khrystyna Adam couldn’t stop her hands from trembling or her eyes from tearing up. Nor could she keep herself from scrolling through the myriad of “WWIII” jokes that filled her Instagram feed: A fake UBAlert of an incoming nuclear warhead, followed by a fake Zoom call with Vladimir Putin. It was a startlingly comedic contrast to the harrowing images of collapsed buildings and anxious text messages that have filled her waking hours these last few weeks, she says.
Adam is a member of the Ukrainian community at UB, one that has anxiously watched as their loved ones face the Russo-Ukrainian war at home. While many of their peers are able to walk triumphantly to class or chat freely in the halls, these students’ days are an exercise of vigilance filled with prayers that their loved ones remain safe. “This is our reality. We are so afraid to look down at our phone to see the text message from our family saying, ‘We’re going underground, we’ll contact you when we’re okay,’” Adam said. “You don’t know what news it could be. It could be a family member just died or our house has been shot down. This is not the time to joke around about things like this.” Since the beginning of the invasion in Ukraine on Feb. 24, the Buffalo Ukrainian community has rallied and fundraised to raise awareness for those impacted by the conflict.
Meet our New Faculty Members
The department is excited to introduce three new faculty members, Sam Bell, Carla Martinez Machain and Shawna Metzger.
Coming to University at Buffalo is something of a homecoming for me. Although I’m not from Western New York, I grew up in Stony Brook, received my B.A. from University at Albany, and my M.A. and Ph.D. from Binghamton University. I’m excited to be back in New York and to see all that Western New York and the Buffalo area have to offer. Before moving here, I was a professor in the Department of Political Science at Kansas State University. My recent research examines why governments violate human rights, with a particular focus on how third-party actors like non-governmental organizations and foreign militaries influence these outcomes. I also have ongoing projects looking at the role of transitional justice in improving human rights and the causes and consequences of human trafficking. I am currently teaching an undergraduate course on political science methods. This is a class that I love to teach as it helps students to understand how we know what we think we know about politics, but also equips students with a set of skills to be better critical thinkers in all aspects of their lives. I have been immediately impressed by the curiosity and quality of the students here at UB. I’m looking forward to teaching a graduate course on political violence and human rights in the spring. It’s exciting to be joining the Department of Political Science at UB during a time of such growth in the department and the university. There’s a lot of opportunity to learn from and collaborate with the excellent faculty and graduate students here.
Carla Martínez Machain received her Ph.D. in Political Science from Rice University in May 2012. She also received her B.A. from Rice University, in Economics and Political Science in 2007. She comes to the University at Buffalo from a previous job as Professor of Political Science at Kansas State University, in Manhattan, KS. She is originally from Mexico City, Mexico. Martínez Machain’s research (funded by the Department of Defense’s Minerva Initiative and the Army Research Office, among others) focuses on foreign policy analysis, with a focus on military policy and international conflict. Her recent book with Oxford University Press is titled Beyond the Wire: U.S. Military Deployments and Host Country Public Opinion. At the University at Buffalo she is currently teaching two courses on international security, one for undergraduates and the other in the graduate program. Next semester she will be teaching a graduate course on foreign policy. Carla enjoys the collegial atmosphere in the SUNY Buffalo political science department and is very excited to mentor and collaborate with graduate students. She also has been enjoying learning more about Buffalo and Western New York from her undergraduate students.
Substantively, I’m an interstate conflict scholar, but I’m mainly a methodologist. The bulk of my research pertains to statistical methods, namely, certain regression methods—how well do these tools uncover patterns in the data relevant for assessing our claims about the world, how well do those tools perform when we do and don’t make certain assumptions about our data, and so on. My teaching responsibilities are mainly methods courses like research design, linear regression, and more advanced regression models.
I came to UB because I liked the job’s contours, the collegiality within the department, and the department’s long-term trajectory as we continue to make new hires. Coincidentally, though, I’m from Rochester, and so, Buffalo feels very familiar already. I’ve been enjoying the city’s general love of sports since moving back, and am looking forward the most to live lacrosse in person again in the winters (go T-Birds and Khawks!).
Professor Sam Bell (left), Professor Carla Martinez Machain (center) and Assistant Professor Shawna Metzger (right).
Collin Anderson (clinical assistant professor)
- Meeting Chair, Midwest Political Science Association Meeting
- Discussant, Midwest Political Science Association Meeting Service Activity
- Discussant, Southern Political Science Association Conference Service Activity
- Panel Chair, Southern Political Science Association Conference
Jim Battista (associate professor)
- “Estimating the Locations of Voters: Politicians, Policy Outcomes, and Status Quos on a Common Scale,: with Michael Peress and Jesse Richman, Political Science Research and Methods, Forthcoming (online in “FirstView” July 15, 2021.
Michelle Benson-Saxton (associate professor)
- “The Importance of UN Security Council Resolutions in Peacekeeping Operations, Journal of Conflict Resolution, Forthcoming.
- “Militarization and Women’s Empowerment in Post-Conflict Societies.” With Ismene Gizelis. Paper presented at the United Nations Women Conference on “Military spending and women, peace and security: a conversation about new research.” United Nations. 17 September 2021, virtual.
- “Civil War Battlefield Deaths, Rebel Power and Dissatisfaction.” With Jacek Kugler, Chris Newton and Chhandosi Roy. Paper presented at the Rising Powers Conference, 14-15 November 2021, Virginia Military Institute, Lexington, VA.
Jim Campbell (UB distinguished professor)
- “The Republican Way Forward: Four Questions for 2024,” In The Elephant in the Room: Donald Trump and the Future of the Republican Party, edited by Andrew E. Busch and William G. Mayer, (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, forthcoming 2022) chapter 2.
- “The Failure of American Political Journalism: How and Why Polarized Opinion Trumped Truth,” presentation on the panel “Has Journalism Failed Democracy? Society?” sponsored by The League of Women Voters of Buffalo-Niagara and the Theodore Roosevelt Inaugural Site, Buffalo, NY, September 23, 2021.
- “The Crisis of American Politics: The Extension of Ideological Polarization into Identity and Class Politics,” presentation to The Twentieth Century Club of Buffalo, October 13, 2021.
- “The Crisis of American Polarization: The Rise of Modern Feudalism and the Decline of Democratic Values,” Keynote Address to the Summer Lecture Series on “Addressing the Challenges to Our Democracy,” Osher Lifelong Learning Institute, Dartmouth College, July 7, 2022.
- “The Polarization Crisis in America: Three Misunderstandings, Three Findings, and Three Developments,” Pi Sigma Alpha Lecture, University at Buffalo, SUNY, May 6, 2022.
- “The Consequences of Ranked Choice Voting: Electoral System Incentives for Parties, Candidates, and Voters,” State Politics & Policy Conference, Tallahassee, FL, 2022. Co-authored with Shawn J. Donahue.
Vesna Danilovic (associate professor)
- “Flexibility and Firmness in Crisis Bargaining” (with Joe Clare), Journal of Conflict Resolution, July 2021 (Vol. 65, No. 6, pp. 1039-66).
- “The Geopolitics of Major Power Interventions in Civil Wars” (with Joe Clare), Political Research Quarterly, March 2022 (Vol. 7. No. 1, pp. 20–34).
- “Uncovering the Causal Mechanism in a Crucial Case Study: The Crimean War,” in Russian Studies, Political Science, and the Philosophy of Technology, The Rowman & Littlefield/Lexington Books (in print).
- “Exogenous Factors and the Crisis Bargaining Process” (with Joe Clare), paper presented at the invited conference “The Scientific Study of Interstate Conflict”, University at Buffalo-SUNY, Buffalo, NY, October 22-23, 2021.
- “Coercion and Cooperation in Crisis Bargaining” (with Joe Clare), paper presented at the 63rd Annual Meeting of the International Studies Association, Nashville, TN, March 30-April 2, 2022.
Shawn Donahue (clinical assistant professor)
- “The Consequences of Ranked Choice Voting: Electoral System Incentives for Parties, Candidates, and Voters,” State Politics & Policy Conference, Tallahassee, FL, 2022. Co-authored with Jim Campbell.
- New course developed, PSC 321- Criminal Procedure I “Criminal procedure cases focusing on search and interrogations,” Delivery (face to face, online, hybrid) In person.
- New course developed, PSC 322- Criminal Procedure II “Criminal procedure focusing on attorneys, the courts, punishment.”
Munroe Eagles (professor)
- Nick Baxter-Moore & Munroe Eagles, “Multiculturalism versus ‘e pluribus unum’: Canadian-American Differences or Borderlands Convergence? British Journal of Canadian Studies, 34, 1 (2022): 81-104.
- Munroe Eagles and Seymen Atasoy, "Political Polarization, Electoral Support for the AKP, and the Challenge of Democratization in Turkey, 2002- 2021", in Guoli Liu and Joanna Drzewieniecki, eds., Russian Studies, Political Science, and the Philosophy of Technology, Lanham, MD: Lexington Books, 2022, pp. 311-334.
- Munroe Eagles, “Reflections from (the Very Near) Abroad: Being Canadian in the Canada/US Borderlands,” in Christopher Kirkey and Richard Nimijean, eds., The Construction of Canadian Identity from Abroad, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2022, pp. 321-337.
- Nick Baxter-Moore and Munroe Eagles, “Niagara Twin Cities: ‘Living Apart Together’ on the Canada-US Border,” in Ekaterina Mikhailova, eds., Twin Cities Across Five Continents: Interactions and Tensions on Urban Borders. New York: Routledge, 2022, pp. 261-273.
- Plenary Session panelist - "Democracy" - New York State Political Science Association, 76th Annual Conference, online, April 22, 2022
- Panelist, Canadian Identity Abroad, New England Political Science Association, Bretton Woods, NH, April 29, 2022.
Rachael Hinkle (associate professor)
- Hinkle, Rachael K. 2021. How Policy Influence Varies with Race and Gender in the U.S. Courts of Appeals." 8 Research and Politics 1-7.
- Hinkle, Rachael K., Michael J. Nelson, and Morgan L. W. Hazelton 2022. How Interpersonal Contact Affects Appellate Review." 84 Journal of Politics 573-577.
- Hinkle, Rachael K., Morgan L. W. Hazelton, Persuading the Supreme Court: The Significance of Briefs in Judicial Decision-Making. University of Kansas Press.
- (podcast) The Baldy Center Podcast Episode 26: “Rachael Hinkle discusses how briefs and lawyer experience can influence Supreme Court decisions.”
- “Invisible Losers: The Fate of ‘Have-nots’ in the U.S. Courts of Appeals” Pennsylvania State University, Paper presented at the Max Planck Institute for Research on Collective Goods, June 2021.
- “Invisible Losers: The Fate of ‘Have-nots’ in the U.S. Courts of Appeals” Pennsylvania State University, November 2021.
Jake Kathman (professor)
- Department Chair, 2021-2022
- “United Nations Peacekeeping Effectiveness and Negative Peace.” Forthcoming in International Peacekeeping.
- Roundtable on Peacekeeping in the Midst of War, hosted by the International Security Studies Forum and H-Diplo in association with the Arnold A. Saltzman Institute of War and Peace Studies at Columbia University.
- “Peacekeeping and the Protection of Civilians.” Forthcoming in Handbook on Peacekeeping and International Relations, edited by Han Dorussen.
Jieun Lee (assistant professor)
- Lee, Jieun and Iain Osgood. 2021. Firms Fight Back: Production Networks and Corporate Opposition to the China Trade War." In Geopolitics, Supply Chains, and International Relations in East Asia, eds. Etel Solingen. Cambridge University Press.
- "Protection Forestalled: When Firms Fight Tariffs in their Own Industry" (with Iain Osgood) invited for a special issue for Business & Politics.
- "Protection Forestalled: When Firms Fight Tariffs in their Own Industry" (with Iain Osgood) invited for a workshop presentation at the Niehaus Center, Princeton University.
- American Political Science Association Conference, Annual Meeting, "Is American-Style Lobbying Prototypical? Comparing Trade Lobbying in the U.S. and Canada."
- American Political Science Association Conference, Annual Meeting, Discussant for the Politics of U.S.-China Trade War Panel. June 2021.
- European Political Science Association Conference, Annual Meeting, "Comparing Mobilization and Access: USMCA Lobbying in the U.S. and Canada."
- Recipient of the Harvey Starr Award, Department of Political Science, University at Buffalo-SUNY.
Abigail Matthews (assistant professor)
- Matthews, Abigail A. The Justices’ Words: The Relationship Between Majority and Separate Opinions. Justice System Journal, forthcoming.
- Matthews, Abigail A., Jason Rantanen, and Lindsay Kriz. 2022. Hastings Law Journal 73 (3): 667– 722.
- Matthews, Abigail A. and Rebecca J. Kreitzer. “How Personal Beliefs and Identity Affect Bodily Autonomy Attitudes.” University of Detroit Mercy Law Review, forthcoming.
- “In Texas and beyond, conservative Republican women are helping lead the fight to restrict abortion.” September 9, 2021. The Monkey Cage at The Washington Post, with Rebecca Kreitzer and Emily Schilling. Republished May 3, 2022.
- “Empirical Legal Studies.” Presentation at a University of Iowa Law School, July 7, 2021.
- "Legislating to Success: Descriptive Representation, Partisan Politics, and Policy Winnowing in the Texas State Legislature." Presented at State Politics & Policy Conference, April 23, 2022.
- “How Personal Beliefs and Identity Affect Bodily Autonomy Attitudes.” University of Detroit Mercy Law Review Symposium.
- (Grant) Co-PI Amount $49,961.00 Funder National Science Foundation Grant Name Cultivating Networks and Innovative Scholarship in Law and Courts.
Elena McLean (professor)
- “Renewable Energy Policies and Household Solid Fuel Dependence.” Global Environmental Change. November 2021.
- “Expecting the Unexpected: Disaster Risks and Conflict.” Political Research Quarterly. June 2021.
- “Economic Coercion” in Oxford Handbook of International Political Economy, edited by Jon Pevehouse and Leonard Seabrooke. New York: Oxford University Press. May 2021.
- (Continuing grant) Principal Investigator, $50,000 Funder Community for Global Health Equity, “Multi-Scalar Analysis of Household Fuel Transitions.”
Jake Neiheisel (associate professor)
- Djupe, Paul A., and Jacob R. Neiheisel. (2022). "The Dimensions and Effects of Reciprocity in Political Tolerance Judgments." Political Behavior Vol. 44(2): 895-914.
- Adkins, Jason M., Djupe, Paul A., and Jacob R. Neiheisel. (2022). "Prepping for the Apocalypse: Religion and Politics in the Post-2020 Election Era." Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.
- Jacob R. Neiheisel, and Sarah Niebler. (2022). "Do Early Voters Try To Mobilize Others?" Paper presented at the Annual Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.
- Jacob R. “What 1936 Can Teach Us About 2016: Another Look at Nonresponse Bias and the Limits of Poll Aggregation.” IAD Days Presentation, April 27, 2022. University at Buffalo.
- (Grant) Co-PI, 20,000 Funder Mercatus Center, “Fostering Tolerant Environments.”
Harvey Palmer (associate professor)
- “Spatial analysis of Chinese American ethnic enclaves and community health indicators in New York City”, Frontiers in Public Health, 2022.
- “Developing an Agent-based Model of Oral Healthcare Utilization by Chinese Americans in New York City,” Health and Place, 2022.
- Paper presented at 39th International System Dynamics Conference: "A Dynamic Model of the Distributional Consequences of International Trade Exposure" (co-author).
Antoine Yoshinaka (associate professor)
- “Social Lobbying,” Journal of Politics, January 2022.
- "Profiles in party switching: The case of Southern Party activists," Social Science Quarterly, July 2021.
Frank Zagare (UB distinguished professor)
- “Modeling Threats and Promises,” [with D. Marc Kilgour], paper delivered at the conference on The Scientific Study of Interstate Conflict, October 22 – 23, 2021, The University at Buffalo, SUNY.
- Festschrift conference held in honor of Frank Zagare, University at Buffalo, October 2021.
Jim Campbell, UB Distinguished Professor Emeritus
When I was asked to write a short piece for The Pulse about my plans in retirement, I had three thoughts. First, there are dozens of things I want to do. Many involve political science (though steering clear of organizational craziness as much as possible), some involve politics, some involve other creative activities, and then there are the usual retirement activities common to retirees (travel, bingo, naps, comparisons of medical conditions, etc.).
Second, I have not sorted much of this out yet, so the “plans” label may not quite fit–yet. There are lots of things I would like to do, but as of now, no agenda. Actually, the lack of an organized agenda with deadlines and schedules is one of the best things about retirement. It may be second only to never again experiencing the dreaded search for parking at UB.
My third thought was that, though I have a lot of projects percolating, nearly everything is on hold until I get through this transition phase of retirement. This began last Spring in packing up my UB offices, but will not be over until we (my wife Susan and I and our singing basset hound Juliet) settle in someplace where I can set up my long-awaited consolidated office.
Not everything is on hold awaiting the transition’s completion. A central piece of my research has been American electoral politics and American elections wait for no one. I wrote a piece on the 2022 midterm elections for Real Clear Politics website in early July, gave a talk on my polarization research at Dartmouth College in July, and wrote a piece forecasting the midterm elections for Sabato’s Crystal Ball website in August. But other projects are on the back burners for a bit.
Once the unsettling transition phase is mercifully over, these are the projects I hope to get back to. First, there are three projects with former students and a colleague I want to finish up. One that Hongxing Yin and I began a number of years ago is titled “Which Economy Matters? The Economy as It Was Thought to Be or as It Really Was?” We assess the extent to which contemporaneous reports on the economy and later/improved reports of the economy affect public perceptions of the economy. Time to get this finished and published.
A second overdue project is an examination of response wording options in survey research. Two then-undergraduate students (Kevin Southern and Nicholas Johns) and I conducted a survey experiment in UB classes to determine whether the modifier used to describe polar positions on a survey question made a systematic difference. I had noticed that many more respondents declared themselves as holding an extreme position on party identification (Democrat vs Republican) than they did on political ideology (Liberal vs Conservative). We wondered whether this difference was an artifact of the label used in surveys to characterize the polar positions (“strong Democrat” as opposed to “extremely liberal”).
The third project in the queue is a paper with Shawn Donahue on the increasingly used electoral system of ranked choice voting (RCV). The article explores the effects of this system on the rational actions of voters, candidates, and political parties. The analysis makes the case that, contrary to much of what is claimed, compared to the traditional plurality rule system, RCV encourages rather than discourages political polarization. In the next part of this project, we will explore what difference RCV is likely to make (compared to plurality rule) in the decision-making of voters, candidates, and parties under imperfect information conditions of both the candidates’ ideological positioning and their electoral viability.
There are two or three book length political science projects I want to take on. The first is a follow-up to my book on polarization (Polarized, Princeton 2016). Several talks I gave last year amounted to rough drafts of what I plan for a book and they sprang out of the undergraduate course on Public Opinion that I taught several times in recent years. The book would pick up where Polarized left off, and not just in time but in theory. Polarization in American politics is primarily rooted in ideological differences in the public going back to the late 1960s, but has not grown into (metastasized?) into social networks that are also associated with institutional power and is a very real threat to American democracy.
A second book project is also grounded in a course I taught several times recently, Empirical Democratic Theory. It began as my reaction to a book by Christopher Achen and Larry Bartels, Democracy for Realists. Their book was very critical of the American public and concluded that theories of American democracy were myths. Though the American public can be faulted for many things, I thought Achen and Bartels were basically wrong about their criticisms of the public and in their conclusion that American democracy did not function fairly well. I outlined much of this in my course. Converting, refining, and extending the course into a book will be somewhere in my retirement “plans.”
The third book among these “plans” is really an update and revision with Jake Neiheisel of my book on The American Campaign (2000 and 2008). The core of the book is still sound–building on a theory of campaign effects–but could use some tweaking and certainly updating for the presidential elections since 2004!
If that were not enough, there is one other project I would like to pursue. It has become clear to me that macro-politics has not been as prominent as it should be in the discipline and field of American Politics. Individual level research dominates. Possibly in league with some other American Politics scholars to share the work and a publishing house, I would like to help form a journal (maybe annual or semi-annual) devoted the study of American Macro Politics (AMP). As well as a home for new macro-level articles, it would also welcome updates of previously published articles, not only to extend their relevance but to test and where appropriate revise theories with data that had not existed when the article was originally published.
I have no idea how much of this I will get to, but there is plenty here to keep me busy and these are just my political science “plans.” For now, should I take a nap or have a beer? Still opt for the beer, but it is getting to be a close call.
Paul Fisk, BA (1966). Paul is retired from the NY State Budget Division. He has served as the Budget Director for the City of Buffalo and as Deputy Chief Budget Examiner with the NY State Budget.
James Carr, BA (1967). After graduating from UB, James did post-graduate work at the Post Grad work in Urban and Regional Planning at Cornell University. He is currently retired.
Harvey Starr, BA (1967). This past year I continued work with the linguist Stan Dubinsky (and others) exploring the intersections of Political Science and Linguistics. This involved two publications, two presentations and a grant from the University of South Carolina:
- “Weaponizing Language: Linguistic Vectors of Ethnic Oppression,” GLOBAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, 2, 2, 2022 Special Issue on “Cruelty and Global Politics,” Stanley Dubinsky and Harvey Starr.
- "Conflicts over language stretch far beyond Russia and Ukraine," THE CONVERSATION May 20, 2022, Stanley Dubinsky, Anyssa Murphy, Harvey Starr, and Michael Gavin
- Crossing Boundaries: Political Science and Linguistics,” invited lecture for the 2022 NY-St. Petersburg Institute of Linguistics, Cognition and Culture, Virtual NYI-#4, “Theoretical Linguistics & Cognitive Science,” January 13, 2022.
- “The Language Conflict Project: Perspectives on 21st century Ethnolinguistic Conflict,” Stanley Dubinsky, Michael Gavin, Harvey Starr, et al., Presentation on the Panel, Language, Conflict and Identity, at the Online International Conference Communication, Conflict and Peace, organized by the Archbishop Desmond Tutu Centre for War and Peace Studies, Liverpool Hope University, June 27, 2022.
- University of South Carolina Office of Research ASPIRE-II Grant (with Stan Dubinsky and Michael Gavin), "Language Difference and Language Policy: Measuring Key Factors of Global Conflict," 2022-23, $93,256.
William Murphy, BA (1969). William is retired. He married UB Pharmacy alumna Elizabeth A. Grabowski, Class of 1972. They celebrated their 46th anniversary this month. (October 2022)
Michele Lauer-Bader, BA (1971). Michele has retired from her career as a children’s librarian and a Public Library Director.
Peter Dalton, BA (1972). Peter has retired from the NYS Department of Labor. He spent 35 years first at Erie County, then NYS. He supervised an adjudication section in Unemployment Insurance.
Mark Huddleston, PhD (1972). Mark is President Emeritus at the University of New Hampshire. He has also served as President of Ohio Wesleyan University and as Dean in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Delaware.
Milena J. Wojno, BA (1993). Milena J. Wojno, as an active student leader at UB served as President of the Political Science Undergraduate Student Association (PSUSA), participated in Model UN for UB at Harvard and Cornell Universities, violinist with the UB Civic Symphony (performing many concerts and touring New York state), selected for the UB Leadership Development Program, co-founder of LAUNCH and inducted into the first UB branch of Mortar Board national leadership honor society, has always kept in touch with our UB Department of Political Science and the UB Alumni Association. Upon UB graduation, Milena went on to Washington, DC and received an MBA in International Business/Finance from The George Washington University while working on campus, at the US Department of State, wrote for international magazines and the GWU MBA newsletter, she then interned at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC), and was inducted in the GW Circle of Omicron Delta Kappa as a member of the GWU staff and university community. Milena also keeps up with the GWU School of Business and GWU Alumni Association. After receiving her GW MBA, Milena worked professionally in the areas of financial management of the OPIC political risk insurance portfolio, international business development connecting North American and EU markets with Atlantic Corridor USA, Inc., global trade at the US Export-Import Bank, business process improvement and knowledge management with Keane Federal Systems at the Pension Benefit and Guaranty Corporation (PBGC), and marketing communications with Larry Wojno Consulting. Milena also founded her own business called Essential Resources, offering business consulting and navigation services of existing federal programs. Milena is a Letters Member of the National League of American Pen Women (NLAPW), currently in Fairfax, VA as a freelance writer.
How Poli-Sci has influenced what you're doing, who you are and where you're going?
I recently attended a lecture on the Russian oil & gas sector applied to current events at the annual alumni weekend of my other alma mater, The George Washington University. The prominent business professor giving the lecture commented that a person who understands international relations brings a greater dimension to the business school. My experience with the multidisciplinary UB Department of Political Science taught me to consider much about international relations and applied political science from my classes and experienced professors as well as my participation in the Model United Nations conferences with fellow UB and national college students through the Political Science Undergraduate Student Association (PSUSA). Knowing the academic discipline of political science from the UB department has given me the added dimension of skills to analyze our own US system of government and others, be aware of the scope of the subject as an applied social science and have the skills necessary to evaluate daily happenings and long-term trends in government and the news that affect markets for businesses and enterprises that has enhanced my professional expertise.
Victoria Roseman, BA (2017). Victoria has been practicing as a public interest attorney after graduating in 2020 from Hofstra. She works in unemployment insurance to help low income New Yorkers claim unemployment insurance benefits at the state and federal level.
Tristan Henriques, BA (2020). Tristan is currently a first year JD student at the UB School of Law.
Assaf Almutairi, PhD (2022). Assaf is an Assistant Professor of Political Science at King Saud University in Saudi Arabia, the top school in that country.
Annie Tsang, MA (2011). Amy is Vice President, Strategy, at Reprise Digital.
Martha Krisel, BA (1976). Martha has practiced law since 1981 and currently serves as Executive Director of the Nassau County Civil Service Committee.
Richard Redlo, BA (1976). Richard is a writer. In Albany, New York, I served for 15 years as an Assistant New York State Attorney General. I then was employed for 20 years as an attorney for the New York State Comptroller, culminating in my appointment as House Counsel to the Comptroller. I retired from that office but was hired for one-year as a special counsel to the State University of New York, central administration. During and following my legal career, I wrote short stories (five of which were published), 12 feature film scripts (three of which were optioned) and nine television pilots. I continue to work on tv pilots at my home office in West Hollywood, California.
Wayne Salen, BA (1977) is a field underwriter with Leatherstocking Cooperative Insurance Company. He served as USA Representative to ISO and assisted in the development of and eventual passage of ISO Standard # 31000 (Risk Management).
Jane Gurin, MA (1979). I am a retired write and editor. I worked for the Easton Express, PA, and the Houston Post, TX, before moving into corporate communications at DEC (Digital Equipment Corporation), outside of Boston. A move to Washington, D.C. and a government job later, I ended up starting my company, delivering customized classes to government agencies and corporations on how to write better. It's been a good life.
Maria (Diakos) Manolitsas, BA, (1979) is an attorney at the Law Office of Maria L. Diakos.
Paul Ciriello, BA (1980). Paul is Managing General Partner at Fairhaven Capital Partners. Mong his many accomplishments are the following: Northeastern University Fellow; US Public Research Fellow; US Presidential Fellow; US EPA Senior Policy Advisor; President Fidelity Capital Technology; Founder and President Proxy Edge; Founder and Managing Director TD Capital Ventures; Founder and Managing General Partner Fairhaven Capital Partners; Founder and Partner Milk Street Investments; Member President's Advisory Committee Berklee College of Music; Member President's Advisory Board University of Lynchburg; Member Dean of Arts and Sciences Advisory Council UB; Member of many private company boards of directors.
Richard Mott, BA (1981). Richard is President of Park Restaurants, LLC.
Brian Frazier, BA (1984) is Director of Planning and Development Services, City of Hickory, NC. He has worked in both municipal planning and the private sector, as a planner for over 35 years.
David Grover, BA (1994). David is an attorney and founding partner with Grover and Fensterstock, PC., a law firm with a focus on personal injury.
Daniel Paul Schwartz, J.D., Ph.D. (1997). Daniel is an instructor in the Department of Political Science at SUNY Buffalo State College. Among his awards and activities are: The Horatio Alger Fellowship, 2004 – 2005 ; 2004 - 2005 Teacher of the Year, The Greater St. Louis English Teachers' Association;
First and Third Prizes, College and University Division, Greater St. Louis English Teachers' Association, 2004 (blindly judged); "The Last Lecture," Saint Louis University, April 21, 2004; Judge, The Dave Moore Award for the Best Book About Baseball and American Culture, 2003; Faculty Excellence Award, Saint Louis University, 2002; Wisconsin Teaching Fellowship, 1998.
Jeffrey Reina, BA (1999). Jeffrey is an attorney with Lipsitz Green Scime Cambria, LLP.
Lisa Parshall, PhD (2001). Dr. Lisa K. Parshall, is a Professor of Political Science at Daemen University, a Policy Fellow at the Rockefeller Institute of Government in Albany, and an adjunct instructor in the public administration program at Buffalo State College. Dr. Parshall has published policy reports on local government restructuring for the Rockefeller Institute of Government. She is the author of Reforming the Presidential Nominating Process: Front-Loading's Consequences and the National Primary Solution (Routledge, 2018) and co-author (with Jim Twombly) of Directing the Whirlwind: The Trump Presidency and Deconstructing the Administrative State (2020 Peter Lang). Her most recent book, In Local Hands: Village Government Incorporation and Dissolution in New York State is forthcoming from SUNY Press. Dr. Parshall serves as the chair of State and Local Politics for the New York State Political Science Association, a member of the board of the Buffalo-Niagara Chapter of the American Society for Public Administration, and assistant editor for the Journal of Federal History.
Joe Stefko, PhD (2002). Joe is President and CEO of ROC2025, the regional economic development alliance in Greater Rochester, NY.
Jaan Soone BA, (2003) is a policy analyst at the European Parliament Research Service.
James Zappie, BA (2004). James is employed as an engineer with GEICO.
Samantha Robbins, MA (2012). Samantha is Director of Customer Success and Logistics at Rubberform Recybled Products, LLC. She is a 2022 Graduate of the CORE program through the Center of Entrepreneurial Leadership at UB. She started a wine & liquor tasting company, Timeless Tastings, LLC, in 2015 and continue to provide services in the industry.
William Cannon, BA (2018). William is with the Adjutant General Corps, United States Army.
Walli Ansari, BA (2019). Walli is a graduate student in the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Sara Norrevik, PhD (2020). Since 2022, Sara has been working as a Market Research Analyst at Moog, Inc in their Space and Defense Group In this role she conducts qualitative and quantitative research to support business leaders. She monitors industry news and developments, and investigates new markets by assessing customers, competitors, and government programs for existing and future products.
Jeffrey Haber, BA (1985). Mr. Haber is an attorney at Freiberger Haber, LLP. He has over 30 years of experience. Before starting the firm with Mr. Freiberger, Mr. Haber was the principal of his own practice. Prior to the opening of that firm, he spent sixteen years as a member of a New York City plaintiffs’ law firm, where he concentrated his practice in complex class action litigation involving securities fraud and shareholders’ rights, as well as whistleblower litigation and corporate counseling. Prior to joining that firm, Mr. Haber was associated with, and later a member of, a New York City plaintiffs’ law firm, where he represented plaintiffs in complex securities and consumer fraud class actions, antitrust class actions, and shareholders’ rights litigation. Upon graduation from law school in 1988, Mr. Haber was associated with a New York City law firm, where he represented plaintiffs and defendants in a variety of complex securities, commodities, and shareholder litigations in state and federal courts across the country. See more about Jeffrey.
Gunnar Paisson, PhD (1985). Gunnar is an Ambassador with the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, Iceland. He finished a term as Iceland’s Ambassador to the EU in 2020 and has been on a special assignment at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs since that time.
Bernard Pieczynski, PhD (1985). Bernard has retired as a Brigadier General from the US Air Force. He was a C-130 Test Pilot, Tan Son Nhut Air Base, 1972-73; Commander, 433rd Airlift Wing, 1999-2004, and Director of Mobility Forces, US Central Command, January-May 2003.
John Deddie, MA (1990) was recently promoted to Associate Professor of Political Science at the Community College of Baltimore County. He is Chief Political Analyst for WBFF TV Fox 45 in Baltimore.
David Koepsel, BA Political Science & English, (1990). David is a visiting assistant professor in Philosophy at Texas A&M University. After completing my BA in English and Political Science in 1990, I did both my PhD and JD at UB. I have since been a practicing lawyer, Executive Director of the Council for Secular Humanism from 2003 to 2008, professor (tenured, Associate Prof.) at the Technology University at Delft, in The Netherlands, Visiting Assistant Professor at UNAM, Mexico, Director of Strategic Initiatives at the Commision for Bioethics, Mexico, started and sold a software company, EncrypGen, Inc. I have published a dozen books and 50+ peer reviewed articles and chapters.
Karen Liebert, BA (1991). Karen is a grants manager at the University of Washington.
Lyle Mahler, BA (1992). Lyle is a partner in the law firm Farrell Fritz, P.C.
Raymond Rushboldt, MA (PhD, ABD) (1992). Ray is a senior lecturer with the Department of Political Science, SUNY Fredonia, where has been a member of the faculty for 28 years.
Kathleen (Hennessey) McGrath, BA (2005). Kathleen is a Campaign Finance Training and Information Specialist with the New York State Board of Elections, where she has worked since 2015. Prior to that, she was the Director of Operations for a state level political part committee., and before that she worked in Washington, DC as a campaign staffer. She lives outside of Albany, NY with her husband Tom and two children.
Danny Hatem, BA (2007). I recently finished my D.Phil in Politics from the University of Oxford, where I focused on political centrism in advanced economies. This is a topic that I've been passionate about since I was an undergraduate - I actually wrote a paper on the Third Way in Gregg Johnson's class back in 2005 or so. I currently live in London and work as the chief aide to Baroness Minouche Shafik, the Director of the London School of Economics and Political Science and the former deputy head of the World Bank, IMF, and Bank of England.
Clifton Bergfeld, BA (2008). After graduating from Political Science, Clifton earned a J.D. and is now Counsel and Director of Regulatory affairs at EyeMed.
Kathleen (Hennessey) McGrath, BA (2005). Kathleen is a Campaign Finance Training and Information Specialist with the New York State Board of Elections, where she has worked since 2015. Prior to that, she was the Director of Operations for a state level political part committee., and before that she worked in Washington, DC as a campaign staffer. She lives outside of Albany, NY with her husband Tom and two children.
John Meehan, BA (2008). John is currently working as an attorney.
John Verdone, BA (2008). John is a senior software engineer with Next Glass.
Matthew Pelkey, BA (2010). Matthew is Managing Partner at Colligan Law, LLP, where he specializes in finance transactions.
Nick Seabrook, PhD (2010). Nick is now Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of North Florida in Jacksonville, FL. His most recent book, One Person; One Vote: The Surprising History of Gerrymandering in America, published in 2022 by Pantheon Books, was selected by the editors and critics at The New Yorker as being among ´… this year’s most captivating, notable, brilliant, surprising, absorbing, weird, thought-provoking, and talked-about reads.
Jenna Hall, BA (2019). Jenna works as a Benefits Coordinator/Senior Administrative Office Specialist at Brazosport College.
Emma Murphy, BA (2019). Emma is a Litigation Associate with Phillips Lytle, LLP. She graduated summa cum laude from Nortre Dame Law School.
Hayden Gise, BA (2022). Hayden is currently a union organizer for the Fairfax County Federation of Teachers in Virginia. He was elected Commissioner for Woodley Park in Washington, DC.
Chhandosi Roy, PhD (2022). After graduating with her doctorate, Chhandosi is serving as a Research Associate with the Thomas and Dorothy Leavey Center for the Study of Los Angeles.
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