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Former Students Visits Department of Political Science

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On October 2, a group of former students from the Department of Political Science visited with students who are currently taking POLS 209. This panel day was an opportunity for a group of former students to share their thoughts on how current undergraduate students can prepare themselves for life after college. The students also had an opportunity to ask how each panelist got to where they are, how to engage with companies and recruiters when seeking out internships or full-time employment, as well as ways that they can utilize the professional network of former students from the Department of Political Science.

Matt Barr ’05
Director, Government and Public Affairs
Cheniere Energy

James Thurmond ‘69
Director of MPA Program
University of Houston

John Boerstler ’06
CEO, Combined Arms

 

Von Vacano to lecture at Harvard

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Diego von Vacano will give lectures at Harvard University on Sept. 18th.  He was invited to Professor Doris Sommer’s course on “Politics, The Greatest Art” at Harvard College. Prof. Sommer is Director of the Cultural Agents Program at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government. Prof. von Vacano will lecture on Machiavelli’s break with the Platonic tradition and his influence on seeing politics aesthetically. He will also meet with graduate students from various departments, including German studies, to discuss Machiavelli’s influence on Nietzsche. Aesthetic political theory explains, for example, why race is a salient political phenomenon and how populist leaders use spectacle to gain power.

Cook Receives NSF Grant to Study Patterns of Terrorism

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Dr. Scott Cook, Assistant Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University, and Dr. Mikyoung Jun, Professor of Statistics at Texas A&M University, were recently awarded a multi-year research grant from the National Science Foundation to analyze patterns of terrorism.

The $315,999 grant (DMS-1925119) is funded by the Algorithms for Threat (ATD) program, a partnership between the Divisions of Mathematical Sciences (DMS) and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA). Drs. Cook and Jun’s research will develop spatio-temporal Hawkes process models to better model interactions across terrorist attacks and groups. These statistical advances should allow greater leverage over the complex dynamics of global terror campaigns.

New Edition of Professor George Edwards’ Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America published

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Yale University Press has published the third edition of George C. Edwards III, Why the Electoral College Is Bad for America.  Dr. Edwards is Distinguished Professor and Jordan Chair Emeritus and Distinguished Fellow at the University of Oxford.  The author or editor of 26 books, he is one of the nation’s premier scholars of the U.S. presidency.

Professor Quan Li Receives Fulbright U.S. Senior Scholar Award

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Dr. Quan Li, Professor of Political Science at Texas A&M University and Cornerstone Fellow recently received the Fulbright U.S. Senior Scholar Award for a  visiting to the University of Europe in Madrid for the fall 2019 semester.

Professor Li’s research interests include economic globalization, democratic governance, political violence, environmental degradation, the rise of china, and research methodology. His research has appeared in numerous journals some of which are British Journal of Political Science, Comparative Political Studies, Conflict Management and Peace Science, International Interactions, as well as, International Organizations. He is the co-recipient of the 2003 Best Article on Democratization Award from the American Political Science Association.