political science newsletter, spring 2015

inside... • From the Chair

• Faculty Retirements

• Faculty Spotlight

• Alumni Spotlight

• Faculty Publications

• Faculty Honors and Awards

• Graduate Student and Alumni News

• Student Leaders

SPRING 2015

Volume 9, Number 1

newsletterPolitical Science

University of South Carolina

College of Arts and Sciences

www.artsandsciences.sc.edu/poli

| Political Science newsletter | Spring 20152

Welcome from the Chair

Greetings Alumni and Friends,

We are having another good year, and hope you are also doing well. Lots of exciting things have happened in recent months. I will try to tell you about some of them, but invariable will overlook much. There is so much going on. We were fortunate to hire a new faculty member who will join us next year. Alex Ruder is a Princeton PhD. He is an expert on public policy and work force development. He will join our MPA program. Next year’s

newsletter will have a more complete story about him.

At the same time, two other faculty chose to retire this year; Harvey Starr and Mark Tompkins. Though they are not teaching, they still make a strong presence in the department. We try to keep them around.

Kirk Randazzo was promoted to full professor this year, and as of this writing we expect Sue Miller and Tim Peterson to be granted tenure and promotion to associate professor. I won’t say it makes me feel old…

I have greatly enjoyed meeting several of our alumni during the past two years. You are an excellent group, who make us proud.

Another touching development has been a significant increase in support for the department from our alumni. Thanks to those of you who have chosen to “pay it forward” by helping

us to prepare the next generation of leaders. The students coming through our programs at the moment are truly stellar. They are a testament to the growing reputation of USC nationally and internationally. The fact that they chose the political science department for their studies challenges us to do our best for them.

If you are able to so, we welcome your contributions to the department. If you can make a contribution, please send a check payable to the USC Educational Foundation, Political Science Fund. If you are thinking about a larger gift, please contact me directly and I would enjoy talking to you. You can help us give the next generation of students an even stronger start than yours. Sincerely, Robert H. Cox Department Chair

retirementsfacultyAfter 25 years at the University of South Carolina and 43 years in the discipline, Dag Hammarskjöld Professor in International Affairs Emeritus Harvey Starr (Ph.D., Yale University 1971) retired in June 2014. Professor Starr served as Chair of the Department at USC from 1998-2006; he previously served as Department Chair at Indiana University from 1984-1989. Professor Starr recently served as President of the International Studies Association (2013-2014). He has also served as Vice President of the American Political Science Association (1995-1996), as President of the Conflict Processes Section of the APSA (1992-1995), and as President of the Peace Science Society (International) (2000-2001). He was Editor of International Interactions (1991-2000) and Associate Editor of the Journal of Politics (2001-2003). Professor Starr is author or co-author of 18 books and monographs and almost one hundred journal articles and book chapters, and notes. He has been awarded numerous grants, including three from the National Science Foundation. In 1998, he was the recipient of the USC’s Russell Award for Research in Humanities and Social Sciences. While formally retired in June 2014, Professor Starr remains an Institute Associate of The Walker Institute of International and Area Studies, a Consulting Faculty in the Jewish Studies Program, and a Rule of Law Collaborative Faculty Member.

Harvey Starr

Professor Christopher Witko received his PhD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill in 2003. Prior to joining the USC faculty, he was on the faculty at Saint Louis University (2007-2013) and California State University, Sacramento (2003-2007).

Since joining the USC Political Science Department faculty in 2013, Professor Witko has brought national attention to the department and university with his research on how the resource disparities among different groups in capitalist democracies influence the policy process and how public policy, in turn, influences and regulates these resource disparities. Professor Witko teaches classes on these subjects, as well as data analysis and methodology, in both the MPA and undergraduate programs.

Professor Witko engages research questions that address important practical problems and theoretical puzzles, such as how congressional polarization and gridlock influence economic inequality. But his research also has the ability to grab the public’s attention; it has been featured in high profile media outlets such as Rolling Stone, Vox, and Talking Points Memo. He has also been invited to write about his research on the London School of Economics USApp–American Politics and Policy Blog.

The USC Political Science Department welcomed Professor Witko in August 2013. Since then, he has published five research articles (for a total of 21) in leading political science journals. In 2014, he and coauthors published an article in the Journal of Politics, which is widely recognized as one of the top journals in political science, further enhancing the department’s national reputation.

Professor Witko is also part of multi-university research teams that have been awarded large grants. He is Co-Principal Investigator on a Russell Sage Foundation grant running from 2013-2016, which funds a project that examines how public support for redistributive policies has changed, or failed to change, as economic inequality has increased over the last few decades. He is also a core research team member on a project funded by the University of Oslo and the Research Council of Norway that will examine contemporary relationships between political parties and interests groups in a

number of Western democracies over the next five years.

In addition to his impressive record of scholarship, Professor Witko also serves as Director of the Master of Public Administration (MPA) program. Before pursuing his Ph.D. in Political Science, Professor Witko worked as a staffer for a New York State Senate commission and as a front-line bureaucrat in the Suffolk County (NY), Department of Labor. Thus, he brings the mindset of both a practitioner and scholar to the job. In his tenure as MPA Director, Professor Witko has worked with program faculty to ensure that the Network of Schools of Public Policy, Affairs, and Administration reaccredited USC’s MPA program. He is also working with faculty to increase recruitment and student enrollment, modernize the curriculum, and expand outreach to alumni and stakeholders in the community to ensure that the MPA program meets the needs of both potential students and potential employers. Finally, he also teaches core courses in the MPA program curriculum, as well as undergraduate political science courses. If you are interested in learning more about and supporting the efforts underway in the MPA program, please contact Professor Witko at [email protected].

Spring 2015 | Political Science newsletter | 3

Christopher Witko

faculty spotlightChristopher Witko


Few have done more to democratize political technology for candidates and political causes than ’04 political science grad Jim Walsh, the founder of Rising Tide Interactive and co-founder and CEO of DSPolitical.

As Walsh puts it, “I should have graduated in 1999 but politics captured my attention and the campaign trail kept me from finishing for a few years. The only person who might be happier than me that I graduated is probably my mother.”

He worked for the South Carolina Democratic Party and a variety of major political campaigns in senior communications positions. Early on, Walsh recognized the important role technology was beginning to play in our politics.

“In the early 2000s people just assumed you understood technology if you were the youngest person in a campaign headquarters. It was a double-edged sword really – they might let you innovate with new tools like email and online advertising but they’d also expect you to know how to fix the fax machine,” remembers Walsh.

It was this passion for finding new technologies that could give his side of the aisle an advantage that led Walsh to Salsa Labs as Vice President. There he pioneered groundbreaking product strategies that put blast email and web development into the hands of

literally thousands of Democratic campaigns that might have otherwise been unable to afford them. Moreover, his work was directly responsible for major clients such as the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, adding millions of activists to their online networks.

After leaving Salsa Labs, Walsh set his eyes on fundamentally changing the way Democratic candidates at the local, state, and national level reach the exact voters they need to win. The result was the creation of a pair of new companies. Rising Tide Interactive, which provides innovative digital communications, organizing, and fundraising strategies to Democrats and progressives. And, DSPolitical, the nation’s leading voter targeted digital ad network, also exclusively for Democrats and progressives.

In just a few short years, Rising Tide Interactive and DSPolitical have more than doubled in size and become a real force to be reckoned with on the political left. Now boasting a staff of more than two-dozen, The Washington Post recently reported DSPolitical’s voter targeted digital ad technology provided Democrats running for local office the “online ad sophistication to match Obama’s” and that Rising Tide Interactive was, “the most used online ad vendor of 2014” and “favored by several Democratic Senate candidates as well as the

Walsh (’04) Changing the Way Politicians Reach Voters

alumni spotlightJim Walsh

Art

icle

ssuper PAC Ready for Hillary.”

The hard work has certainly paid off for Walsh but he’s not about to rest on his laurels. “We’re just getting started. The future is all about reaching voters wherever

they happen to be. We will continue to pioneer this uncharted territory from mobile phones and tablets, to laptops and streaming video services, Rising Tide Interactive and DSPolitical will breath a mantra of innovation.”

faculty publicationsProfessor John Hsieh published an edited volume, Confucian Culture and Democracy (World Scientific Publishing Co., 2014). Professor Todd Shaw published a book with Louis DeSipio, Dianne Pinderhughes, and Toni-Michelle Travis, Uneven Roads: Introduction to U.S. Racial and Ethnic Politics (CQ Press, 2015). Professor Donald R. Songer published a book with Jennifer Barnes Bowie* and John Szmer*, The View from the Bench & Chambers: Examining Judicial Process and Decision Making on the U.S. Courts of Appeals (University of Virginia Press, 2014). Professor Katherine Barbieri published an article with Rafael Reuveny, “On the effect of natural resources on interstate war,” in Progress in Physical Geography (2014). Professor David Darmofal’s article with Charles Crabtree* and Holger L. Kern, “A Spatial Analysis of the Impact of West German Television on Protest Mobilization During the East German Revolution,” was accepted for publication in the Journal of Peace Research. Professor Susan Miller’s article, “The Relationship Between Short-term Political Appointments and Bureaucratic Performance: The Case of Recess Appointments in the U.S.,” was accepted for publication in the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. Professor Timothy Peterson’s article with Devin Joshi and Jason Maloy, “Popular vs. Elite Democratic Structures and International Peace,” was accepted for publication in the Journal of Peace Research. Professor Timothy Peterson’s article with Peter Rudloff, “Preferential Trade Agreements and Trade Expectations Theory,” was accepted for publication in International Interactions. Professors Kirk Randazzo and Donald R. Songer published an article with Tajuana Massie*, “Are Judges Strategic? A Comparative Assessment of the Politics of Judicial Retirement in Canada and the United Kingdom,” in the Journal of Law and Courts (2014). Professor Donald R. Songer published an article with Susan Johnson* and Jennifer Barnes Bowie*, “Do Bills of Rights Matter? An Examination of Court Change, Judicial Ideology and the Support Structure for Rights in Canada,” in the Osgoode Hall Law Review (2014). Professor Christopher Witko’s article, “The Politics of Financialization in the United States, 1949-2005,” was accepted for publication in the British Journal of Political Science.


Bo

ok

s


Professor Christopher Witko’s article with Nathan J. Kelly, “Government Ideology and Unemployment in the U.S. States,” was accepted for publication in State Politics & Policy Quarterly. Professor Laura Woliver’s article, “Dissent is Patriotic,” was accepted for publication in the Tulsa Law Review. * = USC Political Science Ph.D. student (current or former)

The Institute of African American Research (IAAR) at USC awarded William Akoto (Ph.D. student, advisor Professor Peterson) a research fellowship. His project analysis the effect of colonialism on post-independence political stability in Africa, particularly the risk that regimes installed at independence would experience instability through coup d’états. Chienwu “Alex” Hsueh (Ph.D.

student, advisor Professor Peterson) recently accepted a tenure-track position at the National Chengchi University. Juri Kim (Ph.D. student, advisor Professor Starr) won a SPARC Graduate Research Grant for a research project titled “Willingness and Opportunity of Actors: Political Legitimacy, Military Capacity, and Conflict.” Fulbright Grant winner, Kathryn Miles, has been named as an alternate

to China. She is a 2013 graduate of the College of Arts and Sciences with a major in Political Science and a minor in Dance. She spent her senior year in Nanjing, China as a Boren Scholar focusing on intensive language study and Chinese ethnic minorities and is currently working at the Asia Society Texas Center. Bryan Parsons (Ph.D. 2010, advisor Professor Darmofal) has recently started a tenure-track position in

honors, awards, and other accomplishmentsfaculty

Professor David Darmofal is the Chair of the American Journal of Political Science Best Article Award Committee. Professor Darmofal was also awarded the Political Analysis Outstanding Reviewer Award from the Society for Political Methodology. In summer 2014, Professor Darmofal taught the first two weeks of Advanced Topics in Maximum Likelihood Estimation at the ICPSR Summer Program in Quantitative Methods of Social Research at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Professor Charles Finocchiaro recently received a Congressional Research Grant from The Dirksen Center. The funds will support his ongoing research on the development of the U.S. Congress, and will be used to collect data regarding publicly funded projects in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century that are akin to modern congressional earmarks. Professor Finocchiaro also received two paper awards recently, the 2014 Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best paper presented at the Southern Political Science Association annual meeting and the 2013 CQ Press Award for the best paper on legislative politics presented at the American Political Science Association annual meeting. Distinguished Professor Emeritus William Kreml delivered a lecture, “Third Parties in the Upper Midwest,” November 18th,

at the College of Charleston. Professor Donald R. Songer won the Mortar Board award for excellence in teaching in 2014. Dag Hammarskjöld Professor in International Affairs Emeritus Harvey Starr presented “Geography and International Conflict: Space, Distance, and Ways to Study Them” at the Workshop “The Spatial Turn in Political Science,” sponsored by the Initiative in Spatial Structures in the Social Sciences, Brown University, October 17, 2014. Professor Starr also presented “Some Thoughts on the Spatial Turn in Political Science” at the Department of Political Science, University at Buffalo, October 25, 2014. Professor Laura Woliver was invited to give a talk at the 40th anniversary of the Clearinghouse on Women’s Issues on June 24, 2014 in Washington, DC. Professor Woliver was also awarded both a Centennial Center Grant and a Marguerite Ross Barnett Research Grant from the American Political Science Association in 2014. Additionally, Professor Woliver served as the chair of the Manning Dauer Award Committee (for the second year) for the Southern Political Science Association.

graduate

student & alumni news


the Department of Public Affairs at Roanoke College. Bryan was previously an Assistant Professor at the University of Tennessee at Martin from 2010-2014. Bryan has also recently had an article, “The Social Identity Politics of Peer Networks,” accepted for publication in American Politics Research. Jonathan Rauh (Ph.D. student, advisor Professor Tompkins) published an article in Public Administration Review, “Predicting Influence on State Ethics Commissions: Of Course We are Ethical – Nudge Nudge, Wink Wink.” Rebecca Reid (Ph.D. student, advisor Professor Randazzo) recently accepted a

tenure-track position at the University of Texas, El Paso. Holly L. Smith (M.A.I.S. student) is currently interning with USAID’s Famine Early Warning Systems Network (FEWS NET) on their water monitoring project in Yemen. Her research informed USAID and NASA on the local cultural values of water, and culminated in a presentation in Washington, DC to USAID, NASA, and assorted agencies that deal with water policy making. Ryan Strickler (Ph.D. student, advisor Professor Darmofal) won a SPARC Graduate Research Grant for a project titled “Partisan Polarization and

Deliberative Democracy: The Role of Affect and Ideology.” Judit Trunkos (Ph.D. student, advisor Professor Barbieri) has a chapter, “Spectral Power: Eliminating the Hard/Soft Power Dichotomy,” (with András Simonyi) that is forthcoming in an edited volume, Disentangling Smart Power: Interest, Tools and Strategies: The Key for a Transatlantic Strategic Partnership (edited by Aude Jehan and András Simonyi) SAIS Publication. Judit Trunkos (Ph.D. student, advisor Professor Barbieri), with András Simonyi, wrote a piece that appeared in the Huffington Post, “How Putin Stole Our Smart Power.” (June 18, 2014).

Fall 2014

Student Government • Deputy Secretary, Institutional Affairs – Caleb Dixon • Secretary, Academics – Clayton Armstrong • Advisor, Freshman Council – Erin Steiner • Senators – Christopher Wolfe & Vernisha Pendergrass

Athletics • Captain, USC Track & Field team – Eric Winfrey • Secretary, Gamecock Cycling Club – Joseph Hayden • President, Club Tennis @ USC – Zack Errickson Greek Organizations • President, Delta Sigma Theta – Hazel Bridges • VP Operations, Phi Mu, & Leadership Chairman for Greek Programming Board – Katherine Jahries • VP Programming, Zeta Tau Alpha – Jessica Barriere

• Treasurer, Sigma Chi – Hudson Parr • House Manager, Chi Omega – Allie Arvizu

Media • Editor in Chief, Daily Gamecock & Copy Editor, Garnet & Black magazine – Amanda Coyne

Others • Nicole Provax – Captain, USC Mock Trial Team • Patrick Bradley – President, Garnet Circle Student Alumni Council • Clayton Armstrong – President, International House @ Maxcy College • Abigail Hardee – Co-President & Director of Administrative Affairs, USC Chapter/Global China Connect • Racquel Mullis – Alumni & Agape Chairman, Sigma Alpha Omega & Service Chairman, Shandon College Ministry • Jared Thompson – University Ambassador & University 101 Peer Leader • Venisha Pendergrass – National Communications Coordinator, Residence Hall Associaion • Maxine Todd – Executive Board member, College Democrats & Vice President, Feminist Collective @ USC • Erin Steiner – Captain, Professional Development & Training, USC Visitors’ Center University Ambassadors • Karra McCray – President, Alpha Lambda Delta honor society; Vice President, Minority Pre-law Association; Mentor, Opportunity Scholars

undergraduate

student leaders

Department of Political Science Columbia, SC 29208

Political Science newsletterSpring 2015 volume 9, no. 1

CHAIR: Robert H. Cox EDITOR: Susan Miller GRAPHIC DESIGN: Tyler Bledsoe CONTRIBUTORS: Timothy Peterson, Graduate Director Kenny Whitby, Graduate Placement Christopher Witko, MPA Director Neal Woods, Undergraduate Director Janis Leaphart, Undergraduate Coordinator Pamela Mauldin, Faculty Coordinator Doris Shiver, Administrative Specialist Brenda Stevens, Administrative Assistant Debby Tiemeyer, Graduate Coordinator

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political science newsletter, spring 2015

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