Hire a PhD

The Department of Government is pleased to announce its Ph.D. candidates for academic appointments. While not all our candidates have chosen to post their information here, the following list represents well the breadth and strength of our candidates.

Political Theory

Mihaela Czobor-Lupp

• Dissertation: The Civil Power of Imagination: Aesthetic Creativity, Culture, and Politics
• Areas of Specialization: History of Political Thought, Politics and Imagination, Democratic Theory, Continental Political Philosophy (18th, 19th, and 20th century), Sociological Theories, Ancient Poltitical Thought, Critical Theory, Ideology and Politics, Political Development and Civil Society, Culture and Identity Politics in South-Eastern Europe and the Balkans, Religion and Politics, Epistemology of Social Sciences, Frankfurt School, Modern German Philosophy (Kant, German Romanticism, Hegel, Nietzsche, Heidegger), Contemporary French Philosophy (Foucault, Ricoeur), Philosophy of History, and History of Philosophy
• Date of Completion: Summer 2008
  

Karen Crabbs Fernandes, J.D., LL.M.

• Dissertation: Delegation and the Administrative State: The New Process of Governing and its Effect on the Democratic Soul
• Areas of Specialization:  Constitutional law, judicial decision making, legal research and writing, immigration law, international law, and political theory
• Date of Completion: November 2007
  

Richard G. Avramenko PLACED - UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN-MADISON

•  Dissertation: The Phenomenology of Courage
• Areas of Specialization: Ancient and Continental Political Thought, Existentailism, Politics and Literature
• Date of Completion: April 2005
  

Farah Godrej PLACED - UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA-RIVERSIDE

• Dissertation: Toward A Cosmpolitan Political Theory: Cross-Cultural Encounters and the Methodology of Comparative Political Theory
• Areas of Specialization: Comparative Political Thought, Gandhi, Contemporary Liberal and Post-liberal Thought, Globalization and Development Theory, Feminist Political Thought
• Date of Completion: September 2005
  

Andrew M. Tucker PLACED - UNIVERSITY COLLEGE LONDON

• Dissertation: Between the Citizen and the State: The Role of Reflexive Mistrust in Modern Politics
• Areas of Specialization: Democratic Theory, Political Sociology, Regulatory Policy
• Date of Completion: December 2005
  

International Relations

Sarah Cleeland Knight

• Dissertation: When Exchange Rates Become Political
• Areas of Specialization: International political economy, methods (surveys, statistics, case studies), US foreign policy, interest groups, political mobilization
• Date of Completion: January 2008
  

Joshua Busby PLACED - UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS-AUSTIN

• Dissertation: "The End of the West? Domestic Politics and International Norms in the Post Cold War Era" (John Ikenberry, mentor)
• Areas of Specialization: Transnational social movements, transatlantic relations, international political economy, climate change, developing country debt relief
• Date of Completion: August 2004
• Post-Docs: Harvard University (2004-2005), Princeton University (2005-2006)

Comparative Government

Aaron Boesenecker

• Dissertation: The Power of Defining Work: The Discourses of Social Reform in Europe
• Areas of Specialization: Comparative Politics, Qualitative Methodology, European and European Union Politics, Religion and Politics, and Welfare States and Social Policy
• Date of Completion:
  

Irina Andre Papkov

• Dissertation: Orthodoxy and Democracy in Russia: New Interpretations
• Areas of Specialization: Comparative Politics, Religion and Politics, Democratization, Development, Russia, Eastern Europe and Eurasia
• Date of Completion: December 2006
  

Rachel E. Bowen

• Dissertation: Justice Reforms and the Politicization of Justice: Courts, Politicians, and Activists in Central America, 1980-2005
• Areas of Specialization: Comparative Law, Democratization, Human Rights, Development
• Date of Completion: May 2006

American Government

Linda M. Merola, J.D. PLACED - GEORGE MASON UNIVERSITY

• Dissertation: A Culture of Crisis: Information and the Scope of American Civil Liberties in an Era of Terrorist Threat
• Areas of Specialization: Constitutional Law, Law and Society, Judicial Decision Making, Public Opinion, Media, Political Psychology
• Date of Completion: April, 2007

Margaret Tseng PLACED - MARYMOUNT UNIVERSITY

•  Dissertation: The Unilateral Presidency: Evidence of a Lame Duck Effect
• Areas of Specialization: Presidency, presidential electoral politics, minority politics
• Date of Completion: August 2003.
  

Keiko Ono PLACED - UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA

• Dissertation: "Polarized Politics and Voter Participation: An Electoral Connection"
• Areas of Specialization: Voting behavior, Methods
• Date of Completion: July 2005