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Grant Awards

Kelly Kadera and Sara Mitchell received a Supplemental Grant Award of $15,708 from the National Science Foundation for their project titled, "Journeys in World Politics: A Mentoring Workshop for Junior Women Studying International Relations."

Sara Mitchell has been awarded an International Programs Curriculum Development Grant to develop a new three-semester hour class titled, “International Courts: The Intersection of Law and Politics.”

Teaching Awards

The University of Iowa Council on Teaching has selected Benjamin Knoll and Brian DiSarro as recipients of an Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award for 2007-2008. Each was honored at an awards banquet on May 9, along with the other award recipients, and will receive a $1000 prize. Congratulations to them both!

Tom Rice and Cary Covington received the inaugural Lane Davis Award for Honors Team Teaching in recognition of their pioneering work with the Iowa Policy Research Organization.

Tom Rice received the Student Award for Outstanding Honors Teaching. Students presented the award at the annual Honors Recognition Ceremony in April.

John Conybeare and Brian Lai will each be recognized with the 2008 International Studies Outstanding Faculty Mentor Award in May. They are being honored for their willingness to devote their time and expertise to working individually with International Studies students.

The College of DuPage has named Bob Robson as the outstanding part-time social science faculty member for the 2007-2008 school year.

UI Undergraduate Awards

In April, The University of Iowa honored outstanding students at the 91st anniversary Finkbine Dinner for Representative Student Leaders, one of the University's most prestigious award ceremonies. Two political science students were awarded the Hancher-Finkbine Undergraduate Student Medallion: Barrett James Anderson, from Clive, Iowa, who majored in political science and economics and Meredith J. DeBoom, from Sibley, Iowa, who majored in political science and international studies.

Annual Departmental Scholarship Awards

The department held its annual Undergraduate Awards Reception on May 13 to honor the following departmental scholarship award winners.

2008-2009 Donald Johnson Fellow: Meredith DeBoom
2008-2009 Donald Johnson Scholar: Nicholas Compton
2008-2009 Vernon & Georgia Bender Scholar: McKenzie Hill
2008-2009 Joseph Domke Memorial Scholar: Holly Gutman
2008-2009 James & Patti Murray Scholar: Katherine Morrison
2007-2008 Helen Fairall Scholars: Colin C. Smith and Kate Rose Evans
2007-2008 Laurence Fairall Scholars: Elizabeth Stoycheff, Abigail M. Bartine, Dana M. Merrick, and Mandie Vetter

In addition, some of our graduate students were selected as 2007-2008 Laurence Fairall Scholars: Benjamin Darr, Holley Hansen, and Jill Wittrock. Daniel Bowen was selected as the 2007-2008 Helen Fairall Scholar.

Graduate Student Awards

James Krueger has been awarded one of the 2008-2009 Ada Louisa Ballard and Seashore dissertation year fellowships. These fellowships are for doctoral students completing dissertations in the humanities and are awarded by the Graduate College each year.

The Conference Committee, Graduate Student Senate, and the Graduate College named students for outstanding presentations at the James F. Jakobsen Graduate Forum 2008. In Social Sciences and Education, Benjamin Knoll was awarded second place and Benjamin Darr was awarded third place.

Undergraduate CLAS Honors Awards

The 2008 College of Liberal Arts & Sciences Commencement Honors Reception, held in May, recognized the following political science students graduating with honors, one of the three levels of distinction, or both honors and distinction.

Robert Reza Asaadi -Highest Distinction
Barrett James Anderson -Honors & Highest Distinction
Abigail Marie Bartine -High Distinction
Brian Patrick Donnelly -High Distinction
Patrick Joseph Friedel -Honors
Ann Christine Gronlund -High Distinction
Benjamin William Harringa -Honors
Timothy Mark Hau -Honors
Belema Opubo Idoniboye -Honors
Mason Kyle Kerns -Honors and Distinction
Kelsey Lyn Larsen -Honors & Highest Distinction
Jacqueline Margaret Leonard -Honors & Distinction
Adam Christopher Matheson -Honors & Distinction
Lindsey A. Negaard -Distinction
Sarah E. Porter -Honors & Highest Distinction
Dane Jay Schumann -Honors
Elizabeth Ann Skarin -Distinction
Kasey Lynn Slaby -Distinction
Louis S. Sloven -High Distinction
Adam Christopher Stoddard -Honors & Distinction
Elizabeth L. Stoycheff -Distinction
Joseph Charles Traw -Honors & High Distinction

PhD Graduation Announcements

Sang Shin Lee and Brian DiSarro have successfully passed their dissertation defenses.

Honors Program Student Awards

The University of Iowa Honors Program held their annual recognition ceremony in April to recognize student accomplishments through merit-based scholarships. Many of the scholarships are endowed by the late Rhodes Dunlap, founder of the UI Honors Program.

Elizabeth Weyer, a first-year student, received the Rhodes Dunlap First-Year Award. Weyer is majoring in political science and pre-law and she is an emergency medical technician with the Mediapolis Ambulance Service.

Virginia McCalmont, a sophomore studying political science and German, received the Rhodes Dunlap Sophomore Award. She will study abroad next year in Freiburg, Germany.

Rob Pick, a junior studying finance and political science, received the Rhodes Dunlap Collegiate Award.

Louis Sloven, a senior, received the Rhodes Dunlap Collegiate Award. Sloven is a psychology and political science major, and he hopes to intern on Capitol Hill this fall.

Clay Baker, a junior, received the Rhodes Dunlap Collegiate Award. Baker is a political science and secondary education major whose certification areas are in American government and history.

Barrett J. Anderson, a senior economics and political science major, received the Collegiate Scholar Award. Anderson recently finished a term as president of the UI Student Government.

Meredith DeBoom, a junior, received the Rhodes Dunlap Collegiate Award and the James D. Robertson Scholarship for a Junior in the Social Sciences. DeBoom is a political science and international studies major, and she is currently an intern for the Environmental Protection Agency. This summer, she will study sustainable development in South Africa.

Jacqueline Leonard, a senior, received the Collegiate Scholar Award. Leonard is a political science major with an international business certificate, and she has been a leader in the mock trial team.

More Undergraduate Awards

Meredith DeBoom has been named a Truman Scholar, a national scholarship for students committed to careers in public service. Meredith was also named a Morris K. Udall Scholar, a national scholarship for students who show a commitment to careers related to the environment, tribal policy, or Native American health care.

Amanda Lengsouthiphong received The Dean Scholarship, a merit scholarship given out by the University of Iowa for students planning to study abroad in the fall. Amanda also received the Study Abroad Scholarship from the UI International Studies Program.

Courtney Wilcox received the Mary Goodykoontz Barnes Scholarship from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences. She plans to use the scholarship to pay for study abroad.

Aly Dolan received three scholarships for excellence in public relations and journalism: the Shafter Family Trust Scholarship, the Gordon B. Strayer Scholarship, and the Cogner-Reynolds Scholarship.

Andrew Henning was a recipient of a Dewey Stuit Award and a Stanley Foundation Research Fellowship for travel to Istanbul, Turkey. While he was in Turkey, he met with Constitutional Court judges.

Travel and Presentations

On May 2, Kelly Kadera presented her paper titled "Competing Predators: Protestants and Catholics in Northern Ireland" at the University of Washington’s Institute for the Study of Ethnicity, Race and Sexuality.

During the recent political crisis in Kenya, Joel Barkan gave nearly fifty interviews to the media including multiple appearances on The Newshour with Jim Lehrer, BBC, CNN, NPR, Al Jazeera and the Washington Post. Joel also advised the Department of State, and participated in symposia at Cornell, the Council on Foreign Relations, the Woodrow Wilson International Center, and Johns Hopkins SAIS.

In late April, Benjamin Knoll presented a paper at the “Fourth Biennial Symposium on Religion and Politics” at Calvin College in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

SLAMM!

The inaugural St. Louis Area Methods Meeting was hosted on April 19 by Jeff Gill and Washington University. Iowa attendees included Frederick Boehmke, James Rydberg, Robert McGrath, Gail Buttorff, and Zachary Greene. In what is possibly a first, there were general references to the "Iowa Ghetto" sitting in a group at a methods conference. The conference included participants from all over the CIC as well as guest appearances from Penn State, Harvard, and Texas. McGrath spread the methods gospel far and wide, including attempts to attract budding methodologists from SEMO to join the conference.

Appointments

On June 30, Bill Reisinger will be stepping down from his position as Associate Provost and Dean of International Programs to return full-time to the Political Science faculty. Having been in this position for five years, he is eager to regain his familiarity with the comparative and post-Soviet literatures, his proficiency in the Russian language, and his knowledge of current Russian political developments. He will spend 2008-2009 in Seattle, having an affiliation with the University of Washington’s Ellison Center for Russian, East European and Central Asian Studies.

David Redlawsk has been elected as a Delegate to the Democratic National Convention in Denver. He was elected to represent the campaign of John Edwards at the Iowa 2nd District Convention on April 26. As an elected convention delegate, he will be on the floor of the convention for the culmination of one of the most exciting primary campaigns in history where for the first time a major party will nominate a non-white-male candidate, no matter whether Clinton or Obama wins. He plans to record his experiences for use in his political campaigning classes next fall. When asked who he will support, Dave pointed out that he is a pledged Edwards delegate!

Sara Mitchell is the new chair of the Diversity Committee for APSA's Political Methodology Section. She will have a hard time following the previous chair, Caroline Tolbert, given all of the wonderful things she did for the section!

Tracy Osborn was chosen as President Elect, meaning she will be president in 2009-2010, of the Midwest Women’s Caucus for Political Science at the 2008 MPSA meeting.

Publications

Michael Lewis-Beck, with coauthors William Jacoby, Helmut Norpoth, and Herbert Weisberg, announce that their book The American Voter Revisited will be published by The University of Michigan Press this month. A Shambaugh Conference, held May 8-10, focused on their book and The American Voter by Angus Campbell, Philip Converse, Warren Miller, and Donald Stokes. The conference presentations were based on the theme “The American Voter: Change or Continuity over the last Fifty Years.” Participants included Lewis-Beck and his coauthors, plus Philip Converse, Valera Sinclair-Chapman, Monika McDermott, Merrill Shanks, John Petrocik, Jennifer Wolak, Cindy Kam, Harold Clarke, Matthew Barretto, Mary Stegmaier, Robert Walker, Francisco Pedraza, and Barry Burden. The papers will be published in Electoral Studies.

Fred Boehmke has co-authored a chapter titled, "Correlates of Fraud: Studying State Election Fraud Allegations," which will be included in the forthcoming edited volume Election Fraud: Detecting and Deterring Electoral Manipulation, available from Brookings Press in May. The chapter, written with Mike Alvarez, studies the patterns of fraud allegations across counties in California and Georgia.

Sara Mitchell, Kelly Kadera, and their coauthor Mark J.C. Crescenzi, received word that their article titled “Practicing Democratic Community Norms: Third Party Conflict Management and Successful Settlements” will be forthcoming in Jacob Bercovitch and Scott Sigmund Gartner’s edited volume, Empirical Studies in International Mediation, published by Routledge.

Joel Barkan recently published two articles. “Legislatures on the Rise?” in the April issue of the Journal of Democracy, and “Will the Kenyan Settlement Hold?” in the April issue of Current History.

Cary Covington was interviewed about the election process for the Weekly Reader News. Covington compared states to children who line up for recess. The first kids out the door get the best swing or the best jump rope.

Michael Lewis-Beck has recently had two poems accepted. One, “Winter Woods,” will appear in the magazine Albatross, No.20. The other, “Snow Fall,” was accepted in the 2008 Iowa City Poetry in Public competition, and will appear for a year on the kiosks and buses of Iowa City. Watch for it!

Political Science Alumni

Lauren McCarthy (’06), the outreach coordinator of the UI Honors Program, received the first Outstanding Honors Alumni Award. This award was presented at the annual Honors Recognition Ceremony in April.

Political science major, and soon to be alum, Andrew Henning, has accepted a position at the U.S. Department of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Criminal Section in Washington, D.C. as an honors paralegal specialist. His section handles human trafficking, hate crimes, police officer misconduct, and abortion clinic bombings.

Newsletter Submissions

To be a part of the next Department of Political Science newsletter submit information to Wendy Durant. Items of a more personal nature (birth announcements, wedding announcements) are always welcome.