Jennifer is the senior editorial intern for the Journal of Politics.  She graduated from the University of Tennessee at Martin, earning degrees in Political Science, International Studies and French. Now in her third year of graduate work, her research interests include political communication, foreign policy and public opinion. Before coming to Vanderbilt, she worked for the Tennessee state legislature and studied at the University of Orleans in France. A self-proclaimed sports enthusiast, Jennifer also enjoys traveling, bargain hunting and board games.

Jennifer´s CV        email: jennifer.ogg@vanderbilt.edu

Corey is originally from Durham, Connecticut; he entered the Vanderbilt PhD program in the fall of 2004. He has undergraduate degrees in both Political Science and Humanities, but has spent the last few years teaching high school History both in the U.S. and in Europe. Corey's specific interests include U.S. Foreign Policy and U.S.-Latin American Relations. Currently, Corey is working on a empirical study with a fellow colleague on the impact of a U.S. military presence on domestic and regional stability. He is also researching relationships between U.S. Public Opinion and U.S. Foreign Policy. Corey has been active in social justice movements both here and abroad and has traveled often to Latin America with grass-roots organizations, particularly Witness For Peace.

Corey's CV        email: corey.d.bike@vanderbilt.edu

Patrick joined the department in 2007 after completing his bachelor's degree in International Affairs at the University of Georgia. He has many substantive interests, but his main focus right now is on the effectiveness of counterterrorism policies and alliance reliability. Additionally, he is interested in formal modelling and statistical research methods. He has worked at a teaching assistant and is currently an editorial intern for the Journal of Politics. In his spare time, he enjoys playing golf on some of Nashville's many municipal courses, listening to music downtown, and hosting out-of-town guests with his wife.

Patrick's website      email: patrick.r.bentley@Vanderbilt.Edu  

María Fernanda Boidi entered the program in 2005, and since then she has been working with the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). This Uruguayan with a BA in Political Science (2003) from Universidad Católica de Montevideo and previous experience in public opinion enjoys exploring different topics and approaches to political science research.

Boidi is a comparativist with a focus in Latin American politics who also studies American politics. Her main areas of interest are political parties and party systems, public attitudes towards democracy and political institutions, political knowledge, and multi-methods research.

Boidi became a doctoral candidate in 2007. Her dissertation research “The Paradox of Representation: Trust in Legislatures in Latin America” has been granted a Center for the Americas Dissertation Fellowship and a Graduate School at Vanderbilt Dissertation Enhancement Grant.

Maria Fernanda´s CV     email: maria.f.boidi@vanderbilt.edu

B.A. Political Science, Bethune-Cookman University, Spring 2008

Camille joined the program in the Fall of 2008. Prior to attending Vanderbilt University, Camille was a participant in the Summer 2007 Ralph Bunche Summer Institute at Duke University under the direction of Dr. Paula D. McClain and Florida State University Summer Law for Undergraduates Program in the Summer 2005 where she received the Best in Oral Advocacy Award for her Mock Trial Performance. While at Bethune-Cookman University, Camille served as the Vice-President of the Student Government Association, Women’s Senate Vice-President, NAACP President and Recording Secretary for the Model United Nations. Camille currently serves as the Department of Political Science Representative to the Graduate Student Council and is an active member of the Organization of Black Graduate and Professional Students. Camille’s research interests are American Politics with a concentration in urban and judicial politics, primarily constitutional law, judicial activism and felon disenfranchisement. Camille’s personal interests and hobbies include scrapbooking, singing and shopping.

email: camille.d.burge@vanderbilt.edu

Amy Carter, originally from Tucson, Arizona, has joined the Westminster College faculty as a tenure-track assistant professor of political science. Her expertise lies in American politics with an emphasis on political psychology, voting behavior and presidential rhetoric. She earned her B.A. from Colorado College (1997) and her M.A. in Political Science from Vanderbilt University (2002). Carter is currently a doctoral candidate in the Political Science Department at Vanderbilt University.

Carter's publications include the article, "Did the Gore Campaign Underemphasize the Economy in 2000? Comparing Candidate Attention to the Economy from 1960-2000," forthcoming in The Journal of Political Marketing and "Terrorism" and "Globalization," both of which appear in Public Opinion and Polling Around the World: A Historical Encyclopedia, edited by John Geer.

email: CarterA@westminster-mo.edu

Liz Clausen joined the political science program in 2008, after an eclectic academic journey studying journalism and library science. Her research interests include campaigns and elections, political parties, and voter behavior. She is also interested in statistical research methods, and was awarded funding to attend the Essex Summer School in Social Science Data Analysis in 2007. Before coming to Vanderbilt, she fell in love with teaching at a community college in Texas, where her students frequently started the semester hating "government" and ended the semester energized about politics. She has presented her research at the Midwest Political Science Association, Western Political Science Association, Southern Political Science Association, and Council for European Studies meetings. In her spare time, Liz enjoys spending time with her husband and basset hound, reading, and taking weekend road trips. 

email: liz.clausen@vanderbilt.edu 
 

Stacy holds a B.A. in Communications and an M.A. in Political Science from Ohio University. Originally from Crooksville, Ohio, she joined the Vanderbilt PhD program in the fall of 2006. Her first field is Political Theory with a subfield in American Politics. Her primary interests are in feminist theory, social contract theory, human rights, and disability rights. Recently she has helped organize a disability studies seminar at the Robert Penn Warren Center. In her spare time (and under nice weather conditions) she enjoys exploring the many nature hikes in and around Nashville

email: stacy.a.clifford@vanderbilt.edu

Abby, originally from El Salvador, is interested in Latin American politics, political economy, and public opinion research. She entered the Vanderbilt PhD program in Political Science in the Fall 2005; Abby has two master’s degrees from Vanderbilt; one in Economic Development and a second one in Latin American Studies. In El Salvador, she was a faculty member of the Department of Economics at the UCA (Universidad Centroamericana José Simeón Cañas). Her previous research focused on poverty and income inequality themes.

email: abby.b.cordova@vanderbilt.edu

Margarita Corral is originally from Spain; she holds a B.A in Political Science and a Masters degree in Latin American Studies from the University of Salamanca (Spain). Before joining the Vanderbilt PhD program in the fall of 2007, she held a Research Fellowship sponsored by the regional government of Castile and Leon that allowed her to work on various research projects through that University. For several years, Margarita had the opportunity to conduct field work in Central America focusing on the region´s legislators. Currently, Margarita works as a research assistant for the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). Her primary field of interest is Comparative Politics, specifically, Latin America. She is interested in attitudes toward democracy, political institutions, representation, and political behavior.

Maragarita's CV      email: margarita.corral@vanderbilt.edu
 

B.A. in Psychology from Universidad Centroamericana (UCA) in San Salvador and M.Sc. in Public Policy on Latin America at Oxford University, England. He has been the director of the University Institute of Public Opinion (IUDOP in Spanish) at the UCA for ten years, and member of the Editorial Board of the academic journal Estudios Centroamericanos (ECA). He has been also a consultant for the World Bank, the Inter-American Development Bank, and the United Nations Development Program in the topic of Central American violence. Currently, Miguel works for the Latin America Public Opinion Project and is involved in research projects on Latin American political culture and violence.

email:  jose.m.cruz@Vanderbilt.Edu  

Alejandro is originally from Mexico City, holds a BA in Political Science from the Autonomous Technological Institute of Mexico (ITAM), and he has some studies on philosophy from the Institute for Higher Level Ecclesiastical Studies in Mexico City. Alejandro has a working experience closely related to the main Mexican agencies of elections, the IFE (Federal Electoral Institute); the IEDF (Electoral Institute of the Federal District in Mexico City); and the TEDF (Electoral Court of Federal District). In addition, he has some publish papers and participations in academic conferences especially focus on religion and politics, and electoral institutions. Currently, Alejandro is Research Assistant at the Latin American Public Opinion Project.

Alejandro's CV       email: alejandro.diaz-dominguez@vanderbilt.edu

Juan Carlos is a PhD candidate currently finishing up his fourth year in the Department of Political Science. His doctoral dissertation on judicial independence and its effects on corruption and the rule of law in Latin America is expected to be completed by the end of the year. Besides his interests in comparative judicial politics, Juan Carlos is a member of the Latin American Public Opinion Project –LAPOP- and has extensive experience working with survey data and questionnaire design. As a member of LAPOP, he has also co-authored several published reports on the attitudes of Latin American citizens towards democracy.
Juan Carlos´ CV                email: juan.c.donoso@vanderbilt.edu

Brian joined the graduate program in political science at Vanderbilt in the fall of 2007 after completing his undergraduate studies in international affairs and modern language and culture at Kennesaw State University in Kennesaw, Georgia. As an undergraduate he was awarded the David L. Boren Scholarship to study in Monterrey, Mexico for the 2005-06 academic year. Currently he studies comparative politics with a focus on political behavior and public opinion in Latin America. He works as a research assistant for the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP).
Brian´s website     email: brian.m.faughnan@vanderbilt.edu

email: jens.frederiksen@vanderbilt.edu 

Jeremiah joined the political science program in 2004 after graduating with a BA degree from Case Western Reserve University in Political Science with extensive coursework in Physics and Mathematics. His interests span Quantitative Methodology and American Politics with particular substantive emphases on public opinion change, sexuality and politics, campaigns and
elections, and legislative studies and methodological emphases on ideal point estimation and Bayesian analysis. Jeremiah's dissertation project focuses on determining why social attitudes towards minority groups, particularly gays and lesbians, have changed so rapidly in the last thirty years while public opinion on most matters is marked by stability. He has presented his work at meetings of the Southern Political Science Association, Midwest Political Science Association, and the Summer Meeting of the Society for Political Methodology.

Recent Conference Presentations:

- "Does Changing Media Change Minds?: TV and Public Opinion Towards Gays." April 2008. Paper Presented at the 2008 Meeting of the Midwest Political Science Association.
- "Estimating Legislator Ideal Points with a Paucity of Roll Calls: A Cosponsorship-Roll Call Hybrid Ideal Point Model of Support for Gay Civil Rights in the U.S. House." July 2008. Poster Presented at the 2008 Summer Meeting of the Society for Political Methodology.

email: jeremiah.j.garretson@Vanderbilt.Edu

John graduated magna cum laude and Phi Beta Kappa in 2005 from the University of Connecticut with majors in Political Science and Economics. He completed an Honors thesis entitled, "An Appropriate Role for the Leadership: A Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of House Leadership on Open-Seat Races." He is currently a third year Ph.D. student with interests in judicial politics, Congress, separation of powers and oversight. John is Junior Fellow at the American Academy of Political and Social Science and formerly served as an intern in the Washington, DC office of Congresswoman Rosa L. DeLauro (CT-03). Currently, he is working with Jenna Lukasik on the creation of an ideology measure of state supreme court justices, using Bayesian Ideal Point Estimation. John is also an Editorial Associate at the Journal of Politics and co-chair of the Political Science Graduate Student Association.


John's CV        email:  john.hudak@vanderbilt.edu  

Jason Husser joined the department in fall 2006. Originally from
Franklinton, Louisiana, Jason graduated from Southeastern Louisiana
University with a BA in Political Science when he was 18 years old.  His
primary research interest is in American Politics, particularly religion's
influence on mass political behavior.

email: jason.a.husser@vanderbilt.edu

B.A. Political Science, Georgia State University
 
Gbemende joined the Political Science program at Vanderbilt in the Fall of 2006. Before entering the graduate program she interned for the United States Commission on Civil Rights (USCCR), researching the effect of desegregation litigation on school district demographics in Florida. Her main research interests are American Politics with a concentration in Judicial Politics and also Political Theory.  Gbemende enjoys reading, playing Sudoku, and spending time with her nieces. 

Gbemende's CV        email: gbemende.johnson@vanderbilt.edu        

Irek’s interest in Political Science rests at the intersection of
International Relations and Comparative Politics. His dissertation employs a Multilevel Governance framework to explore the role of transnational networks of local governments in environmental governance around the Great Lakes region. His research is sponsored by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) as well as the Council for European Studies (CES).

He is a member of the department’s Baltic Sea Security project,  analyzing the links between security in the military, economic, political and social spheres.

He is also a proud member of the Political Science Department’s intramural volleyball, softball, and soccer teams, “the Heads of Tate”.

Irek's CV         email: irek.kusmierczyk@vanderbilt.edu

email: mingyan.li@vanderbilt.edu

Farhana graduated Summa Cum Laude from the University of KwaZulu-Natal, majoring in Political Science and Philosophy. She obtained her Masters in Philosophy at the University of Virginia as a Fulbright scholar and entered Vanderbilt’s PhD program in the fall of 2008 where she currently holds the International Peace Scholarship. Her first field is Political Theory, her second field is International Relations and her third field is Ethics.

Farhana has served as the editorial manager of the South African Journal of Philosophy since 2004. Prior to coming to the US, Farhana worked for the South African public broadcaster as an elections researcher and has produced and presented her own radio shows. She remains committed to disaster relief efforts for Abahlali baseMjondolo, the fastest growing social movement in South Africa. Farhana is passionate about of social justice, which has motivated her to serve on the Boards of community organizations in South Africa and the US. She enjoys spending time with her children, friends and family, preparing (and eating!) spicy Indian dishes and meditating.

Farhana´s  CV      email: farhana.loonat@vanderbilt.edu

Jenna Lukasik is a Ph.D. candidate specializing in American judicial politics. Specifically, she is interested in separation of powers models and the strategic behavior of elite actors. Her dissertation looks at how a separation of powers system of government influences the public policy emerging from the fifty states. Jenna explores the strategic behavior of state justices and legislators through a triangulated research design incorporating formal, quantitative, and qualitative methods. She hypothesizes that the interaction of elite preferences, institutional structure, and the external environment operate collectively to discourage or encourage the enactment of public policy and she tests her hypotheses in the context of state tort reform. She recently received a dissertation enhancement grant from the NSF with Stefanie Lindquist to interview state supreme court justices and state legislators. Additionally, Jenna has been working on creating a new measure of judicial ideology for state supreme court justices using Bayesian ideal point estimation. She has presented this work at numerous conferences including the APSA methods meeting in 2007. 

  Jenna's CV        email: jenna.e.lukasik@vanderbilt.edu 

James earned a BS from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service, an MA from Vanderbilt University, and a JD from the Vanderbilt University Law School. He also completed two years of graduate work in Political Science at the University of Michigan and has served as an attorney with the U.S. Department of Justice and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He is currently a doctoral candidate in the Political Science Department at Vanderbilt University. His research interests include determinants of immigration law and policy, international law, American constitutional law, and the development of the rule of law in new democracies.

email: james.r.mchenry@vanderbilt.edu

Daniel, originally from Quito-Ecuador, joined the Political Science Ph.D. program in 2006. In addition, Daniel currently works as Research Assistant at the AmericasBarometer & Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP). He has worked for the Food and Agriculture Organization of The United Nations (FAO-UN) as Technical Officer and at the Inter-American Institute for Cooperation on Agriculture of the Organization of American States (IICA-OAS) as Development Advisor. His duties and responsibilities were mainly concerned with Public Policy advice for local development, the Millennium Development Goals and Institutionalization. Daniel's main interests are Decentralization, Democratization and Development. He earned a M.S. degree in Agricultural Economics with mention in Development Economics from Wageningen University, The Netherlands in 2003.

Daniel´s CV    email:  daniel.montalvo@vanderbilt.edu

Mason joined the program in 2008 after receiving his undergraduate degree in Political Science and Spanish from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. His first field is Comparative politics, with a focus on democratization and development in Latin America. In his spare time, Mason enjoys traveling, going to concerts, and indulging his borderline-unhealthy obsession with UNC athletics.

email: mason.w.moseley@vanderbilt.edu

A native of Quito, Ecuador, Diana graduated from David Lipscomb University in Nashville in 2003. She has worked for the UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the Diplomatic Academy of Ecuador in Quito, the GCA Services Group (Dell Computer) in Nashville, and as an assistant to the diplomatic staff in the Embassy and General Consulate of Ecuador in Paris. She is a Research Assistant with the Latin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP) at Vanderbilt. Her research interests include the impact of emigration and immigration on the political attitudes and behaviors of those left behind and migrants themselves.

Diana's CV      email: diana.m.orces@vanderbilt.edu

Karen, originally from Canton, Georgia, holds a B.A. in Political Science and a M.P.A. from the University of Georgia. She is a first year graduate student and an editorial associate for the Journal of Politics. Her primary research interests are in American Politics, specifically, Congressional and Bureaucratic relations, southern politics, and the politics of immigration. Before coming to Vanderbilt, Karen worked for Congressman Nathan Deal (9th District of Georgia) as a Legislative Assistant and as a Public Health Analyst at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (Atlanta, Georgia). She enjoys biking, traveling, hiking portions of the Appalachian Trail with her husband, and baking for friends.

email: karen.l.owen@vanderbilt.edu

Grace is a first-year student from Wisconsin. She graduated in 2005 from Lawrence University with a B.A. in Political Science, receiving magna cum laude honors for her senior thesis "From the Classroom to Political
Office: the Link between African-American and Latino Educational Attainment and Descriptive Representation." She spent the next fifteen months in the AmeriCorps VISTA program in Madison, WI before entering the
Vanderbilt PhD program in Political Science in the fall of 2006. Her academic interests include political participation and, in particular, race, ethnicity and politics. Her personal interests include reading novels and cooking and, as of the New Year, running (it's going well so far).

email:  grace.m.radcliff@vanderbilt.edu  

Mariana, originally from Caracas, Venezuela, joined the PhD program in the fall of 2008. She has a bachelor’s degree in International Studies and Political Science from the University of Alabama at Birmingham. She is interested in international political economy and issues concerning development and democracy in Latin America. Mariana is a lover of the outdoors, Latin dancing, and jigsaw puzzles.

email: mariana.rodriguez@vanderbilt.edu

Carrie Archie Russell was active in many student organizations at her undergraduate institution Rhodes College in Memphis, the University of Tennessee College of Law in Knoxville and has continued that practice as a Vanderbilt University graduate student. Carrie has served as the graduate student liaison for student recruitment for the Political Science department, the Political Science Graduate Student Association’s student research presentations chair, chaperoned an undergraduate trip to the Iowa Caucuses in 2008 and has recently agreed to coach Vanderbilt’s undergraduate Moot Court team. Carrie was named the University of Tennessee’s Outstanding Student of Law by the National Association of Women Lawyers and graduated from the College of Law in 2000, going on to spend the first four years of her legal career clerking for Judge Carol Soloman of the Eighth Circuit Court in Nashville.

In 2004, Carrie began pursuing her Ph.D. in Political Science at Vanderbilt University. Her passion is American politics and constitutional law, and she hopes to pass that love on to her students through her teaching. “My Political Science and legal educations have taught me to think critically—to see every story or factual assertion as having two sides that deserve equal attention. My education has reaffirmed my belief that constitutional democracies rely on participatory publics who know the rules and are willing to enforce them or petition for their change. Having to literally defend my client’s rights in the University of Tennessee legal clinic, while respecting the rights of others at the same time, helped me learn that by knowing and exercising my rights as a citizen, I am perpetuating the dream of government by and for the people. My years at Vanderbilt have reinforced my sincere belief that while dedication to lifelong teaching and learning is not always easy, it is the best way I know to personally inculcate and outwardly protect life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness in a democratic society.”

Carrie´s CV   email: carrie.e.archie@vanderbilt.edu

Sonalini Sapra is currently a fourth year Ph.D. student in Political Science and is a research assistant for the Global Feminisms Collaborative. Her dissertation looks at the critical analyses and strategies that women’s environmental groups have used to examine neo-liberal globalization and its impact on the environment and how these analyses contribute to strengthening the broader theoretical frameworks of feminist environmentalisms. Her research and teaching interests include Feminist Political Theory, Feminist Methodology, Environmental Politics and Social Movements. Prior to returning to graduate school, Sonalini worked in a labor rights organization in India which looked at the impact that domestic and international trade policies were having on India’s informal work force.

Sonalini is the 2008-2009 George Graham Fellow at the Robert Penn Warren Center for the Humanities.

Sonalini´s CV    email: sonalini.k.sapra@vanderbilt.edu

Michael joined the Vanderbilt Political Science department in the fall of 2008. He comes to Vanderbilt from the University of Alabama where he earned a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science and History. His studies are in American Government primarily and secondarily in Comparative Politics. His interests are in Bureaucratic institutions and the Principle-agent relationship. Outside of the classroom he enjoys cooking and board games.

email: michael.p.sanchez@vanderbilt.edu

Vivian is a Bolivian of Austrian descent. She has a BA in Sociology from the Universidad Mayor de San Simón, in Cochabamba (Bolivia) where she grew up. She worked most of her professional life in the Bolivian non governmental sector promoting political participation, the exercise of citizenship rights and improved democratic practices. She also worked promoting environmental conservation for protected areas in Bolivia.
Vivian is an Associate with CIUDADANIA, Comunidad de Estudios Sociales y Acción Pública (a Bolivian NGO) andworks for tthe Latin American Public Opinion Project at Vanderbilt (LAPOP). Her interest fields are Comparative Politics and Political Theory with a special focus on Latin American Politics. She is currently focusing on political institutions and issues of trust and system support.

She loves good literature, good music and good movies, dancing and crossword puzzles. She also likes learning new languages. She never rejects a good discussion about politics or religious issues and a good coffee. Her very special joy are her dogs, Isadora and Lucas.

email: vivian.schwartz.blum@vanderbilt.edu

Jennifer Selin, a Baltimorean, joined the Vanderbilt graduate program in 2008. She received her bachelor’s degree in Political Science and American Studies from Lebanon Valley College and received her Juris Doctor degree from Wake Forest School of Law. Prior to moving to Nashville, she practiced administrative and energy law in Washington, D.C., focusing on Western electricity markets and hydroelectric licensing and development. Jen’s primary field is American Politics. In her free time, Jen can be found running, playing sports, and cheering on her three favorite teams: LVC Field Hockey, Maryland Basketball, and Wake Forest Football (Go Deacs!).

email: jennifer.l.selin@Vanderbilt.Edu

Matthew Simpson, originally from Springfield, Missouri, joined the Vanderbilt graduate program in 2007 after graduating from Missouri State University with a B.S. in Political Science. His first field is American Politics with a subfield of Comparative politics. In his free time, Matt enjoys reading, cheering on his favorite sports teams, and watching movies with his wife.

Matthew's CV     email: matthew.e.simpson@vanderbilt.edu

After moving to Tampa, FL in 2000, Patti has worked in Market Research and Clinical Research. Currently, she manages clinical trials from start-up to completion for a hospital in Tampa. It helps keep her quantitative skills sharp and has exposed her to other disciplines.

email: plts@verizon.net

email: yijia.wang@vanderbilt.edu

B.A., Wake Forest University

A Philadelphia Yankee lost in the South for many years, Frank is interested in international conflict, strategic interactions, and decision-making processes. He is married to a doctor whose hobby is raising chinchillas.

email: franklin.e.wilson@vanderbilt.edu

Ying Zhang comes from the hometown of Confucius in northern China. She earned her Master’s degree of American Literature in China and worked at the Chinese Embassy in Indonesia as a young diplomat prior to coming to Vanderbilt. She is interested in international relations, particularly Sino-U.S. relations. She is also interested in democrtic theories.

Ying´s CV      email: ying.zhang.1@vanderbilt.edu

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