Faculty Activity & Research
Alan Arwine teaches classes in American government and international politics. He is writing two books. The first examines political tolerance in advanced industrialized countries and the second explores determinants of human rights.
Nazli Avdan is serving as the Graduate Director for the department and is working on several projects. One is a forthcoming article in International Interactions, which finds that migration from terror-prone states erodes the human rights regimes of recipient states. Two related papers explore 1) the effects of state capacity in cushioning the decline of human rights and 2) the effects of natural disasters on human rights regimes. A second paper explores the human trafficking activities of insurgent organizaons. A third paper examines the pursuit of chemical-biological-radiological-and nuclear (CBRN) weapons by insurgent groups. She has another paper under review that revisits the effectiveness of border fences in stemming the flow of refugees. Finally, she has a set of papers that examine the effects of natural disasters on terrorist group tactics and sexual violence in civil wars.
David Brichoux is teaching courses in American politics and political theory. He recently published a chapter “Minimum Wage” in Legislating Morality in America: Debating the Morality of Controversial U.S. Laws and Policies. This summer he attended the KU Center For Teaching Excellence Flexible Design Camp in June. For more information, see Professor Brichoux's profile.
Hannah Britton is jointly appointed in the Political Science Department and the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Department. Professor Britton’s research is at the intersection of gender and African politics. She currently is the Director for the Center of Injustice (CSI). CSI houses the Anti-Slavery and Human Trafficking Initiative, the Center for Migration Research, and The Qualitative Research Working Group. Her most recent book, Ending Gender-Based Violence: Justice and Community in South Africa, was released 2020. She continues her research on how communities can prevent human trafficking, labor abuse, and gender-based violence. Professor Britton is also a collaborator with Professor Hyunjin Seo on a project entitled “Collaborative Research: Technology Education for Women in Transition,” which is designing tools and curricula on digital literacy to assist women transitioning from incarceration back to the workforce and society. Professor Britton is working with KU researcher Cheryl Holmes on a project looking at health, food, and family in rural systems under during COVID-19 and another project examining health outcomes for migratory and seasonal agricultural workers.
Brittnee Carter is working on several projects related to religiously motivated terrorism and U.S. counterterrorism efforts. This year she published an article investigating systematic biases against Muslims in counterterrorism policies, as well as an article with 2 students about state sponsors of religiously motivated terrorism and the violence that results from that relationship. Currently, Professor Carter has a revise and resubmit manuscript with former KU undergraduate student Maya Van Nuys that differentiates the framing mechanisms for radicalization and recruitment among Salafi and Shia terrorist organizations. For more information, see Professor Carter's profile.
Valery Dzutsati joined the department in the fall of 2021 as a Visiting Assistant Professor. His research interests span civil conflict, democratization, religion and politics, and collective action. His recent work has been published in Conflict Management and Peace Science, Nations and Nationalism, and Small Wars & Insurgencies. Forthcoming in 2022 is his article in Ethnopolitics and a co-authored book on civilian support for insurgents in the Russian region of Dagestan in Cambridge University Press. His ongoing projects include research on violent secession, expansionism, liberalism and repression. For more information, see Professor Dzutsati’s profile.
Don Haider-Markel published several coauthored articles and chapters on LGBT politics, gun politics, and race and representative bureaucracy in public education. One article in Public Opinion Quarterly explores how attitudes towards transgender people and policies have shifted and polarized as Democratic and Republican Party leaders have highlighted these issues in the culture wars (see Professor Haider-Markel's profile) and follow him on Twitter.
Mark Joslyn just completed a book on the political behavior of gun owners, The Gun Gap (Oxford University Press). Professor Joslyn also created a blog called Consider the Politics. It offers additional material for his introductory and advanced undergraduate classes as well as a platform to expose his research and writing to a broader audience. He has a paper under review about conspiracy theorists and the psychological tendency to project attitudes and behaviors onto the public. For more information, see Professor Joslyn's profile.
John Kennedy has chapter in a forthcoming edited book by Ronald Inglehart and an article under review with graduate student Haruka Nagao. He is also working on a second book project examining the involuntary bachelors (bare branches) in rural China as well as an article on current state of village elections in China. For more information, see Professor Kennedy's website. .
Patrick Miller took over the DC and Topeka internship programs this year from Burdett Loomis and is continuing to work on various projects related to American political behavior. He regularly appears in state, national, and international media commenting on American politics.
Kevin Mullinix is currently serving as Undergraduate Director. He was named a 2002 Washburn University College Alumni Fellow! Kevin studies the dynamics that shape people's attitudes toward public policies, civil liberties, and the criminal legal system in the United States. He has published research on how partisanship distorts the way we see the world around us, the extent of partisan divisions in society, and strategies to reduce polarization. He is writing a book on the effects of wrongful convictions for both public policy and public opinion. For more information, see Professor Mullinix's profile.
Gary Reich continued his research on immigration policy in the American states. His new book, The Politics of Immigration across the United States, is forthcoming with Routledge Press in 2021. For more information, see Professor Reich's profile.
Robert Rohrschneider completed editing a 34-chapter book entitled The Oxford Handbook of Representation in Liberal Democracies published by Oxford University Press in 2020. He also conducted a public opinion survey in Germany in order to study the influence of populism on institutional legitimacy. For more information, see Professor Rohrschneider's profile.
Paul Schumaker is retired Emeritus Professor but he continues to write and conduct research. His latest book was published this year, entitled The TwentyEighth Amendment? Beyond Abolishing the Electoral College.
Sofia Vera continued her research on corruption, electoral accountability, and anti-corruption institutions. She has new article published at Electoral Studies about how the clarity of alternatives affects the electoral fortune of corrupt politicians. She also recently published a series of articles about the relationship between COVID-19 lockdown measures and gender disparities and economic inequality. For more information, see Professor Vera's profile.
Clay Webb continued his methodological work on dynamic specification problems that arise with the use of time series models of political phenomena. His paper in the American Journal of Political Science develops a new hypothesis testing procedure that resolves one of the fundamental problems with applied time series analysis. His recent paper in Political Analysisdevelops a different hypothesis test that allows the analyst to arbitrate between models where the dynamics observed in the data are a function of unmeasured residual dynamics and models where these dynamics are an observed part of the causal process. In addition, he published two substantive articles, one on terrorism and the other on economic sanctions. For more information, see Professor Webb's profile.
F. Michael Wuthrich is finishing up Beyond Piety and Politics: Religion, Social Relations, and Public Preferences in the Middle East and North Africa,forthcoming with Indiana University Press. He continues to work on the dynamics of women’s political representation in Turkey along with the development of populism in Turkey and around the world. He has recent publications in these areas in British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies andJournal of Democracy respectively. For more information, see Professor Wuthrich's profile.
Jiakun (Jack) Zhang, Dr. Zhang's recent invited talks include The China-Taiwan Situation" at the World Trade Council of Wichita, 2022, "Inevitable Conflict? The Future of US-China Relations" at Missouri State University, 2022 and "A New Cold War? America, China, and Russia after the Ukraine War" The Dole Institute of Politics, 2022. His media appearances, interview with South China Morning Post, Hong Kong, Oct 2022 "U.S. hard-line policy on China likely to hold whoever wins midterm elections, say analysts", interview with Bloomberg, March 2022 "U.S. Restores Tariff Waivers for Some China Goods Hit by Trump Duties", and The Washington Post's The Monkey Cage, Feb 2022 "Trumps trade war with China failed. Why didn't U.S. companies push back more?"
Dr. Zhang established The KU Trade War Lab (TWL) in 2020 with funding from a Minerva Research Initiative Defense Education and Civilian University Research (DECUR) Partnership Grant and several campus sources. As the Director, Professor Zhang’s lab will support funded research, offer student research training, facilitate exchange with other academic centers, and enable campus outreach on the politics of trade and conflict. The current TWL team includes three KU graduate students and six KU undergraduate students and is working on a number of projects on the political economy of the U.S.- China Trade War. For more information, see Professor Zhang's website.