Liberal Arts Services

Current Student Directory

NAME	E-MAIL	RESEARCH INTERESTS
Jeremy Abrams	jiabrams@mail.utexas.edu	Major fields are international relations and comparative politics, with a concentration on the Middle East. Research interests include democratization and how foreign relations influence internal politics.
Huseyin Alptekin	halptekin@gmail.com
Beth Alvine	beth.alvine@gmail.com	Fields are American Politics and Methodology, specializing in Public Policy. Research interests focus on institutions, the public policy process, the bureaucracy, interest groups, and the role of information in decision making, with expertise in U.S. energy policy.
Giorgi Areshidze	giorgi@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation examines the post-Reformation debate on religious toleration and church establishment in British and European political theory. The aim of the dissertation is to reanimate the debate between the most prominent supporters of church establishment, Thomas Hobbes and David Hume, and the proponents of liberal disestablishment, John Locke and Adam Smith, in order to bring to light the competing strategies that were proposed for the promotion of religious toleration.
Ayca Arkilic	ayca_arkilic@yahoo.com
Jin Seok Bae	jsbae@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation explores the effect of electoral politics on macroeconomic policy in East Asian “developmental states,” focusing on the question of whether and how democratization changes the degree and the pattern of the political business cycle.
Manuel Balán	manuelbalan@gmail.com	Latin American Politics, Political Parties and Party Systems, Corruption Scandals, Transparency and Anti-Corruption Policies, Constitutional Design and Reform, Media Independence and Autonomy, the Politics of Judicial and Institutional Reform, and Latin American Political Development
Carly Baruh	carly.baruh@mail.utexas.edu	Interested in classical political theory, early-modern political thought and its critics, as well as the relationship between politics, philosophy and religion.
William Blake	william.blake@mail.utexas.edu	Major fields are Public Law and American Politics. Research interests include new institutionalist approaches to judicial decisionmaking - both qualitative and quantitative, American constitutional development, law and society, and jurisprudence.
Joshua Blank	joshmblank@gmail.com
Abby Blass	abby.blass@mail.utexas.edu	Primary research areas are public law and American political institutions and processes, and her substantive interests include constitutional design, comparative judicial politics and behavior, constitutional law, American institutional conflict, and institutional design generally.
Joseph Boesch	jwboesch@yahoo.com	Dissertation explores the effects of candidate appearances and two forms of campaign advertising on voter turnout in U.S. presidential elections. The main contribution of his dissertation research is the use of multiple treatment statistical matching, robust logistic regression and experiments to reveal the mechanisms that influence voter reactions to campaign messages from network news coverage of candidates and political commercials.
Steven Brooke	sbrooke@gmail.com	Comparative Politics and International Politics, focusing on Islamic social movements, civil-military relations, and political violence and extremism in the Middle East and South Asia.
Daniel Nogueira Budny	lampiao@gmail.com	Fields are methodology and comparative politics. Research interests include political representation, parties, and party systems in Latin America.
Matthew Buehler	buehler@mail.utexas.edu	Specializing in comparative politics and international telations. Research interests include clientelist networks, political Islam, and authoritarian regime systems in the Middle East.
Frederic Cady	fcady2002@yahoo.com	Dissertation explores how Mexico's Partido Revolucionario Institucional (PRI) has transformed since losing national power in 2000.
Luis Camacho-Solis	lcamacho@mail.utexas.edu	Research interests include public opinion, political behavior, and political economy. His dissertation seeks to explain individuals’ demands for redistribution in Latin America.
Laura Catania	lally@mail.utexas.edu
Constance Clark	conniemclark@mail.utexas.edu	Primary area of study is American Politics with a concentration in Public Policy. Specifically, educational policy, including race, wealth, and school choice.
Matthew Cohen	owlofminerva@mail.utexas.edu	Research focuses on conflict processes, insurgencies, public opinion, and the relationship between domestic and international politics.
Danilo Contreras-Martínez	dcontreras@mail.utexas.edu	Fields are comparative politics and international relations. Current research examines the effect of race on voting behavior in Latin America.
Kody Cooper	kodycooper@gmail.com	Interests include, broadly, ancient, medieval, and modern political theory, natural law theory, religion and politics, as well as philosophy of law and constitutional law.
Alvaro Corral	famcorral@hotmail.com
Eduardo Dargent	edargent@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation explores the relationship between technocrats and politicians in Latin America.
Rob De Luca	rob_de_luca@hotmail.com	Dissertation examines the political theory of Charles Taylor, with particular attention to Taylor's reading of the tradition of political philosophy, and Taylor's interpretation of Canadian and American constitutional politics.
Emma Deputy
Michael Dennis	mpdennis@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation challenges the claim that refugee communities are breeding grounds for political violence. In doing so, he explores the sources of politically violent attitudes in Chechen refugee communities in the Caucasus and Europe.
Justin Dyer	justindyer19@yahoo.com
Doaa' El Nakhala	dnakhala@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation is on actual security outcomes of physical barriers on borders. Main case is the Israeli fence around the Gaza Strip and secondary cases are the Spanish fence on the borders with Morocco, the Mocorrcan barrier on the borders with Algeria, and the Turkish fence on the borders with Syria.
Kyle Endres	kyle.endres@gmail.com	Fields of study are American Politics and Methodology. Research interests include political participation, campaigns and elections, and the media.
Jonghoon Eun	silverbell@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation explores different presidential policy activities and their influence on policy outcomes. Its objective is three-fold: To suggest possible presidential activities in policymaking; to examine under what conditions presidents choose to take a particular policy activity; and to analyze the effects of different presidential activities on policy outcomes.
Benjamin Fahey-Burke	ben.faheyburke@gmail.com	Interests include the history of political philosophy, politics and literature, statesmanship, and the American Founding.
Laura Field	fieldlk@gmail.com	The politics of philosophic rhetoric, literature and politics, the philosophic foundations (ancient and modern) of the social sciences, the jurisprudence of cultural protections (language and religious protections), free speech.
Jeremy Fortier
Scott Garrison	sgarrison@sgarrison.com
Roy Germano	rgermano@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation, "The Political Economy of Remittances: Emigration, Social Insurance Provision, and Political Behavior in Mexico’s Market Transition," uses data from the Emigration & Politics Study to explore relationships between government spending, political behavior, and remittances--money sent home or “remitted” by international migrants.
Donn Gladish	donn.gladish@gmail.com	Research interests include international political economy, conflict, economic and political development, and the application of game theory to these and other social phenomena.
Regina Goodnow		Dissertation focuses on executive-legislative relations and constitutional reform in post-Soviet states.
Laurie Graham	l.taylor.graham@gmail.com	Interested in how ancient political thought might offer a more adequate means by which to respond to the late criticisms leveled against the modern Enlightenment project, with particular attention paid to the human awareness of mortality and the longing for immortality.
Darrin Hanson	darrinhanson@juno.com	Dissertation: American Civil Religion: Seeking Unity and Creating Dissension
Austin Hart	austinhart.ut@gmail.com	My dissertation examines the political impact of economic rhetoric in electoral campaigns. Specifically, I examine how, when, and why a campaign's economic message alters both individual-level economic evaluations and vote choice. I attempt to answer these questions by analyzing the impact of economic rhetoric in the 2000 and 2006 Mexican Presidential Elections and the 1992 and 2000 U.S. Presidential Elections. This research is supported, in part, by an NSF Dissertation Improvement Grant.
Ariel Helfer	ariel.helfer@gmail.com
Judge Hensley	judgehensley@gmail.com	Fields are Political Theory and Public Law. Interests include early modern theory, theories of natural rights and morality, and the influence of religion and faith on political thought.
Aaron Herold	aherold@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation examines the relationship between liberal-democracy and religion through an analysis of Locke, Spinoza, and Tocqueville. After first indicating the character of the religious reforms that the thinkers of the Enlightenment sought to bring about, I examine Tocqueville’s critique of them in light of his warnings about the potential future of democracy. My broader research interests include early modern liberal political thought and its critics, the relationship between liberalism and religion, the problem of political theology, and the intersections between political theory and international relations.
Patrick Hickey	patrick.hickey@gmail.com	Congress, Presidency, Political Behavior, Campaigns and Elections, Methodology, Interest Groups, Formal Organizations
Clayton Holland	ctholland@mail.utexas.edu	Research interests include the history of political and legal philosophy, constitutional design, American political thought, and American constitutional development.
Stephanie Holmsten	ssholmsten@mail.utexas.edu	Research explores the conditions under which weaker states win in trade negotiations, particularly at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Her study includes an updated data-set of WTO dispute cases, and new explanatory variables. She tests common explanations for why states win disputes, particularly economic power, and as well as new alternative explanations, such as global civil society, coalitions, issue linkage and domestic politics.
Tao-fang Huang	joyfultao@yahoo.com	Racial and ethnic politics, including the political impact of group identity on public opinion, political behavior among Asian Americans, and the strategic timing of position-taking in the Senate on immigration reform acts. Dissertation addresses the formation and political influence of Asian Americans’ group identity and socialization experiences.
Kai-ping Huang	kaipingh@mail.utexas.edu
Jacqueline Hunsicker	jacquelinehunsicker@gmail.com	Research interests span political theory and public law, focusing on ancient and modern political thought that treats the founding of political orders and constitutionalism more generally.
John Iadarola	john.iadarola@gmail.com	Research interests include fundamentalist religion's impacts on political beliefs, psychology, and behavior, ethnic and religious war, and the origins and development of terrorist groups.
Joanne Ibarra	joanna2cal@yahoo.com	Research interests include Latino political behavior, partisanship, and public opinion. Current research projects involve investigating Cuban American political behavior, and examining the determinants of Latino partisanship.
Hector Ibarra-rueda	hir@mail.utexas.edu	Research interests include public opinion, voting behavior, and urban politics in Latin America.
Matthew Johnson	matthewjohnson.ut@gmail.com	Research currently focuses on the rentier state and political institutions, particularly with respect to Latin America.
J.J. Kinkel
Riita-Ilona Koivumaeki	riita-ilona@mail.utexas.edu
Sarat Krishnan	sarat_krishnan@mail.utexas.edu	Research interests include international relations and conflict theory, with particular focus on South Asia.
Jeremy Kushner	kushnerj5000@gmail.com
Jennifer Lamm	jenniferlamm@mail.utexas.edu	Research explores religion and politics, particularly how religious authorities mediate state-society relations in the Middle East.
Byung-Jae Lee	bjlee@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation explores the role of the public opinion on the implementation of transitional justice measures and the effects of those measures on democratic consolidation. Interested in causal modeling and statistical tests of the elective affinity among transitional justice implementation, political culture and political institutions.
Hyobin Lee	wasfox@gmail.com
Jonathan Lee	jil229@mail.utexas.edu	Research interests include the use of game theory and formal models to study war, conflict, and other phenomena.
Ilana Lifshitz	il2359@mail.utexas.edu	Particular interests in judicial decision making and mass media influence on political participation.
Chih-shian Liou	csliou@mail.utexas.edu	Political economy, bureaucratic politics, and foreign policy. Research mostly lies at the interaction of comparative politics and international relations in East Asia in general, and China in particular. Especially concerned with how domestic conflicts of interest and bureaucratic politics affect China’s foreign policy and international behavior.
Mary Love		Areas of interest include international political economy and conflict, as well as early modern political philosophy.
Mohammed Malley	abumuadth@yahoo.com
Susanne Martin	n_susanne@yahoo.com	Dissertation explores the conditions under which political groups shift between violent and nonviolent strategies. In particular, cases are examined in which political parties employ violent strategies, as well as cases in which terrorist organizations make use of nonviolent political participation.
Daniel McCormack	mccormackdm@mail.utexas.edu	Fields of study are international relations and American politics. Research interests are international political economy, security, and the domestic sources of U.S. foreign policy.
William McCormick	wam@mail.utexas.edu	Research explores the connection between politics and moral philosophy.
David McCoy	mccoydavl@hotmail.com
Jennifer McEwan	jmcewan@mcewan-consulting.com
Ernest McGowen	ebmcgowen@mail.utexas.edu	Interests include political participation and race and ethnicity.
Chich-cheng Meng	cmeng@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation investigates what variances of an exchange rate policy occur in catch-up developmental states under an international monetary dependence system, as well as why they occur. “The Political Economy of Currency Policy in East Asia: Time, Space and Dynamics” provides a comprehensive theoretical explanation, and a vigorous empirical examination of the spatiotemporal differences of currency policy in East Asia and demonstrates how developing nations cultivate their exchange rate policies differently from those advanced economies featured in current literature.
Michele Meske	mmeske@moultoncreative.com
Greg Michener	gregmichener@mail.utexas.edu	Research interests include accountability and transparency reform and the role of the media in shaping policy priorities for reform. Dissertation examines the recent explosion of access to information laws (a.k.a. freedom of information) in Latin America. He uses the cases of Mexico and Argentina, in addition to a broader cross-national analysis, to explain the existence and strength of access to information legislation.
Megan Moeller	earlelmgnome@gmail.com	Primary fields are American Politics and Public Law.
Peter Mohanty	pete.mohanty@gmail.com	Current areas of interest are globalization and democracy, particularly as they relate to ancient, modern and contemporary theories of democracy, developments in international political economy and the spread of constitutionally-guaranteed rights.
Dorothy Morgan	dmorgan@mail.utexas.edu	Interests are ancient and modern political thought, with an emphasis on the issues of war and spiritedness.
Hart Murphy	hmurphy1@austin.rr.com	Origins, principles and development of the U.S. Constitution. Philosophy of law. Ethics. Interpretation. The history of ideas. Liberal, democratic, and republican theory. Social theory and political economy. Movements, ideologies, and revolutions in the modern period. American institutions and public policy. American political thought, including reference to its ancient and European influences as well as contemporary challenges.
Paula Munoz	pmunoz@mail.utexas.edu	Interested in the effects of neoliberalism on clientelistic linkages, decentralization and subnational politics, regime change, and state reform processes.
Adam Myers	asmyers@mail.utexas.edu	Principle research interests include political geography, American political development, party system dynamics, and comparative immigration politics.
Rachel Navarre	rnavarre@mail.utexas.edu	Major fields are International Relations and Comparative Politics, with a focus on the Middle East. Research interests include security issues and how domestic politics influence foreign policy.
Curtis Nichols	curtwnichols@gmail.com	Dissertation, "The Governing Cycle and the Dynamics of New Majority Formation," investigates party system change across time.
Rodrigo Nunes	rmnunes@mail.utexas.edu	The impact of ideas on processes of institutional change, constitutional transformation, the politics of judicial reform, the impact of law and courts on policy-making and political mobilization, Latin American political development, and Brazilian studies.
Ann Orsinger	Ann.Orsinger@mail.utexas.edu	Specific interests include the role of liberal education in forming and sustaining stable political communities; the role of the family in educating citizens of liberal democracies; comparative law; and constitutional theory.
Shoshi Osiatynski	shoshi@mail.utexas.edu
Marco Paoli	marco.paoli@utoronto.ca
Marcko Papic		Research interests are focused on the dynamics of ethnic conflict and civil war.
Joel Parker	joelparker@austin.utexas.edu	Democratic theory, political equality, theories of representation, deliberative democracy, constitutional development, American jurisprudence, political legitimacy, and random selection.
Robert Parks	lebobby@yahoo.com
Jerod Patterson	jerod.patterson@yahoo.com
Steven Pittz		Interests include the distinction between public and private spheres of action as well as Constructivist theories of international relations.
Jessica Price	jjprice@mail.utexas.edu	Current research explores Latin American indigenous politics and the factors that influence the goals and mobilization strategies that indigenous activists adopt. Particularly interested in urban indigenous organizations and on how international and national circumstances constrain indigenous politics.
Laura Rabinowitz	laura.rabinowitz@gmail.com
Matthew Rhodes-Purdy	matthewpurdy123@gmail.com
Jennifer Richmond	jennifer.richmond@gmail.com
Gustavo Rivera	grivera@mail.utexas.edu	Main research interests are campaign advertising and the media, particularly in Latin America and Africa, and the effects of these forms of communication on political behavior. Main methodological interests are lab, field, and quasi experiments.
Loren Rotner	rotnerl@gmail.com	Particularly interested in the challenges posed to Plato by his late modern critics, including Rousseau and Nietzsche.
Andy Rottas	andrew.rottas@mail.utexas.edu	Field of study is international relations; other interests include American policy, methodology, and comparative politics. Research interests include international political economy, conflict, trade, and migration.
Daniel Ryan	dryan2003@yahoo.com.ar	Dissertation explores the relationships between quality of democratic governance and policy judicialization in Argentina. Especially interested on process of judicialization of policy conflicts in the field of environmental and consumer protection.
Katherine Schlosser		Fields are comparative politics and methodology. Research interests focus on the relationship between transparency, accountability, and governmental use of information technology.
Kris Seago	kseago@mail.utexas.edu	Interests include political sophistication and the mass media.
JoBeth Shafran
Arthur Shuster	shuster.arthur@gmail.com	Classical conception of justice, philosophy of punishment, origins of modern political thought, theoretical tensions within liberalism, American constitutionalism, and morality and the passions.
Amanda Skuldt	skuldt@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation focuses on the question of why states vary, sometimes drastically, in terms of what types of state support they offer to terrorist groups. It aims to explain the broad patterns of changes in state behavior toward terrorist groups by a particular state over time as well as the variation in state behavior toward terrorist groups among states with similar characteristics and incentives.
Mary Slosar	maryslosar@mail.utexas.edu	Research focuses on political behavior and party system development in new democratic contexts, with an emphasis on Latin America.
Christian Sorace	christiansorace@gmail.com	Research focuses on the precariousness of life, and the anxiety people experience in times of political transformation and normative dislocation. Also developing a specialization in Chinese Politics, in particular contentious politics, and the political status of the Chinese floating population (liudong renkou)
Alexandra Sowash	asowash@gmail.com
Rachel Sternfeld	sternfeld@mail.utexas.edu	Interested in political communication under authoritarian regimes, especially in the Middle East.
Kevin Stuart	kevinstuart@mail.utexas.edu	Research interests include the philosophy of law, constitutional law, natural law theories, ancient political theory, and contemporary Thomistic political theory.
Eric Svensen	ericsvensen@mail.utexas.edu	Research focuses on the institutional power struggles between Congress and the president. Specific interests are in how parties aid in the aggrandizement of executive strength and in the diminution of legislative authority.
Laura Sylvester		Dissertation explores how Egypt's Muslim Brothers have restructured their internal party organization and adapted their policy positions in response to changes in the political economy.
Mine Tafolar	minetka2001@yahoo.com	Research interests include social policy, poverty, inequality, citizenship, clientelism, neoliberal policies and their impacts on the quality of democracy in Latin America and Turkey and international political economy.
Trey Thomas	treythomas@gmail.com
Brenna Troncoso		Work examines the intersection between law and politics, particularly the role of public interest litigation and legal mobilization in fragile democracies.
Scott Truelove	truelove@mail.utexas.edu
Randy Uang	uang@mail.utexas.edu	Specializes in elections and political parties. Research focuses on public security in Latin America and its use as a campaign issue, notably in Colombia, Mexico, and Central America.
Matthew Vandenbroek	lmvandenbroek@mail.utexas.edu	Research focus on American voting behavior and political participation, primarily turnout.
Rodrigo Velazquez	rvelazquez@mail.utexas.edu	Research interests include democratization, executive-legislative relations, and Mexican and Latin American politics. Dissertation examines legislative control over the bureaucracy in democratic Mexico.
Mark Verbitsky	mverbitsky@gmail.com	Particularly interested in the philosophic foundations of law and morality (topical example: human rights discourse, non-topical: natural theology and moral psychology).
Shinya Wakao	swakao@mail.utexas.edu
Yuval Weber		Dissertation is about natural resources, foreign policy, and international security. Main focus is Russia’s use of natural resources, including oil, gas, and diamonds, as a foreign policy lever.
Samuel West	samuelwest@mail.utexas.edu	Interested in American political theory and political development, especially the founding period, as well as political theory of the Enlightenment.
Allison White
Michelle Whyman	michellewhyman@mail.utexas.edu
Michelle Wolfe	wolfemi@mail.utexas.edu
Jolie Wood	joliewood@gmail.com	Politics and political participation in India, particularly civil society, contentious politics, social movements, political behavior, elections, and ethnic conflict. Dissertation investigates class-wise participation in contentious politics in Varanasi and the implications thereof for traditional theories of civil society.
Matthew Wright	mdwright@mail.utexas.edu	Current research focuses on the political thought of Thomas Aquinas, addressing the nature and extension of a principled distinction between public and private, as well as the instrumentality of the political common good. Particular interest in bringing the Aristotelian-Thomistic tradition into dialogue with the various approaches and concerns of contemporary political theory.
Kristin Wylie	knwylie@mail.utexas.edu	Dissertation on the paths to power of female politicians in weakly institutionalized party systems. Broader research interests include representation of and participation by marginalized groups in the neoliberal era, and the intersection of capitalism and democracy in developing countries.
Nihan Yamacoguz	nyamacoguz@yahoo.com
Leeann Youn	lyoun@mail.utexas.edu
Richard Young	ryoung76@gmail.com