Contact Information

Jeff Fine (Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Kentucky)
Earned a B.A. in political science from Vanderbilt University (2001) and M.A. (2004) and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky (2006).  Author of articles appearing in Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Political Behavior, and Presidential Studies Quarterly.  His research interests center around the interaction between institutions in the American context, as well as representation in Congress. 

Teaches American Government, U.S. Congress, congressional elections, and research methods courses.

Office Phone:

(864)656-3548

Email:

jfine@clemson.edu

Personal Website:

http://people.clemson.edu/~jfine/ 

Xiaobo Hu (Professor, Ph.D., Duke)
Publications include Problems in China's Transitional Economy and Interpreting U.S.-China-Taiwan Relations.  Articles in Asian Survey and Journal of Chinese Political Science.  Teaches Comparative Politics, International Politics, and East Asia.

Clemson University Center for China Studies
 

Office Phone:

(864)656-1452

Email:

xhu@clemson.edu

William Lasser (Alumni Distinguished Professor, Ph.D., Harvard)
Interim Director, Calhoun Honors College; Director, National Scholars Program.  Author of The Limits of Judicial Power, and American Politics: The Enduring Constitution; editor of Perspectives on American Government; Benjamin V. Cohen and the Spirit of the New Deal; Constitutional Dualism: The Search for Original Meanings (in progress). 1993 Alumni Master Teacher. Teaches constitutional law and American government.

Office Phone:

(864)656-4762

Email:

lasser@clemson.edu

Vladimir D. Matic (Senior Lecturer, J.D. Belgrade)

An acknowledged expert on European and Balkan affairs and author of numerous papers and articles, is a former Yugoslav career diplomat and ambassador who resigned the post of Assistant Federal Minister in 1993 in disagreement on policy and moral issues.  After the change of the regime in 2000, he was the first diplomatic representative of the new government in the United States as a Special Envoy of the Yugoslav President. 

He has been at Clemson University since 1996, teaching courses in international relations, foreign policy, diplomacy, and European politics. 

Office Phone:

(864)656-6125

Email:

vmatic@clemson.edu

Michael A. Morris (Professor, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins)
Books include Expansion of Third World Navies, Caribbean Maritime Security and Languages in a Globalising World.  Recipient of the Caribbean Studies Association's Gordon K. Lewis Memorial Award for Caribbean Scholarship for the best book published on the Caribbean.  Also recipient of the College of Business and Public Affairs 1998 Award for Senior Scholar Research. Teaches international relations and comparative politics as well as contemporary news in Spanish and French.  Holds a Joint Appointment as Professor of Languages.
 

Office Phone:

(864)656-3545

Email:

morrism@clemson.edu

Laura R. Olson (Professor, Ph.D., Wisconsin)
A native of Racine, Wisconsin, she earned a B.A. in political science from Northwestern University in 1990, as well as an M.A. (1991) and Ph.D. (1996) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She spent the 1999-2000 academic year as a visiting research fellow at the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University.

Her research focuses on contemporary religion, civic engagement, and American politics, with special emphasis on the political attitudes and behaviors of clergy.  Her work has appeared in many scholarly journals, including Political Research Quarterly, Social Science Quarterly, PS:

Political Science & Politics, and the Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion.  She is also the author, coauthor, or coeditor of nine books, including Religious Interests in Community Conflict: Beyond the Culture Wars (Baylor University Press, 2007); Women with a Mission: Religion, Gender, and the Politics of Women Clergy (University of Alabama Press, 2005); and Religion and Politics in America: Faith, Culture, and Strategic Choices (Westview Press, 2004).  She is currently working on a book project on the Protestant left in American politics.

She has served two terms as chair of the American Political Science Association¹s Religion and Politics section and one term on the American Academy of Religion¹s Committee for the Public Understanding of Religion.

Office Phone:

(864)656-1457

Email:

laurao@clemson.edu

Personal Website:

http://people.clemson.edu/~laurao/

Jeffrey S. Peake (Professor and Department Chair, Ph.D., Texas A&M University)

Prior to joining the faculty at Clemson, Peake was professor of political science at Bowling Green State University in Ohio.  A 1992 Clemson Alumn (BA, Political Science), he received his Ph.D. from Texas A&M University in 1999.  His research interests focus on the Presidency, the media, and Congress.  More specifically, Peake has written on presidential leadership of the media and the public, presidential-congressional relations, agenda-setting, and the domestic politics of treaties.  He teaches courses on the Presidency, Congress, media politics, and the policy process.

Peake is coauthor of two books, including Breaking Through the Noise: Presidential Leadership, Public Opinion, and the News Media (2011, Stanford University Press, with Matthew Eshbaugh-Soha) and Treaty Politics and the Rise of Executive Agreements: International Commitments in a System of Shared Powers (2009, The University of Michigan Press, with Glen S. Krutz).  His research has appeared in a range of scholarly journals, including The American Political Science Review, Political Research Quarterly, Political Communication, Presidential Studies Quarterly, International Journal of Press/Politics, American Politics Research, International Interactions and Politics & Gender, among others.  His current research projects include an analysis of press framing in the 2008 presidential elections (w/ Melissa Miller) and studies of recent politics on international agreements in the US Congress (w/ Glen Krutz).

Office Phone:

(864)656-4653

Email:

jpeake@clemson.edu

http://people.clemson.edu/~jpeake/

Bruce W. Ransom (Professor, Ph.D., Virginia)
Chair of the interdisciplinary Ph.D. Program in Policy Studies.  Author of “The National Voter Registration Act and National-State Conflict: The Case of South Carolina” in Public Budgeting & Financial Management: An International Journal and “Mayor W. Wilson Goode of Philadelphia: The Technocrat” in The National Political Science Review.  Co-author of “State Urban Policy: ‘New’ Federalism in Virginia, New Jersey and Florida” in Policy Studies Review and “Growth in Party Competition and the Transformation of Southern Politics” in The American Review of Politics. Contributor to Public Policies for Distressed Communities Revisted, Gambling and Public Policy: International Perspectives, The New Black Politics: The Search for Political Power, and New Jersey Profiles in Public Policy. Teaches state and local government, federalism and intergovernmental relations, urban politics, and African American politics.

Office Phone:

(864)656-1650

Email:

bii@clemson.edu

Joseph Stewart, Jr. (Professor, Ph.D., Houston)
He has previously held teaching or research positions at the University of New Mexico, University of Texas at Dallas, Educational Testing Service, West Virginia University, University of New Orleans, Rice University, and Wichita State University. His research interest spans civil rights policies, racial and ethnic politics, public policy, and educational policy. His work has appeared in a variety of political science, education, public policy, public administration, public law, and interdisciplinary journals. Three of his books—Race, Class, and Education (with Ken Meier and Robert England, 1989), The Politics of Hispanic Education (with Ken Meier, 1991), and “Can We All Get Along?" Racial and Ethnic Minorities in American Politics (with Paula McClain, 4th ed., 2006)—have received Myers Awards as “Outstanding Books on the Subject of Human Rights in the United States.” In addition, he is the co-author of Public Policy: An Evolutionary Approach (with James Lester, West, 2nd ed., 2000), which was published in Chinese editions in 2001 and 2004.

Stewart currently serves on the Editorial Board of the University Press of Virginia’s "Race, Ethnicity and Politics" Series and is Co-Editor of Rowman & Littlefield’s “Spectrum” Series. Stewart is the Past President of the Southwestern Political Science Association and Southwestern Social Science Association and Past Vice-President of the Southern Political Science Association.

Stewart also works with K-12 teachers to improve pre-collegiate civic education. He is the former “Chief Reader” for the College Board’s AP® Government and Politics exams and has served as a judge at the State of New Mexico, State of South Carolina, State of Georgia, and National finals of the Center for Civic Education’s “We the People” Program. Stewart was honored with an AP® Special Recognition Award by the College Board Southwestern Regional Office (2000).

Office Phone:

(864)656-3234

Email:

jstewa4@clemson.edu

Zeynep Taydas (Assistant Professor, Ph.D., Missouri-Columbia)
She earned a B.A. in political science from Middle East Technical University, Turkey in 2000, and M.A. (2002) and Ph.D. form the University of Missouri-Columbia (2006).  Her research focuses on international and internal conflict and third party interventions in ethnic conflicts.  More specifically, she investigates the determinants of civil wars and the conditions that affect the duration and termination of civil wars.  She is the coauthor of a book (with Patrick James and David Carment) titled Who Intervenes? Ethnic Conflict and Interstate Crisis (Columbus, OH: Ohio State University Press, 2006), and an article (with Yasemin Akbaba and Patrick James) "One Sided Crises in World Politics: A Study of Oxymoron, Violence and Outcomes" in International Interactions 32(3), 2006.  Teaches classes on International Relations, International and internal conflict, and the European Union.  She received the 2009 Undergraduate Teaching Excellence Award from the College of Business and Behavioral Sciences, Clemson University.

Office Phone:

(864)656-1097

Email:

ztaydas@clemson.edu

BB&T Research Professor in the Department of Political Science at Clemson University and the Executive Director of the Clemson Institute for the Study Capitalism.  He has also been a visiting scholar at Princeton and Harvard universities and at the University of London.

Professor Thompson is the author of Neoconservatism: An Obituary for an Idea and the award-winning John Adams and the Spirit of Liberty.  He is the editor of three books:  The Revolutionary Writings of John Adams, Antislavery Political Writings, 1833-1860: A Reader, and Freedom and School Choice in American Education (with Greg Forster).  Thompson was also an associate editor for the four-volume Encyclopedia of the Enlightenment.  He is currently completing two book projects: one on “The Ideological Origins of American Constitutionalism” and the other on "Political Philosophy in the Age of Revolution." 

Dr. Thompson is also an occasional writer for The Times Literary Supplement of London.  He has lectured around the U.S. and abroad on a range of subjects from education reform and the moral foundations of capitalism to the American founding and the rights of children.  His op-ed essays have appeared in scores of newspapers in the U.S. and abroad.  His lectures on the political thought of John Adams have twice appeared on C-SPAN.

Dr. Thompson teaches courses in political philosophy.

Office Phone:

(864)656-1724

Email:

tthomp2@clemson.edu

Jointly appointed in the Clemson Institute for the Study of Capitalism.  Earned B.A. from Miami University of Ohio in Political Science, History, and Philosophy (2003), M.A.and Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Madison (2008).  He is the author of a forthcoming piece on J.S. Mill in Review of Politics and is currently revising a manuscript titled Antagonism in the Liberal Tradition.  His research interests are in the history of modern political thought, particularly British liberal thought, as well as theories of republicanism.  Teaches courses in political philosophy.

(864)656-3149

Email:

bturne2@clemson.edu

Adam L. Warber (Associate Professor, Ph.D., Texas A&M University)
Author of Executive Orders and the Modern Presidency:  Legislating from the Oval Office.  His research and teaching interests focus on the American presidency, public policy, and research methods.  He also teaches doctoral seminars in the Policy Studies program.

Office Phone:

(864)656-1828

Email:

awarber@clemson.edu

J. David Woodard (Professor, Ph.D., Vanderbilt)
Co-author of The Conservative Tradition in America, and author of The New Southern Politics, and The America that Reagan Built.  He recently co-authored a book with Senator Jim DeMint entitled: Why We Whisper: Losing our Right to Say It’s Wrong.  He currently has two books under contract.  The Politics of Morality is a portrait of seven conservative religious leaders active in American politics, and he has been commissioned to write a biography of Ronald Reagan for the Praeger/Greenwood biography series. 

He is also a political consultant for Republican candidates.  He was the campaign manager, consultant, or pollster for the following:  Bob Inglis for Congress, 1992; Lindsey Graham for Congress, 1994 and 1996; Jim DeMint for Congress, 1998; Bob Peeler for Lt. Governor, 1994; Bob Inglis for Senate, 1998; and George W. Bush for President in 2000, Jim DeMint for Senate, 2004, David McGrew for Congress, 2006, Trey Gowdy for Congress 2010, Jeff Duncan for Congress, 2010.  Both Mr. Duncan, and gubernatorial nominee Vincent Sheheen (2010) are former students, and graduates of the Department of Political Science at Clemson.

Alumni Master Teacher and 1997-98 Fluor Daniel Excellence-in-Teaching Awardee.  Teaches political theory, political parties, political leadership, politics and film, and American government.

Office Phone:

(864)656-3551

Email:

judithw@clemson.edu