SPOTLIGHT: Kommers Honored in German Symposium

The American Academy in Berlin, Germany's Wissenschaftskolleg (Institute for Advanced Study), and other prestigious scholarly institutions in Germany recently hosted a symposium in honor of Donald P. Kommers, Joseph and Elizabeth Robbie Professor of Political Science and professor of law emeritus at the University of Notre Dame and a long-time APSA member.

The symposium, “The Curious Life of the Grundgesetz [German constitution] in America,” was held in Berlin in December 2012. The event celebrated Kommers' extraordinary body of work in German constitutional scholarship during the year of his 80th birthday.

This was not the first time Germany has paid tribute to Kommers and his scholarship. In 2010, the German government presented him with the Distinguished Service Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany for having “remarkably enriched both the American and German legal systems and building a bridge between our countries as few others have.”

And a few years ago, when the country sought to commission a new official translation of its constitution, Basic Law for the Federal Republic of Germany, it was Kommers who got the call.

Over the past five decades, he has written scores of articles and 10 major books, one of which has had a tremendous impact on the popularity of German constitutional scholarship in America—the acclaimed Constitutional Jurisprudence of the Federal Republic of Germany, third edition (Duke University Press 2012).

“Since the late 1960s, Germany's Constitution and its Federal Constitutional Court have replaced the US Supreme Court and our Constitution as the leading models of constitutional governance around the world,” Kommers says.

Indeed, in the introductory remarks, it was noted that “Don is the single most important commentator on German constitutional law in the English language.”

Kommers says that it was his early interest in both constitutional studies and German politics that prompted him to compare American and German constitutional case law.

“Our Constitution is really one of liberty: we place an emphasis on liberty, and particularly free speech,” he says. “In Germany, it's very different; theirs is a constitution of dignity. The very first article of the constitution says that human dignity shall be inviolable; to respect and protect it will be the duty of all state authorities.”

SPOTLIGHT: Feiock Appointed Chair

Richard Feiock has been appointed to the Jerry Collins Eminent Scholar Chair in Public Administration and Policy at Florida State University. The Collins Chair endowment is supported by a $1.4 million bequest to the College of Social Science and Policy at Florida State University. Professor Feiock will also direct the FSU Local Governance Research Laboratory.

SPOTLIGHT: Barker Director of the Institute for Social Research

David C. Barker has been named director of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at Sacramento State.

Barker is the third director of the Institute, which was founded in 1989 as a resource for nonprofits, government agencies, and the academic world. Its task is to perform surveys and program evaluations for a range of clients, including local, state, and federal government agencies; nonprofits; and private companies.

Barker hopes to launch an annual student survey on the California State University's 23 campuses.

“The value would be twofold,” he says. “For the CSU, it helps them understand what students like and don't like about facilities, administration, services, faculty, and so on, and it would enable the CSU as a whole to identify what certain campuses are doing better than others so they can learn from each other. The value to students and taxpayers is that it would be an accountability mechanism so they can keep an eye on the CSU and see where their money is going.”

Barker will continue to support the Institute's ongoing work, including its many contracts with state agencies and its long-term evaluation of the CSU's Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation.

In addition, ISR has expanded its partnership with Sacramento State's Center for California Studies to conduct a statewide survey on how political misinformation affects municipal health and to provide survey services for its Envisioning California Conference. ISR also provides survey support and program evaluation for the state Office of Suicide Prevention's efforts to decrease suicides among gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender teenagers. Barker is committed to maintaining the Institute's historical relationship with state government agencies, particularly the Department of Social Services and the Environmental Protection Agency, with which ISR has contracted on numerous large projects.

Barker also plans to expand ISR's Election Data Archive, which contains information on all Sacramento city, county, and school district elections for the past 19 years. He wants to add to the data and find ways to make it user-friendly for lawmakers, researchers, and students.

One of Barker's priorities is to collaborate with more faculty members on upcoming projects. He is working with professors in the departments of psychology, social work, government, and health administration on a proposal to study the impact of social culture on health risks. He is also working with faculty from economics and public policy and administration on a proposal to study economic development in suburban settings.

Barker is the author of two books about American politics: Rushed to Judgment: Talk Radio, Persuasion, and American Behavior (2002) and Representing Red and Blue: How the Culture Wars Change the Way Citizens Speak and Politicians Listen, written with Christopher Jan Carman (2012).

Barker taught political science at the University of Pittsburgh for 14 years before becoming the Institute's director in December 2012.

“This (job) provides me with the opportunity to do a lot more work that is interdisciplinary. And another thing that is exciting is that most of what we do is applied research, which means that when we put out a report on our work, we can see it making an impact. We see policy being affected by the work we do,” he says.

Cowles Appointed Dean at Hood College

Maria Green Cowles has been named dean of the Graduate School at Hood College. Cowles comes to Hood from American University in Washington, DC, where she held a number of teaching and administrative positions, including associate dean for academic affairs at the School of International Service and associate director of the university's honors program.

Cowles earned her doctorate in international relations and her master's degree in European integration at American, and her bachelor's degree in international business and French from Concordia College in Moorhead, Minnesota. She served as an SSRC-MacArthur Fellow at Harvard University, University of California-Berkeley and the Centre for European Policy Studies in Brussels, Belgium; and as a postdoctoral Fellow at the Georgetown Center for German and European Studies and the American Institute for Contemporary German Studies in Washington, DC.

She is a prolific author in the areas of US-European relations, the European Union, international relations, governance, public policy, business-government relations and e-commerce. She has co-edited three books on Europe and the EU and has written scores of articles, book chapters, and papers.

Mitchell Received Susan Northcutt Award

Sara Mitchell, department of political science at the University of Iowa, received the Susan Northcutt Award. “The Susan S. Northcutt Award was established in 2003 by the Women's Caucus for International Studies (WCIS) to honor the Caucus' founder, Susan S. Northcutt. The award recognizes a person who actively works towards recruiting and advancing women and other minorities in the profession, and whose spirit is inclusive, generous, and conscientious. Furthermore, the recipient has made significant contributions through service and competence in the profession of international studies and to the International Studies Association.

Rousseau Appointed Dean

David L. Rousseau has been appointed Dean of the Rockefeller College of Public Affairs and Policy at the University at Albany.

Rousseau joined the university in 2005, and has served in various leadership roles including director of graduate studies, chair of the department of political science, and the college's interim dean since July 2011. Prior to arriving at the University at Albany, Rousseau taught at the University of Pennsylvania and the University at Buffalo (SUNY).

As the Dean of Rockefeller College, Rousseau will shape its strategic growth and oversee more than 40 tenured and tenure-track faculty. He will also provide guidance for the college's 10 research centers and institutes.

New appointments

Mitchell A Orenstein, professor and chair, department of political science, Northeastern University

Promotions

Rob A. DeLeo, lecturer of global studies, Bentley University

Lesley DeNardis, associate professor with tenure, department of government and politics, Sacred Heart University

Denise Garcia, associate professor with tenure, department of political science, Northeastern University

Nadia Rabesahala Horning, associate professor with tenure, department of political science, Middlebury College

David Lazer, full professor, department of political science, Northeastern University

Tatiana Vargas Maia, assistant professor at La Salle University College- Unilasalle, Brazil

Awards

Sharon Werning Rivera, associate professor, department of government, Hamilton College, a 2012-13 Fulbright U.S. Scholar to the Russian Federation

Retirement

Saul Brenner, professor of political science, University of North Carolina, Charlotte. In 2007 he was the recipient of the Lifetime Achievement Award given by the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association.

In the News

Thomas E. Mann and Norman J. Ornstein, in Five Myths about the 112 ^thCongress in the Washington Post, January 6, 2013, correct a few myths about Congress and what lies ahead in 2013.

Bruce Altschuler, professor of political science at SUNY Oswego, was featured on WSYR-TV in Syracuse, January 22, 2013, analyzing the prospects for the proposals raised by Barack Obama in his second inaugural address.

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