Michael Flynn Joins Faculty

We are pleased that Dr. Michael Flynn joined the department in fall 2014. Flynn was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Alabama in 2013-2014, and received his PhD from Binghamton University in 2013. He is already a highly accomplished scholar on US foreign policy issues, and thus a nice complement to our department and our Security Studies graduate programs.

Flynn will teach courses on US foreign policy, international conflict, and other aspects of international relations. He has published on a range of issues concerning US foreign policy decision-making and also international NGO activity in leading journals such as International Studies Quarterly, Political Research Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, and Foreign Policy Analysis.

Dr. Johnson wins William L. Stamey Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Advising

Dr. Laurie Johnson has won the College of Arts and Sciences most prestigious award for undergraduate advising, the William L. Stamey Advising Award. Dr. Johnson received the honor in recognition of the outstanding job she has done mentoring and advising not only Political Science students, but also students from all majors participating in KSU's Primary Text Program.

Dr. Johnson helped to create the Primary Text Program at KSU nearly a decade and a half ago, and she has served as the Director of the program ever since. She is known for giving focused attention to Political Science and Primary Text students, and for being an outstanding and accessible advisor. Dr. Johnson becomes the 16th faculty member to receive this award since it was established in 1999.

Model UN Team Re-Launched

Kansas State University's Model United Nations team has successfully returned to competition. The team won three awards at the 54th Midwest Model UN Conference in St. Louis in February and four awards at the American Model UN International in Chicago in November. These were the first Kansas State University teams to compete at Model UN competitions in over 30 years.

The team was relaunched by John Fliter Jr., associate professor of political science, as part of the activities associated with his term as the university's 2013-2014 Coffman Chair for Distinguished Teaching Scholars.

In Model UN competitions, teams typically role-play delegates to the UN. Each team is assigned certain countries to represent, and awards are given for team members who excel in their delegate roles. Kansas State University teams represented the Philippines, Czech Republic, Senegal and Ecuador in St. Louis and Congo, Malaysia, and Romania in Chicago. Both KSU teams were among the largest at each competition, underscoring the considerable student interest across campus in Model UN competitions.

The team hopes to compete in the St. Louis and Chicago competitions again in the next year.

Notable Alumni Visit Political Science Classes

Two notable KSU alumni recently returned to Manhattan and spoke to KSU Political Science classes. John Hofmeister, BA (1971) and MA (1973) in Political Science, former President of Shell Oil (2005-2008) and founder of citizens for Affordable Energy, spoke to students in POLSC 611 Legislative Processes on February 11, 2014. Just two weeks before the classes, John had been featured in a segment on CNN's Anderson Cooper news program on the influence that money has on Congressional politics. Students watched the CNN clip before John's talk and then asked a range of questions. John was also gracious enough to speak at a number of other venues on campus, including giving the Lou Douglas Lecture that evening. Talk about learning from a respected and knowledgeable source!

General Richard Myers (ret.), BS Mechanical Engineering (1965), spoke to students in POLSC 549 International Defense Strategies on February 7. General Myers served as 15th Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, the highest military position in the United States, from 2001 to 2005. Given his lengthy military career and his participation in a host of important foreign policy decisions, his insights were greatly appreciated by students. Again, an alumnus helped to give back one of the most valuable things former K-Staters have to offer our current generation of students - their insight and their knowledge.

Needless to say, both alumni visits were extremely successful and provided invaluable information and understanding for our students.

Internationally Recognized Speakers Visit the Department

Four internationally recognized speakers visited the department this academic year.

A. Cooper Drury, chair of the Department of Political Science at the University of Missouri, gave a talk on April 11. Drury is the editor of the International Studies Association (ISA) journal Foreign Policy Analysis and was named a Quincy Wright Distinguished Scholar by the International Studies Association-Midwest in 2013. He has published widely on the foreign policy process and economic sanctions and has served on numerous journal editorial boards, including those for International Studies Quarterly and International Interactions.

Amaney Jamal, a professor of political science at Princeton University, gave a talk on February 27, 2014 on US foreign policy and democratization in the Middle East. Jamal has a forthcoming book on the subject entitled "Of Empires and Citizens: Pro-American Democracy or No Democracy at All?" Named a Carnegie Scholar in 2005, Jamal is a well-known expert on the democratization process across the Middle East and the issues encountered by Arab Americans. Her book Barriers to Democracy won the Best Book Award in Comparative Democratization at the American Political Science Association.

Brianne Heidbreder & John Fliter win Prominent Teaching Awards

Dr. Brianne Heidbreder has received a William L. Stamey Award from KSU’s College of Arts and Sciences. The Stamey Award is the highest teaching honor given in our college. Dr. Heidbreder is known for her engaging and effective instruction style and her outstanding teaching in all types of classes, from large lecture halls to small seminars. We anticipate that Dr. Heidbreder will receive a number of additional teaching accolades in the years to come.

Dr. John Fliter, Jr. has received the foremost teaching honor given across all of Kansas State. He will serve as KSU's Coffman Chair for University Distinguished Teaching Scholars during the 2013-2014 academic year. Dr. Fliter has long been known as a dedicated and passionate professor, and has a well-deserved reputation for teaching excellence among students. His hard work and commitment to teaching have been recognized with this endowed chair, which honors him with the title University Distinguished Teaching Scholar for the remainder of his career. During his year in residence as the Coffman Chair, Dr. Fliter will share his ideas on the art of teaching to the K-State community in a widely publicized lecture as well as in a series of workshops.

Congratulations to Dr. Heidbreder and Dr. Fliter for adding to our department's rich history of excellence in the classroom!

Department Launches Online Graduate Certificate

The Department of Political Science recently introduced a new graduate Certificate in Public Administration. The certificate is designed to provide a high quality educational experience to public servants interested in furthering their credentials as well as other students who may have difficulty attending graduate classes on traditional “brick and mortar” college campuses. It provides the most fundamental courses that those in public service administration need to master in a widely accessible, interactive format. Busy professionals and those with a range of other time constraints are able to complete weekly coursework in the setting and at the time they choose in our new online courses while still being able to draw from valuable interaction with student peers and the course professor. We believe that the online graduate certificate in public administration will provide valuable knowledge for current and future public servants, and a worthwhile credential.

We are also developing non-credit course modules that will provide training on the legal issues that local government employees and administrators often encounter. Similar to our Public Administration Certificate courses, these non-credit course modules are also designed for busy professionals and will be offered as interactive, online courses. The modules have been endorsed by the Kansas League of Municipalities and will be included in their 2014 Municipal Leadership Academy. In the future, particular modules will allow practicing attorneys to earn Continuing Legal Education credit.

New Courses Offered in the Department

Department faculty have recently developed new courses that should be of wide interest. A course entitled Political Islam will be offered by Assistant Professor Sabri Ciftci in spring 2014. The course will explore the role that Islam may play in governance in Muslim societies and the extent to which the religion is compatible with democratization. Since it explores the philosophical foundations of Islamic views of governance as well as modern challenges, it will count toward either the comparative politics or a political thought upper level course requirement for majors. The course will be offered as a 600 level topics course in Spring 2014, and will become a regular online course option the following year.

Instructor Katharine Jackson has developed a new course entitled Local Government Law which will also be offered online in spring 2014 as a topics course. Local government law touches every aspect of our lives. Actions as simple as purchasing a latte from your local Starbucks’ drive-thru have been defined, shaped, and regulated by myriad local laws. At the same time, local government is the easiest point of access for citizens in a democracy. A recent City Attorney for the City of Manhattan, Dr. Jackson knows the intricacies of local government law extremely well. This course will also soon become a regular online option in our course catalog.

New courses have also been developed for our MPA students. Two of these new offerings are available this year as pro-seminar topics courses. Public Finance, offered by Assistant Professor Zhiwei Zhang this fall, examines the role and impact of governmental policy in a market economy.

Assistant Professor Josephine Schafer will offer a new course on Strategic Management of Public Organizations in spring 2014. It will examine how public managers identify, plan and accomplish public purposes in a sustainable fashion. Both of these courses will soon become part of our standard rotation of public administration courses.