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After completing his PhD at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, Dr. Reich joined the faculty at KU in 1995 and has been with the International Studies Program since 2005. His research centers on the challenges of creating democratic institutions such as party systems and constitutions in the wake of authoritarian rule. Dr. Reich teaches various courses in comparative politics and international studies, including Approaches to International Studies, Political Dynamics of Latin America, and Politics and Problems of Developing Countries.

Noel serves as the academic advisor for graduate students in the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the Edwards Campus and assists with recruiting and the application process for prospective students. At KU, she previously worked as a writing consultant with the Writing Center and as a teaching assistant in the American Studies Program. She has a Master’s in Urban Planning (KU, 2001) and is currently working on PhD in American Studies. Her dissertation research investigates questions of citizenship and belonging related to transnational migration through the perspectives and experiences of Brazilians living in the United States.

Faculty

As an interdisciplinary program that has been part of KU for less than a decade, International Studies does not have its own core faculty. Instead, we draw on faculty from across the University of Kansas and elsewhere to offer courses on a wide array of topic areas and world regions. The faculty profiled below are those who are teaching or have taught courses in international studies in 2007.

Elif Andac received her doctorate from the University of Washington and is Assistant Professor of Sociology at KU. Her research focuses on state building processes, nationalism, and ethnic and religious politics in the Balkans and the Middle East. Articles currently in progress or under review for publication include “Alternative paths to nation-state building: On the unmixing of Turkey, Yugoslavia and Syria,” “Political and Economic Inclusion of Religious groups in secular states: Radical Islamic Movements in Algeria, Iran and Turkey,” and “Questioning Economic Determinants of Democracy: The link between Political Culture and Social Unrest in Democratization.” She is currently teaching Sociology of the Middle East.

Robert F. Baumann has served as the Director of Graduate Degree Programs for the Command General Staff College (CGSC) at Ft. Leavenworth since 2003 after 19 years as a member of the CGSC’s Department of Military History. In 1995, Baumann was recognized as TRADOC and CGSC Civilian Instructor of the Year. He received a B.A. in Russian from Dartmouth College (1974), an M. A. in Russian and East European Studies from Yale University in 1976, and a Ph.D. in History from Yale University (1982). He has studied and taught abroad numerous times, including as a Fulbright-Hayes award recipient In addition many scholarly articles and book chapters, Baumann is the author of Russian-Soviet Unconventional Wars in the Caucasus, Central Asia, and Afghanistan (Combat Studies Institute, 1993), as well as coauthor of Invasion, Intervention, Intervasion: A Concise History of the U.S. Army in Operation Uphold Democracy (CSI, 1998), My Clan Against the World: A History of US and Coalition Forces in Somalia 1992-1994 (CSI 2004), Armed Peacekeepers in Bosnia (CSI 2004). He received a 1999 research grant from the United States Institute of Peace in Washington, D.C. and is also writer-producer of a documentary film on the U.S. and multinational peacekeeping mission in Bosnia. With the start of military operations in Afghanistan in 2001, Baumann conducted an OPD for the 10th Mountain Division at Fort Drum just prior to their deployment. Subsequently, in March 2002, MG Hagenbeck, CG of the 10th, asked Baumann to come to Bagram to brief the international staff on the Soviet experience in Afghanistan and to help collect the history of Operation Anaconda.

Hannah Britton earned her PhD at Syracuse in 1999 and is Assistant Professor of women’s studies and political science at KU. Her research focuses broadly on the role of gender in African politics. She is interested in the strategies used by women to gain positions in national office, to rewrite constitutions, and to affect legislative change; a smaller project examines organizational strategies used by groups in South Africa fighting gender-based violence. Dr. Britton has recently co-edited two books, one on gender and civil society in post-apartheid South Africa and one on women in Africa parliaments.  Her teaching takes place at the intersection of women’s studies, political science, and African studies and she regularly teaches courses on African Politics, Women in Global Politics, Comparative Politics, Politics of the Developing Regions, and International Political Economy.

Darlene Budd teaches INTL 706, Comparative Governments, at KU and is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Central Missouri State University. She received her PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, completing a dissertation entitled The Road to Gender Empowerment in Japan: Institutional and Attitudinal Barriers. She is the author of “The Roma: A “European Minority? The EU Accession Process and the Roman Minority in new, Soon-to-be, and Hopeful Member States” (with Maria Spirova) that will appear in the 2007 volume of Comparative European Politics and has submitted an article entitled “Does It Even Matter?” The Effects of Multicultural Education on Tolerance” (with Shari Bax) to the Journal of Political Science Education. Her teaching and research interests include Asian politics, comparative politics, Japanese gender policies, democratization and minority politics.

Tamara Leah Falicov is Associate Professor of Film Studies and has been KU since 1998. She received her doctorate in Communication from UC San Diego, where she wrote a dissertation on state cultural policy in relation to the contemporary film industry in Argentina. Dr. Falicov’s specialty is Latin American Cinema, with particular focus on the film histories of Argentina and Cuba. Among other projects, she has researched and written on young videographers in Patagonia who are creating a vision of the land not normally portrayed in Patagonia, Argentina. Her book manuscript, “The Cinematic Tango: Contemporary Argentine Film” was published by Wallflower Press (London) in 2006. She was awarded a sabbatical and a Hall Center for the Humanities Research Fellowship for the 2006-07 year to complete a book on the Latin American film market and its relationship to the United States and Spain. A recent profile of Dr. Falicov is available here.

Dr. Rose Greaves is Professor Emerita of History at KU and a specialist on the Middle East. During her many years of service at KU, Dr. Greaves has held visiting professorships at the University of Oxford and the University of Cambridge, UK, at the United States Army Special Warfare Center and School in Fort Bragg, and at the United States Military Academy in West Point. She has also served as the company historian for the British Petroleum Company and has been a Fulbright Scholar. Dr. Greaves continues to teach the courses History of the Middle East since World War II and Islamic Fundamentalism for the International Studies Program.

Richard Lynn Ground is teaching INTL 703, The World Economy, during the spring 2007 semester while also working with KU’s Center for International Business, Education, and Research (CIBER) to develop the conference “Helping Failed States Recover.” His graduate educational background (University of California, Berkeley) is in business and agricultural economics and built on undergraduate work in history, political science and Spanish at KU. He worked for the United Nations Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean for 10 years, and for the World Bank for 16 years in the Caribbean, Latin American, Asia, and Africa, most recently serving as the Country Manager for Sierra Leone and Principal Economist for the Poverty Reduction and Economic Management Network.

Eric Hanley received his PhD from UCLA and is Associate Professor of Sociology at KU. His recent research projects include the role of international agencies in economic transformations in Eastern Europe, the rise of entrepreneurship in the former Soviet bloc, and household survival strategies in contemporary Russia. He is also interested in globalization, more specifically the role that experts play in global social movements. Recent publications include "Property Transformation in Postcommunist Hungary" (American Journal of Sociology, 2002), "A Party of Workers or a Party of Intellectuals" (Social Forces, 2003), "The Restoration of Pre-Communist Property Relations in Eastern Europe" (European Sociological Review, 2004), and "Recruitment in to the East European Communist Elite" (Research in Social Stratification and Mobility, 2005). He teaches courses in the areas of globalization and nationalism for International Studies.

Ebenezer Obadare received his PhD from the London School of Economics and is Assistant Professor of sociology at KU. He has been a Ford Foundation International Fellow and Lord Dahrendorf (PhD) Scholar in the Centre for Civil Society, Department of Social Policy, London School of Economics and Political Science. He is a co-recipient of the Macarthur Foundation Research and Writing Grant for a project entitled, “Between the State and ‘Western Union’: Migration, Transnational Resource Flow and the Paradoxes of Citizenship in Nigeria.” His research areas include transnational migration, civil society, social change, and development in Africa. He will teach the course The Sociology of Transmigration for international studies in fall 2007.

Philip A. Schrodt is Professor of Political Science at KU. He received his M.A. in mathematics and a Ph.D. in political science from Indiana University. Before coming to the University of Kansas in 1988, he taught for 11 years at Northwestern University in Illinois, where he helped develop Northwestern's multidisciplinary program in international studies. He has also taught at the Naval Postgraduate School in Monterey, California, the American University in Cairo, the University of California at Davis, Bir Zeit University in the West Bank, and spent a year at the University of Lancaster (England) on a NATO Postdoctoral fellowship. Dr. Schrodt's major areas of research are formal models of political behavior, with an emphasis on international politics and political methodology. He teaches a variety of courses in international relations, with an emphasis on international conflict and U.S. defense policy.

Brent J. Steele is assistant professor of political science at KU. He earned his doctorate from the University of Iowa and master's from the University of Northern Iowa. He has published studies of historical international relations and is interested in international ethics and studies and in NGOs and international actors.

Hal Wert teaches INTL 705, Globalization in History, for International Studies at KU and is Professor of History at the Kansas City Art Institute. Dr. Wert received his PhD in history from the University of Kansas, and his research areas include US policy during World War II, Eastern Europe, and President Herbert Hoover. Among other awards, he has received 3 Fulbright/Hays Group Project Awards to Eastern Europe; a Hoover Institution Summer Fellowship at Stanford University; an International Research Exchange Boards (IREX) grant; a grant from the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, Smithsonian Institute; and Rockefeller Archives Center Research Grant. His publications include "Negotiating Survival: American Efforts to Aid to Poles in the Government General," in The Historian (1994-95); "The Dissolution of Yugoslavia: A Balkan Tragedy," Southeast European Monitor (1996); "Freedom from Want: Holland during the Food Crisis in Northwest Europe, 1944-1948," in Victory in Europe! (University Press of Kansas, 2000); and Hoover: The Fishing President (2005). In 2000 he received the Missouri Governor's Award for Outstanding Teaching.

Catherine Weaver is Assistant Professor of Political Science at KU and serves on the program advisory board for the International Studies Program. She received her PhD in political science from the University of Wisconsin. Since joining the faculty at KU in 2002, she has received numerous fellowships and awards in areas such as international curriculum development, academic advising, a global development speakers series as well as grants to support her research. Her book manuscript, The Poverty of Reform: The Rhetoric and Reality of the World Bank, is under review at Cornell and the article, “The Social Construction of the Good Governance Agenda: A Battle of Development Ideas in the World Bank,” is forthcoming in Rawi Abdelal, Mark Blyth and Craig Parsons, eds. Constructivist Political Economy.

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