The European Studies Center/European Union Center of Excellence and Pi Sigma Alpha, the Political Science honor society, are sponsoring a roundtable discussion on the current state of the global economy and the policies that states have undertaken to steer through the collapse of the financial sector.

The format of the program is a moderated discussion, wherein a pair of moderators poses questions to the panel of distinguished speakers, who will then have an opportunity to respond to the question or to comments from other speakers.

The 1.5 hour forum is free and open to the public and will be followed by a reception with an opportunity for speakers and guests to mingle.

Date: Tuesday, November 10, 6:00-8:00 pm

Place: Room 4130 Posvar Hall

Distinguished speakers include:
Dr. Svitlana Maksymenko, Department of Economics, University of Pittsburgh
Ambassador Dan Simpson, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Dr. Josephine Olson, International Business Center, University of Pittsburgh
Hon. Tim Murphy, US House of Representatives (PA-14) (invited)

This is the first in a series of occasional events designed to promote a greater awareness of and interest in topics relating to international relations.

Undergraduate Advising and Enrollment

Advising and enrollment for Spring Term 2010 begins in late October; more details will be sent to PS majors via e-mail in late September 2009. Course descriptions are typically published in early October for the Spring Term, early February for the Summer Term/Sessions, and early March for the Fall Term.

Changes in Advising and Enrollment
Several changes in the program will be apparent to continuing students this term. First, as many of you know, Professor Donaldson retired this year after more than 40 years of service to the department and the university community. While we lose his inimitable sense of humor, his cheery commitment to students, and the institutional memory, we are happy to announce the arrival of Olivia Newman as the new advisor. Students who had previously been assigned to Prof. Donaldson are now assigned to Libby; students assigned to Patrick Altdorfer continue to advise through him. Newly declared majors will be assigned an advisor in September and will be informed via e-mail.

Another big change this term is the advent of self-service enrollment, whereby students will choose and process their Spring Term courses online (using the Pitt Portal). The major difference from previous semesters is that students will process their registration online at their convenience, any time after their "enrollment appointment" (date and time after which they may self-enroll), rather than having an advisor process it for them during their advising appointment. However, the advising appointment is still mandatory; the advising hold that prevents self-service enrollment will only be lifted for students who have met with their departmental advisor. Students who do not see their advisor will be unable to enroll until they have done so, regardless of the date of the student's enrollment appointment.

This term, the department is also instituting group orientation sessions for PS majors. The sessions are designed to introduce students to the advising staff, to provide general information about the major, and to answer questions that students frequently have about the major, career possibilities, graduate study, and the like. While the sessions will be open to all majors, they may be especially appealing to students who declared the PS major after 5 September 2008. (Check your progress report if you are unsure about your declaration date; it is the first time that PS is listed as your "plan.") If you are in this camp, you are working on the 33-credit plan. Those who declared the major on or before 5 September 2008 have the option of completing either the "old" pattern (of 24 credits, or 30 credits for Departmental Honors) or the current (33-credit) program.

All students will receive more information on these changes from the PS department as the term progresses. In the mean time, if you have questions that require immediate attention, feel free to stop in and see Patrick or Libby, who are available to help you to review your academic progress, map out coursework for coming semesters, or simply to discuss career options or anything that is on your mind.

To schedule an advising appointment, call the PS department receptionist (412-648-7250), who handles scheduling of all appointments.

Research in International Politics (RIP) Speaker Series:
Patrick Regan, Professor of Political Science, Binghamton University (SUNY)
"Rebellion, Repression, Civil War"

Friday, September 18, 2009 / 12:00-1:30 PM / Room 4500 WWPH

Robert Erikson, Professor of Political Science, Columbia University
"Vietnam Lottery Status and Political Behavior"

Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Colloquium on American Politics and Society (CAPS) Speaker Series:
John Aldrich, Pfizer-Pratt University Professor of Political Science, Duke University
"Party and Democracy in the South in the Jacksonian, Post-Reconstruction and Post WWII Eras"

Friday, March 20, 2009

Jonathan Harris, Professor of Political Science
"President Medvedev’s Program of Democratic Reforms in Russia and Why You Don’t Know About It"

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

David Plouffe, Campaign Manager for President Barack Obama
"Organizing a Modern Political Campaign"

Monday, February 23, 2009

Research in International Politics (RIP) Speaker Series:
Stephen Gent, Asst. Prof. of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"The Effectiveness and Pursuit of Binding Conflict Management"

Friday, February 20, 2009

Research in International Politics (RIP) Speaker Series:
David Andrew Singer, Asst. Prof. of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Remittances, Government Policymaking, and the Global Economy"

Friday, January 23, 2009

Womens' Studies Brown Bag lunch series:
Susan Hansen, Prof. of Political Science
"Gender and the 2008 Presidential Election"

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

American Politics Workshop:
Jonathan Woon, Assistant Prof. of Political Science
"The Timing of Congressional Appropriations"

Wednesday, October 8, 2008

Robert Putnam, Prof. of Political Science, Harvard University
"American Grace: The Changing Role of Religion in American Communities"

Friday, September 26, 2008

Colloquium on American Politics (CAPS) Speaker Series:
Charles R. Shipan, Ira J. and Nicki Harris Professor of Social Science, University of Michigan
"When the Smoke Clears: Learning, Experience, and the Diffusion of Youth Access Laws"

Friday, September 19, 2008

New Methods in Political Science Speaker Series:
Michael M. Ting, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science, Columbia University and SIPA
"Distributive Politics with Primaries"

Friday, April 18, 2008

Colloquium on American Politics and Society (CAPS) Speaker Series:
Jennifer Eberhardt, Assoc. Prof. of Psychology, Stanford University
"Criminalization and Dehumanization of Blacks in the Modern Era"

Friday, April 11, 2008

Colloquium on American Politics and Society (CAPS) Speaker Series:
E. Scott Adler, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder
"A Governing Theory of Legislative Organization"

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Research in International Politics (RIP) Speaker Series:
Emilie Hafner-Burton, Asst. Prof. of Public Policy and Politics, Princeton University
"Coercing Human Rights: How Powerful States Regulate Repression Through Preferential Trade Agreements"

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Research in International Politics (RIP) Speaker Series:
Sara Mitchell, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa
"Bargaining in the Shadow of International Courts: The Intersection of Domestic and International Law"

Friday, January 25, 2008

Colloquium on American Politics and Society (CAPS) Speaker Series:
John Hibbings, Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
"Liberals and Conservatives are Physiologically Different"

Friday, January 18, 2008

Steven Finkel, Daniel Wallace Chair in Political Science
"The Effects of U.S. Foreign Assistance on Democracy Building, 1990-2004"

Tuesday, January 8, 2008

Quan Li, Assoc. Prof., Pennsylvania State University
"Trading for Peace? Disaggregated Bilateral Trade and Interstate Military Conflict Initiation"

December 5, 2007

Daniel Vreeland, Assoc. Prof., Yale University
"Linkage Politics Across International Organizations: The UN Security Council, the IMF and the World Bank"

November 19, 2007

Daniela Donno, Yale University
"Defending Democratic Norms: Regional Intergovernmental Organizations, Domestic Opposition and Democratization after Flawed Elections"

November 14, 2007

Ahmer Tarar, Assoc. Prof., Texas A & M University
"Public Commitment in Crisis Bargaining" - Research in International Politics Speaker Series

April 6, 2007

Dr. Burt Monroe, Assoc. Prof. and Director of the Quantitative Social Science Initiative, Penn State University
"Analyzing Agendas and Representation through Automated Coding of Legislative Speech" - New Methods in Political Science Speaker Series

March 30, 2007

Nolan McCarty, Professor of Politics and Associate Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
"Does Gerrymandering Cause Polarization?"

March 23, 2007

Jennifer Victor, Asst. Prof. of Political Science
"Get to Know Your 2008 Presidential Candidates"
Guest speaker for monthly Pi Sigma Alpha meeting

March 21, 2007

Michael Goodhart, Asst. Prof. of Political Science and Director of Undergraduate Studies
"International Norms and National Sovereignty: the Case of the ICC"
Guest speaker for monthly Pi Sigma Alpha meeting

February 21, 2007

Ward Thomas, College of the Holy Cross
"Non-State Actor Violence and International Normative Change"

February 9, 2007

Curt Signorino, University of Rochester
"Back to the Future: Modeling Time Dependence in Binary Data"

January 26, 2007

Jana Grittersova, Cornell University
"Financial Interests and Exchange Rate Regime Choices in Transition Economics"

December 8, 2006

Despina Alexiadou, Duke University
"The Politics of Price Stability: The Role of Social Transfers in Monetary Management"

December 11, 2006

Julia Gray, University of California, Los Angeles
"The Company You Keep: How International Institutions Can Make Developing Countries Look Less Risky"

December 4, 2006

Christian Breunig, University of Washington
"Institutions, Attention, and Changes within National Budgets"

December 1, 2006

Marc Hetherington, Associate Professor, Vanderbilt University
"Divided We Stand: Authoritarianism, Polarization, and Political Conflict in the United States"

October 11, 2006

Daniel Y. Kono, Assistant Professor, University of California at Davis
"Beating the System or Fixing It? International Legal Institutions and Trade Cooperation under Anarchy"

October 6, 2006

Michael M. Ting, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science, Columbia University and SIPA
"Distributive Politics with Primaries"

Friday, April 18, 2008

Dr. Burt Monroe, Assoc. Prof. and Director of the Quantitative Social Science Initiative, Penn State University
"Analyzing Agendas and Representation through Automated Coding of Legislative Speech"

March 30, 2007

Curtis Signorino, University of Rochester.
"Back to the Future: Modeling Time Dependence in Binary Data"

You can read about Curt's work at http://www.rochester.edu/college/psc/signorino/.

January 26, 2007

Jim Vreeland, Yale University.
"Institutional Determinants of IMF Agreements"

You can read about Jim's work at http://pantheon.yale.edu/~jrv9.

April 7, 2006

Kevin Quinn, Harvard University.
Kevin spoke about Markov chain Monte Carlo methods. You can read about Kevin's work at http://www.people.fas.harvard.edu/~kquinn.

April 14, 2006

Michael Bailey, Georgetown University.
"Bridging Institutions and Time: Creating Comparable Preference Estimates for Presidents, Senators, Represenatives, and Judges, 1950-2002." You can read about Mike's work at http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/baileyma.

March 31, 2006

Craig Volden, The Ohio State University.
"Bargaining in Legislatures over Particularistic and Collective Goods." You can read about Craig's work, as well as download a copy of his paper, at http://psweb.sbs.ohio-state.edu/faculty/cvolden.

March 24, 2006

Jeff Gill, Associate Professor of Political Science, UC-Davis
"Bayesian Learning for Understanding Individual Human Behavior: Inference in a World of Uncertainty"

March 4, 2005

John Londregan, Professor of Political Science, Princeton University
"Urgencies, Gate Keeping, and Agenda Control in the Chilean Congress"

February 4, 2005

William Reed, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Rice University
"Avoiding Selection Bias in Political Science Research"

October 19, 2004

Patrick Regan, Professor of Political Science, Binghamton University (SUNY)
"Rebellion, Repression, Civil War"

Friday, September 18, 2009 / 12:00-1:30 PM / Room 4500 WWPH

Stephen Gent, Asst. Prof. of Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
"The Effectiveness and Pursuit of Binding Conflict Management"

Friday, February 20, 2009

David Andrew Singer, Asst. Prof. of Political Science, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"Remittances, Government Policymaking, and the Global Economy"

Friday, January 23, 2009

Emilie Hafner-Burton, Asst. Prof. of Public Policy and Politics, Princeton University
"Coercing Human Rights: How Powerful States Regulate Repression Through Preferential Trade Agreements"

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

Sara Mitchell, Associate Professor of Political Science, University of Iowa
"Bargaining in the Shadow of International Courts: The Intersection of Domestic and International Law"

Friday, January 25, 2008

Ahmer Tarar, Assoc. Prof., Texas A & M University
"Public Commitment in Crisis Bargaining"

April 6, 2007

Ward Thomas, Associate Professor, College of the Holy Cross
"Non-State Actor Violence and International Normative Change"

February 9, 2007

Daniel Y. Kono, Assistant Professor, University of California at Davis
"Beating the System or Fixing It? International Legal Institutions and Trade Cooperation under Anarchy"

October 6, 2006

Molly Cochran, Associate Professor, Sam Nunn School of International Affairs, Georgia Institute of Technology
"Conceptualizing the Power of Transnational Agents: Pragmatism and International Public Spheres"

April 12, 2006

Sebastian Rosato, Research Fellow, Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs;
JFK School of Government, Harvard University
"The Strategic Logic of European Integration"

January 27, 2006

John Aldrich, Pfizer-Pratt University Professor of Political Science, Duke University
"Party and Democracy in the South in the Jacksonian, Post-Reconstruction and Post WWII Eras"

Friday, March 20, 2009 / 1:30-3:00 PM / Room 4500 WWPH

Charles R. Shipan, Ira J. and Nicki Harris Professor of Social Science, University of Michigan
"When the Smoke Clears: Learning, Experience, and the Diffusion of Youth Access Laws"

Friday, September 19, 2008

Jennifer Eberhardt, Assoc. Prof. of Psychology, Stanford University
"Criminalization and Dehumanization of Blacks in the Modern Era"

Friday, April 11, 2008

E. Scott Adler, Assoc. Prof. of Political Science, University of Colorado at Boulder
"A Governing Theory of Legislative Organization"

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

John Hibbings, Professor of Political Science, University of Nebraska-Lincoln
"Liberals and Conservatives are Physiologically Different"

Friday, January 18, 2008

Nolan McCarty, Professor of Politics and Associate Dean, Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University
"Does Gerrymandering Cause Polarization?"

March 23, 2007

Brad T. Gomez, Visiting Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
"Rethinking Symbolic Racism: Evidence of Attribution Bias"

September 15, 2006

Forrest Maltzman, Professor, George Washington University
"Invitations and Signals: The Relationship Between the Solicitor General and the Supreme Court"

April 1, 2005

Diana Mutz, Samuel S. Stouffer Professor of Political Science and Communication, University of Pennsylvania

April 15, 2005

Walter Stone, Professor and Chair, Department of Political Science, UC-Davis
"Money, Entry, & Retirement: Reassessing Candidate Investment in US House Elections"

October 29, 2004

Other Lectures

Michael Goodhart, Asst. Prof. of Political Science and Director of Undergraduate
"International Norms and National Sovereignty: the Case of the ICC"
Guest speaker for monthly Pi Sigma Alpha meeting

February 21, 2007

Mark Hallerberg, Emory University
"A New Approach to the Role of Central Banks: Sending Signals to Voters In Europe"

Monday, April 10, 2006

Heather Larsen
"Bounded Rationality and Presidential Policy Attention"

Tuesday, October 25, 2005

Gisela Sin
"Separation of Power and Legislative Institutions: a Constitutional Theory of Legislative Organization"

Thursday, October 20, 2005

John Ferejohn, Carolyn Munro Professor of Political Science, Stanford University
"A Planning Theory of Legislation"

Friday, October 7, 2005

Jim Mosher, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Ohio University
"The Relationship between Trade Openness and the Size of Government Spending in Developed Democracies: Causal Direction"

Monday, January 31, 2005

John Scherpereel, Adj. Asst. Prof. of Political Science, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
"Europeanization and State Transformation in Central and Eastern Europe"

Friday, January 28, 2005

Dana Brown, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
"The New Politics of Welfare Reform in Post-Communist Europe"

Friday, January 21, 2005

Nicole Richardt, Northwestern University
"What Difference Does the European Union Make? Using European Law in the United Kindgom and Germany"

Wednesday, January 19, 2005

Robert Rohrschneider, Professor of Political Science, Indiana University
"Responsible Party Government? Explaining Party Stances on European Integration in Post-Communist Eastern Europe"

Monday, January 10, 2005

Chris Carman, Assistant Professor of Political Science
"Norms, Incentives and Institutions: On the Development of Cross Party Groups in the Scottish Parliament."

Tuesday, November 16, 2004

Taeko Hiroi, Ph.D. candidate
"Comparing the Components of Elections: The Local Vote, Nationalization, & Volatility."

Friday, November 12, 2004

Scott Morgenstern, Asst. Professor of Political Science, Duke University
"Comparing the Components of Elections: The Local Vote, Nationalization, & Volatility."

Friday, November 5, 2004

John Jackson, Professor of Political Science, University of Michigan
"Employment Change, Attitude Evolution and Voting During Poland's Transition: Longitudinal Evidence from 1988 to 1998."

Thursday, October 14, 2004

Dissertation Defenses

Lisa Pohlman London
"The Structure of Attitudes toward the European Union in the Czech Republic and Slovakia"
April 17, 2009

Liying Ren
"Surveying Public Opinion in Transitional China: An Examination of Survey Response”
April 16, 2009

Thomas Twiss
"Trotsky and the Problem of Soviet Bureaucracy"
April 16, 2009

Stacy Bondanella
"Intergovernmental Organizations and the Determinants of Member State Interest Convergence"
April 13, 2009