SPOTLIGHT; Stevens Awarded Guggenheim Fellowship

In its eighty-ninth annual competition for the United States and Canada, the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation awarded Fellowships to a diverse group of 175 scholars, artists, and scientists. Appointed on the basis of prior achievement and exceptional promise, the successful candidates were chosen from a group of almost 3,000 applicants. PS included two awardees in our July issue, but overlooked the award in history to political scientist Jacqueline Stevens.

Jacqueline Stevens writes about political theories and practices of membership since antiquity. Her current studies of deportation law enforcement engage the quotidian of government documents revealing contemporary illegalities, including the unlawful deportation of United States citizens from the United States.

She is the author of Reproducing the State (Princeton University Press, 1999) and States Without Nations: Citizenship for Mortals (Columbia University Press, 1999) as well as the co-editor with Richard Falk and Balakrishnan Rajagopal of International Law and the Third World (Routledge, 2008).

Professor Stevens' work has appeared in the journals Political Theory, the American Political Science Review, the Journal of Political Philosophy, Social Text, Third World Quarterly, and many other scholarly venues, as well as in The Nation magazine and opinion pieces in the New York Times. Her blog, States Without Nations, provides real-time original research findings of government misconduct based on narratives from people detained and deported as well as policies and other data obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.

Stevens' current project, 200 Percent American, is a nonfiction narrative of the unlawful deportation of a US citizen to Mexico over his protests that he was born in North Carolina, spoke no Spanish, and had no relatives in Mexico. The rendering of Mark Lyttle's travels is influenced by Miguel Cervantes's Don Quixote and will be attentive to the toponyms of North America and other textual and legal legacies of the conquistadors and British explorers and their descendants.

Stevens is a professor in the political science department and member of the Legal Studies Advisory Board at Northwestern University. Since 2012 she has been the founding director of the Deportation Research Clinic at the Buffett Center for International and Comparative Studies, also at Northwestern. For more information, please visit http://www.jacquelinestevens.org.

SPOTLIGHT: Duke Provost Peter Lange Steps Down

Peter Lange, the longest-serving chief academic officer in Duke University's history and currently the longest serving Provost in the Association of American Universities, is stepping down from the provost post and returning to the faculty as a professor in June.

Lange, a political scientist interested in comparative politics and political economy, was named provost by then Duke President Nan Keohane in 1999. Next summer will mark the end of Lange's fifteenth year and third term.

“When I came to Duke, it was just emerging from being perhaps the leading university in the Southeast, and now we're a global university, among the top universities in the world,” Lange said. “It's exciting to be at a place that's changing and improving all the time, so open to innovation and experimentation.”

Lange also said that since he arrived at Duke 32 years ago, the campus has grown dramatically in its diversity and inclusiveness.

Lange has been recognized by the university for two major strategic thrusts. The first was the sustained building of an interdisciplinary culture for teaching, research and engagement with major global challenges which has become a distinctive feature of Duke's identity and an attraction for faculty and students. The other is leading Duke's global efforts, which includes the creation of DukeEngage, a program that fully funds summer service immersion opportunities, both at home and abroad, for select undergraduate students.

“The best education includes a substantial amount of engagement with the real world in which you really test and learn about ideas that you've learned in the classroom,” he said.

He also has led the both praised and criticized plan to launch a university campus in Kunshan, China. Duke Kunshan University is expected to open for classes starting in fall of 2014, after construction quality concerns delayed its opening.

More than 15 years ago, Lange, when still a regular faculty member, chaired the committee that produced the proposal for Curriculum 2000, which revised the curriculum for Duke Arts and Sciences undergraduates.

When it comes to employee numbers, nearly two-thirds of current faculty members were appointed during his tenure, as were all current deans, according to Duke.

During his years as provost, Lange also helped lead the charge to include more online materials in the classroom. He said this move toward more online instruction isn't meant to “fundamentally transform what Duke represents,” but to introduce new teaching methods to enrich the kind of teaching environment we already have.

He also oversaw campus expansion planning that added new academic, student life, library, and arts facilities.

During his Duke career, Lange served as special assistant to the provost for international affairs, as vice provost for academic and international affairs, and as a professor in Duke's department of political science. He chaired the political science department from 1996 to 1999.

Lange will now serve as the Thomas A. Langford University Professor at Duke. According to Lange's curriculum vitae, he arrived at Duke in 1981 from an associate professor of government position at Harvard.

SPOTLIGHT: Meernik Receives Fulbright

James Meernik, professor of political science at the University of North Texas (UNT), received a Fulbright Specialist Grant to work with colleagues at Soochow University in Taipei, Taiwan. The grant award is given for short-term faculty and professional exchanges, typically lasting two to six weeks, to facilitate new research topics and teaching methods. During his three-week appointment in October 2013, he lectured on issues concerning foreign policy, transitional justice, and US/Mexico relations, and he designed a peace studies and human rights course for both Soochow University and UNT students. Taiwan is committed to the advancement of democracy and human rights in the Asia-Pacific region. Soochow is the oldest private university in Taiwan, with an enrollment of about 14,000.

Lopez Heads Office of Immigrant Affairs

Linda Lopez, former associate dean for diversity and strategic initiatives at University of Southern California's Dornslife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences, was selected by Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to head the city's newly revived Office of Immigrant Affairs.

“Linda Lopez will focus on building a dual-purpose office to help people access services and drive policy to integrate immigrants into the social, political, cultural, and economic fabric of the city,” Garcetti said in a statement. “The Mayor's Office of Immigrant Affairs will play a critical role given L.A.'s large immigrant population, and the national spotlight on immigration legislation.”

In the past, the mayor has said he supports providing a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants.

Lopez received her PhD in political science from the University of Southern California. Lopez previously worked at the National Science Foundation in the Directorate for Social, Behavior and Economic Sciences.

“Part of my role in the office is going to have a one-stop shop for all L.A. immigrants—to really connect them with the city and services and local agencies,” said Lopez in an interview.

She pointed to a micro-lending program for immigrant businesspeople recently established in New York City as something that could be done in Los Angeles. “One of the things we want to do is to make sure that immigrants have access to capital,” she said.

Lopez said more than 1.5 million people in Los Angeles—or 40% of the city's population—were born outside of the country. Twelve percent are here legally, 12% are undocumented, and 16% are naturalized citizens.

Aloisi Joins Trinity

Rosa Aloisi, a native of Sicily, began her career as a lawyer before becoming a professor in Trinity University's political science department. After receiving her JD from the University of Messina, Aloisi's study of how leaders behave and comply with rules drew her into the field of political science, which prompted her to complete her PhD in political science at the University of North Texas.

Aloisi welcomes the switch from the courtrooms to the classrooms after working as a lawyer.

“It is my first year teaching in an environment with roughly twenty-five students in my class, and I have a great opportunity to work with them and become a part of the larger community at Trinity University,” Aloisi said.

She taught two sections of international politics and international law this semester.

PS Notes

Brent Nelsen, professor, department of political science at Furman University, was appointed by President Barack Obama to the Board of Directors of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) in April and confirmed by the US Senate in July 2013. Nelsen has served as the chair of the South Carolina Educational Television Commission since February 2011, a position to which he was appointed by Governor Nikki Haley.

Ana Alves joins the department of history, political science and Humanities at Lee University as an assistant professor of political science. Prior to Lee, Alves was a lecturer and teaching assistant at the University of Virginia and an adjunct professor at Pontificia Universidad Católica do Rio de Janeiro. Alves has conducted research in Argentina, Chile, Bolivia, Paraguay, Peru, and Ecuador.

She earned her PhD from the University of Virginia, an MA from Pontificia Universidade Catoìlica do Rio de Janerio, and a BA from Pontificia Universidade Catoìlica de Minas Gerais.

Omar Wasow joined the Princeton University political science faculty on September 1, 2013, after coming to Princeton as a senior research assistant and postdoctoral research associate. A specialist in race and ethnic politics and American political development, Wasow earned his bachelor's degree at Stanford and his PhD at Harvard.

Judithanne Scourfield McLauchlan, professor of political science and law at the University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, has declared her candidacy for the State Senate in Florida's 22nd District, composed of parts of Pinellas and Hillsborough counties. McLauchlan is a Fulbright Scholar, served on the board of directors for the League of Women Voters, and is a longtime Democratic operative. She will face incumbent Jeff Brandes, a Republican, in a district that has voted for Democratic candidates in the past several elections.

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