Barney Frank To Deliver Plenary Address at Annual Meeting in New Orleans
Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) will deliver a plenary address at APSA's 2012 Annual Meeting in New Orleans, Louisiana.
Over a 32-year career in the House, Frank has been a leader on issues of economic equality, urban affairs, affordable housing, and environmental protection. As ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, Frank sponsored and helped pass the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, a law the Washington Post called “the most sweeping overhaul of the nation's financial regulatory system since the Great Depression.”
One of the most prominent openly gay politicians in America and an advocate for ending discrimination against gays, lesbians, and transgendered individuals, Frank has sponsored numerous legislative initiatives on gay rights. He is currently one of the lead sponsors of the Respect for Marriage Act, which would overturn the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act.
Born in Bayonne, New Jersey, Frank completed a BA and JD at Harvard University, where he also pursued doctoral studies in government. In 2012, he announced his retirement from the House at the end of the current term.
PS Supplement Shifts to Online Journal
APSA has just launched Political Science Jobs, a new jobs-oriented professional journal connected to the APSA's web-based eJobs. The new journal, all online and accessible in real-time, replaces the printed PS Supplement, which featured active eJobs lists. The April 2012 PS Supplement marked the last issue containing job listings.
APSA launched the quarterly PS Supplement in 2008 in response to federal regulatory requirements tied to international hiring that imposed significant posting requirements, among other things, before hiring an immigrant alien into a US-based position. Recently, the rules changed after advocacy from the community of professional societies. The rules are now interpreted to allow posting jobs in an online or web-based professional journal, if certain conditions, such as posting for at least 30 days, are met. This change opens the door for APSA to move ahead with advances in the eJobs system and provide improved services for APSA members.
The new Political Science Jobs includes searchable access to active positions and monthly downloadable job listings — all free to APSA individual and departmental members. The APSA has maintained an open academic job market for many years, and this forms the next phase of these efforts. For more information about the new journal, please visit www.apsanet.org/jobs .
Look for Political Science Jobs, a monthly online journal of jobs in the profession.
ECPR Elects Simona Piattoni As Chair
On Saturday 14 April, following the European Consortium for Political Research (ECPR) Council elections of the previous day which saw seven new members of the executive committee elected (as well as one member re-elected), the new executive committee, in its first act, elected Simona Piattoni to be chair of ECPR for 2012–2015.
This is the first time in its 42-year history that the ECPR has elected a woman to be chair. Professor Piattoni said that she was deeply honored to have been elected to this prestigious position and thanked the new executive committee for expressing its confidence in her. She also thanked the outgoing executive committee which had originally elected her chair-designate, as well as the outgoing chair, Luciano Bardi, and the academic director, Martin Bull, for their advice and support in the past few months. She said that she would do everything she could in the coming three years to build on the achievements of previous executive committees as well exploring new possibilities and eventually laying down a road map for her successors to follow.
The new members of the executive committee are: Rudy Andeweg, Universiteit Leiden; Klaus Goetz, Universität Potsdam; Olafur Hardarson, University of Iceland; Knud Jorgensen, Aarhus Universitet; Richard Katz, Johns Hopkins University; Pippa Norris, Harvard University; Manuel Sanchez de Dios, Universidad Complutense de Madrid; and Luca Verzichelli, Università Degli Studi di Siena.
The new executive committee had a first introductory meeting in Antwerp, and its next meeting in Essex in June where it met with all the staff at central services. The outgoing Executive Committee received a formal vote of thanks from the ECPR Council. A smooth transition has been completed. Visit www.ecprnet.eu for additional details.
Virtual Brown Bag Discusses “New Job”
APSA hosted its first virtual “brown bag” session, “Landed a New Job: What Now?” April 25 from its Washington DC offices. During this online session, panelists reviewed strategies and tips for succeeding in a new job (academic and nonacademic), positioning oneself for tenure or promotion, and avoiding potential pitfalls. This interactive session also included questions and answers from graduate students and junior faculty
Panelists included Joshua Gordon, policy director, The Concord Coalition; David C. Wilson, associate professor, department of political science and international relations, University of Delaware, and was moderated byKimberly A. Mealy, APSA. This virtual brown bag session was sponsored by APS. The Collaboration Laboratory at American University and Syracuse University(COTELCO) provided software and technical support. The APSA Committee on Teaching and Learning and the APSA Departmental Services Committee also provided support. To hear the session online, or for further details, visit www.apsanet.org
Post-Soviet Affairs Invites Readers
Political scientists may be interested in the 2012 issues of the journal, Post-Soviet Affairs, now in its 20th year of publication. Most of the articles in Post-Soviet Affairs are written by political scientists and deploy theories and methodologies familiar to the political science community. In the first issue of 2012, David Cameron (Yale) and Mitchell A. Orenstein (Johns Hopkins SAIS) use quantitative data to determine the extent to which Russia has influenced the trend toward political authoritarianism among the non-Baltic post-Soviet states. Edward Schatz and Elena Maltseva (University of Toronto) draw on documentary and interview evidence to specify the role that elite actors' proactive framing of issues plays in enhancing regime survival in Kazakhstan's “soft authoritarian” context. Silvana Malle (University of Verona) follows with a panoramic survey of recent trends in the political economy of Russia. Oxana Shevel (Tufts University) completes the issue with a study of the politics of citizenship policy in post-Soviet Russia and the applicability to that study of existing theories of citizenship.
In issue #2, 2012, Paul Chaisty and Stephen Whitefield (Oxford University, UK) examine survey data to assess the impact of the 2008 financial crisis in Russia on popular support for Russia's rulers and political institutions. Valerie Sperling (Clarke University) uses interviews and diverse media sources, including blogs and YouTube videos, to explore some of the gendered ways in which political youth organizations in Russia voice criticism of, or support for, the Putin-centered regime. Dmitry Zimin (University of East Finland) then follows with an examination of how two Finnish energy companies managed to invest in Russia in ways that proved beneficial to both the companies' yield from their investments and the course of economic transformation in Russia. Finally, Kathryn Hendley (Wisconsin) uses data from surveys in Russia to specify the extent to which lack of respect for rule of law prevails within the Russian population, and the demographic and subjective determinants of such “legal nihilism.”
Issue #3 features articles by Timothy Colton (Harvard) on Ukraine; Valerie Bunce (Cornell) and Karrie Koesel (Oregon) on comparisons between Russia's public protests and such protest in the “Arab Spring”; Stephen Wegren (Southern Methodist University) on the likely impact of Russia's membership in the World Trade Organization on that country's agricultural sector; and Jordan Gans-Morse (Northwestern) on the evolution in the past decade of threats to property rights in Russia.
For ordering and information contact Bellweather Publishing, Ltd. at www.bellpub.com/psa
