Faculty Biographies

The listing below identifies each faculty member, their field of research, and a brief description of their recent publications. To communicate with any, simply click on their email address or their name to visit their website.

MICHAEL COMBS : Professor
Ph.D., Washington University (St. Louis), 1978.
Fields: Judicial Politics and Constitutional Law, Black Politics, Urban Politics.

He is a former president of the National Conference of Black Political Scientists. Recent publications include Civil Liberties and the Constitution: Cases and Commen-taries (Prentice Hall, 1999, with Lucius J. Barker, Twiley W. Barker, Jr., Kevin Lyles, and H. W. Perry), "Race or Place? Emerging Public Perspectives on Urban Education," PS 30: 1997: 454-458 (Sigelman, Combs, Welch and Bledsoe), and "Police Brutality and Public Perceptions of Racial Discrimination: A Tale of Two Beatings", Political Research Quarterly, December 1997 (Welch, Combs, Sigelman, Bledsoe). He received the 1996 Liberty Bell Award from the Lincoln Bar Association, as well as the Recognition Award for Contributions to Students sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Parents' Association and Teaching Council, January 1992, 1993, and 1995.
mcombs1@unl.edu

JOHN COMER : Professor
Ph.D., The Ohio State University, 1971.
Fields: Public Opinion, Political Parties and Interest Groups

John Comer is co-author of American Government (Wadsworth, 1996), an introductory textbook in American government. Current research interest focuses on the activities and effectiveness of interest groups in state legislatures. He is also in the process of revising Quantitative Methods in Public Administration, an introductory text in research methods and statistics.
jcomer1@unl.edu

DAVID FORSYTHE : Charles J. Mach Distinguished Professor
Ph.D., Princeton University, 1968.
Fields: International Human Rights, International Law & Organization, American Foreign Policy, International Relations.

In addition to over 100 publications on different aspects of International Relations, David Forsythe is the author of: Human Rights and Comparative Foreign Policy, (United Nations University Press, 2000; edited); The United States and Human Rights, (University of Nebraska Press, 2000; edited); Human Rights and Diversity: Area Studies Revisited, (University of Nebraska Press, 2004; edited with Patrice McMahon); The Humanitarians: The International Committee of the Red Cross, (Cambridge University Press, 2005), Human Rights in International Relations, (Cambridge University Press, 2000, translated into Chinese, Turkish, Korean, and Bulgarian; 2nd edition 2006); The United Nations and Changing World Politics, (Westview Press, 5th ed. 2006; with 3 other authors), and American Foreign Policy in a Globalized World, (Routledge, 2006; edited with two others). He is the General Editor of the Human Rights Encyclopedia (Oxford University Press, forthcoming, 4 volumes). In the fall of 2003 the Mid-West Section of the International Studies Association presented him with the Quincy Wright Distinguished Scholar Award in honor of his lifetime professional achievements. He is widely regarded as having been among the first to help establish the study of human rights and humanitarian affairs in the disciplines of political science and international relations. For this and other roles the Human Rights Section of the American Political Science Associated named him a Distinguished Scholar in 2007.
dforsythe1@unl.edu

JOHN GRUHL : Professor
Ph.D., University of California-Santa Barbara, 1976.
Fields: Judicial Process, Constitutional Law, Civil Liberties, Criminal Justice.

His research on American government includes journal articles on Supreme Court issues, such as "The Impact of Term Limits for Supreme Court Justices," in Judicature (Sept.-Oct. 1997), and he recently co-authored book (with Susan Welch) entitled Affirmative Action and Minority Enrollments in Medical and Law School (University of Michigan Press, 1998). He has also co-authored two widely used textbooks, American Government (6th ed., 1996) and Understanding American Government (4th ed., 1997), both published by West and co-authored by Susan Welch, Michael Steinman, and John Comer. John Gruel has won campus teaching awards twice and the university's highest teaching award in 1997. He is a charter member of the university's Academy of Distinguished Teachers, and is the Chief Undergraduate Adviser and Honors Adviser for the Department.
jgruhl1@unl.edu

JOHN HIBBING : Foundation Regents University Professor of Political Science
Ph.D., University of Iowa, 1980.
Fields: American Politics, especially legislative politics and public opinion; Biology and Politics, especially evolutionary psychology.

Human behavior is the product of a fascinating interaction of environmental and genetic forces. In spite of this fact, political scientists have limited their attention almost exclusively to environmental variables. Hibbing’s current work, mostly with John Alford of Rice University, employs economic games, fMRIs, evolutionary theory, and behavioral genetics in order to identify the deeper biological causes of social and especially political behavior. Previously, he has edited the Legislative Studies Quarterly, served as President of the American Political Science Association’s Legislative Studies Section, received six National Science Foundation grants, co-authored Congress as Public Enemy and Stealth Democracy (with Elizabeth Theiss-Morse), won the Fenno Prize, and been a NATO Fellow in Science as well as a Senior Fulbright Fellow.
jhibbing@unl.edu

ARI KOHEN : Schlesinger Assistant Professor of Social Justice and Assistant Professor of Political Science
Ph.D., Duke University, 2004.
Fields: Contemporary Political Theory, Human Rights, Ethnic Conflict, and Restorative Justice.

Ari Kohen is the author of In Defense of Human Rights, published Spring 2007. Articles appeared recently in Human Rights Review (2005) and the Journal of Human Rights (2006). He was awarded the 2006 Irmgard Coninx Foundation Research Fellowship which included three months of study in Germany where he had an office at the Wissenschaftszentrum Berlin fur Sozialforschung. He is currently working on a book-length project, The Moral Hero and the Mortal Hero, as well as articles on both restorative justice and the death penalty.
akohen2@unl.edu

PATRICE McMAHON : Associate Professor, Chair Graduate Studies
Ph.D., Columbia University, 1998.
Fields: International Security, International Relations, Comparative Politics.

Patrice McMahon's research interests include the causes and effects of ethnic identity on international relations, transnational determinants of domestic policy, democracy promotion, and human rights. Her work has appeared in Political Science Quarterly, Democratization, and Problems of Post-Communism. Recently, she finished American Foreign Policy in a Globalized World, edited with David P. Forsythe and Andrew Wedeman (forthcoming, Routledge Press) and Taming Ethnic Hatred: Ethnic Cooperation and Transnational Networks in Eastern Europe (under review).
pmcmahon2@unl.edu

SARAH MICHAELS : Professor
Ph.D. University of Colorado, 1990
Fields: Water Resources, Science-Policy Interface, and Comparative Environmental Policy.

Sarah’s interests include water resources policy and management, knowledge gains in response to disasters, the science-policy interface, and comparative environmental policy. She is author of numerous publications and conference presentation related to the above topics and has held positions in the Department of Geography, University of Colorado, Department of Urban and Environmental Policy, Tufts University, Department of Geography, University of Auckland, New Zealand. She was also a Postdoctoral Fellow in the Department of Geography and Institute of Governmental Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her positions prior to joining UNL was with University of Waterloo, Waterloo, Ontario where she was associate professor and associate director of the School of Planning. She routinely consults with government and private agencies related to her expertise and has a strong record in securing grants.

ROSS MILLER : Associate Professor
Ph.D. University of California, Davis, 1994
Fields: International Conflict, American Foreign Policy, Research Methods, and Comparative Political Institutions.

Ross’s fields of interest include international conflict, American foreign policy, research methods, political participation, and comparative political institutions. He is co-author of Before Norms: Institutions and Civic Culture (University of Michigan Press, 2004). His research is published in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Political Research Quarterly, Comparative Political Studies, and the American Journal of Political Science. In addition to teaching and research in the general field of international relations in political science, Ross is also Director of International Studies major at UNL.

BYRON D'ANDRA OREY : Associate Professor
Ph.D., University of New Orleans, 1999.
Fields: American Politics, Black Politics, Voting Rights, Elections and Political Behavior with special emphasis on African Americans

D’Andra Orey is currently working on two book-length manuscripts. The first explores the contours and dimensions of black conservatism. The second book examines the intersectionality of race and gender, within the context of the increase in the number of black legislators, following the passage of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Orey has published a number of book chapters and articles. Recent articles have appeared in the Social Science Quarterly, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Black Scholar, American Politics Research, The National Political Science Review and Politics and Policy. He has been invited to speak at a number of prestigious universities, both nationally and internationally, including, Oxford University’s St. Anne College, New York University, Spelman College, Washington University, Williams College, Emory University and Winneba College (Ghana, Africa).
borey2@unl.edu

DAVID RAPKIN : Associate Professor
Ph.D., Florida State University, 1979.
Fields: International Politics, International Political Economy.

David Rapkin's research deals with world system theory and Japanese industrial policy. He is co-editor, with William Avery, of the International Studies Association's International Political Economy Yearbook. His recent publications include a chapter in William Thompson's 1999 edited book, Great Power Rivalries, entitled "The Emergence and Intensification of U.S.-Japan Rivalry in the Early Twentieth Century," as well as "Is International Competitiveness a Property of National Economies?" in the March Journal of International Political Economy 1,2. Rapkin co-authored two 1997 journal articles with Jonathan R. Strand, a department grad student: "Institutional Adjustment to Changed Power Distributions: Japan and the United States in the IMF." in Global Governance, and "The U.S. and Japan in the Bretton Woods Institutions: Sharing or Contesting Leader-ship?" in International Journal. Current research includes more on the US-Japan rivalry, including a conceptual paper on rivalry and another on the role of racial hostility in the development of the rivalry, the operation of weighted voting systems in multilateral institutions, and evolutionary approaches to world politics.
drapkin2@unl.edu

KEVIN SMITH : Professor
Ph.D., University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, 1994.
Fields: Public policy, Public Administration, American Politics

Kevin Smith is the author of The Case Against School Choice (M.E. Sharpe, 1994) and of numerous articles that have appeared in The Journal of Politics, Political Research Quarterly, Public Administration Review and other journals. He is currently finishing a book length manuscript on education and democracy. He received a College Award for Distinguished Teaching in 1998.
ksmith1@unl.edu

ELIZABETH THEISS-MORSE : Professor, Department Chair
Ph.D., University of Minnesota, 1989.
Fields: Public opinion, political psychology, and political behavior.

Elizabeth Theiss-Morse is co-author, with John Hibbing, of Stealth Democracy (Cambridge University Press [CUP], 2002) and Congress as Public Enemy (CUP, 1995), which won the Fenno Prize for the best book on legislative politics. She is also co-author, with George Marcus, John Sullivan, and Sandra Wood, of With Malice Toward Some (CUP, 1995), which won the Best Book in Political Psychology award. She is currently working on a major study of American national identity using a specially commissioned national survey, focus groups, and a series of experiments. She and Jeff Spinner-Halev published an article in Perspectives on Politics (September 2003) drawing on research in social psychology to address political theorists’ claims about the relationship between national identity and self-esteem. She has served as program co-chair for the Midwest Political Science Association, received five National Science Foundation grants, and won a distinguished teaching award.
etheissmorse1@unl.edu

ERIK TILLMAN : Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Emory University: Atlanta, Georgia, 2005.
Fields: Comparative Politics, European Politics, Political Behavior.

Erik Tillman's research interests include comparative public opinion and voting behavior, European politics, and the effects of democracy on interstate behavior. He has published articles in the Journal of Politics and Comparative Political Studies. His current projects examine the link between the economy and voting behavior and the effects of European integration on the domestic electoral politics of its member states.
etillman2@unl.edu

MICHAEL WAGNER : Assistant Professor
Ph.D. Indiana University, 2006
Fields: Political Behavior, Public Opinion, Political Psychology, Media, Congress, Political Parties, and Presidency.

Mike Wagner’s research and teaching interests encompass a wide range that focuses on the interplay between political elites and the public. He is published in the Annual Review of Political Science, American Politics Research, State Politics and Policy Quarterly and several edited volumes. Mike also has a co-authored book (with Ted Carmines and Jessica Gerrity), Congress in the Public Mind, under contract at Cambridge University Press. He was project director on the 2006 Congressional Election Study conducted by the Center on Congress at Indiana University. He is also the recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation and the Dirksen Congressional Center. Current projects include work on issue framing, campaign ads and election coverage (with Brian Schaffner), religion and politics (with Eric Zeemering), and issue preferences and ideological heterogeneity in the American electorate (with Ted Carmines and Mike Ensley).
mwagner3@unl.edu

ANDREW WEDEMAN : Associate Professor, Chair Asian Studies
Ph.D., University of California, Los Angeles, 1994.
Fields: Comparative Politics, Corruption, Chinese Politics

He is the author of From Mao to Market: Local Protectionism, Rent-Seeking, and the Marketization of China, 1984-1992 and The East Wind Subsides: Chinese Foreign Policy and the Origins of the Cultural Revolution, plus a variety of articles on the political economy of corruption, both in China and elsewhere, as well as articles on central-provincial relations in China. He is currently writing a book (Double Paradox: Corruption and Development in Post-Mao China. His recent publications include articles in the Cambridge Review of International Affairs, Studies in Comparative International Development, Journal of Contemporary China, China Quarterly, The Journal of Developing Areas, and China Review, as well as several chapters in E. Terrence Gomez, ed.,Political Business in Asia and Woosang Kim, ed., Collective Security and Multilateralism in Post-Cold War East Asia. In 1997 and 2001 Andrew Wedeman was awarded Certificates of Recognition for Contributions to Students by the Parents Association and the Teaching Council of the University of Nebraska. During 2001-2, he spent a year as a visiting Fulbright Researcher at Taiwan National University.
awedeman1@unl.edu