Drone, drone operations, Ethics, Military intervention, Politics
Dr Peter Lee is a University of Portsmouth Reader in Politics and Ethics who specializes in the ethical and operational aspects of remotely piloted aircraft (drone) operations, as well as the politics and ethics of war and military intervention. He writes in various formats with a particular focus on the UK’s Royal Air Force Reaper drone squadrons. Between July and December 2016 he was granted unprecedented research access by the Royal Air Force to British Reaper drone operations at both RAF Waddington in Lincolnshire, UK and Creech Air Force Base outside Las Vegas, Nevada. He was able to observe both surveillance and lethal missile strikes against Islamic State jihadists in Syria and Iraq: in real time and in close-up detail. He has also conducted in-depth interviews with 70 members of the Royal Air Force Reaper drone community for his next book, Reaper Force: The Inside Story of Britain’s Drone Wars. Peter is regularly invited to lecture on this and other subjects to military, academic, political, religious, media and wider audiences. From June 2015 to June 2016 he was a member of the Department for Transport Oversight Committee for the Sciencewise public dialogue: The Use and Development of Remotely Piloted Aircraft Systems and Small Drones in the United Kingdom, which preceded the current government consultation on drones. In 2012 he published Blair’s Just War: Iraq and the Illusion of Morality and in 2015 published Truth Wars: The Politics of Climate Change, Military Intervention and Financial Crisis, both with Palgrave Macmillan.
Border Politics, Citizenship, Immigration, Politics, race and politics, US citizenship
An assistant professor in the Department of Politics at Ithaca College’s School of Humanities and Sciences, Figueroa can discuss U.S. political issues, including presidential leadership, racial, religious and working class politics, U.S.-Puerto Rico policy, and immigration/border politics. Figueroa’s academic research focuses on American political development; race, religion and citizenship; Black American politics and political thought; Latino politics and border studies; public leadership; and U.S. Quakers. He is currently finishing a book on Quakers, race and U.S. Empire. His research also focuses on Bayard Rustin, a Black, gay, Quaker labor and civil rights activist of the 1940s through 1980s. He is also working on a project about the everyday “lived experiences” of people who study and/or work near the U.S.-Mexico border.
Distinguished Professor of Practice
Thunderbird School of Global ManagementInternational Relations, law and business , Politics, Public Policy
Anne-Marie Slaughter is the CEO of New America, a think 鈥媋nd action 鈥媡ank dedicated to renewing the promise of America, bringing us closer to our nation's highest ideals. She is also the Bert G. Kerstetter '66 University Professor Emerita of Politics and International Affairs at Princeton University. From 2009鈥2011, she served as director of policy planning for the United States Department of State, the first woman to hold that position. Upon leaving the State Department she received the Secretary鈥檚 Distinguished Service Award for her work leading the Quadrennial Diplomacy and Development Review, as well as meritorious service awards from USAID and the Supreme Allied Commander for Europe. Prior to her government service, Dr. Slaughter was the Dean of Princeton University's School of Public and International Affairs (formerly the Woodrow Wilson School) from 2002鈥2009 and the J. Sinclair Armstrong Professor of International, Foreign, and Comparative Law at Harvard Law School from 1994-2002. Dr. Slaughter has written or edited eight鈥 books, including 鈥婽he Chessboard and the Web: Strategies of Connection in a Networked World (2017)鈥, Unfinished Business: Women, Men, Work, Family (2015), The Idea That Is America: Keeping Faith with Our Values in a Dangerous World (2007)鈥, and 鈥婣 New World Order (2004), 鈥媋s well as over 100 scholarly articles. She was the convener and academic co-chair, with Professor John Ikenberry, of the Princeton Project on National Security, a multi-year research project aimed at developing a new, bipartisan national security strategy for the United States. In 2012 she published the article 鈥淲hy Women Still Can鈥檛 Have It All,鈥 in the Atlantic, which quickly became the most-read article in the history of the magazine and helped spawn a renewed national debate on the continued obstacles to genuine full male-female equality. Dr. Slaughter is a contributing editor to the Financial Times and writes a bi-monthly column for Project Syndicate. She provides frequent commentary for both mainstream and new media and curates foreign policy news for over 140,000 followers on Twitter. Foreign Policy magazine named her to their annual list of the Top 100 Global Thinkers in 2009, 2010, 2011, and 2012. She received a B.A. from Princeton, an M.Phil and D.Phil in international relations from Oxford, where she was a Daniel M. Sachs Scholar, and a J.D. from Harvard.
Conservatism, Election, Government, Ideology, Liberty, Neoliberalism, Political Campaigns, Politics
Dr James Freeman is Lecturer is based in the Department of History where his research interests span the histories of important British political speeches and the power of oratory, spin and rhetoric, as well as the promises that politicians make and why/how these are frequently not delivered. He is also interested in the history of media research and polling in British politics. Dr Freeman's previous projects include studying the evolution of national pensions policy as rooted in the Thatcher government鈥檚 pension reforms of the 1980s, the evolution of 鈥榥eoliberalism鈥 and its influence on British politics, the Conservative party鈥檚 history, and the rhetoric of freedom and liberty from 1900 to the present day. He also uses a variety of digital techniques to explore political history. He has been interviewed for NBS, Elle magazine and for a series of BBC radio broadcasts about his views on political speeches and the history of issues in contemporary politics, such as Brexit. Education BA (Exon), MA (Exon), PhD (Exon)
Brexit, Politics
Paula Surridge is based in the School of Sociology, Politics and International Studies. Her main interest is in social and political values, looking at both their origins in social structures and their consequences for political behaviour, including how they guide voting patterns. She has applied this approach to studies of the UK's General Elections and in the context of the Brexit referendum. Her work on the latter included exploring the themes of connectedness and of identity in the EU vote. Paula is also examining political choices in Poland and Japan, with plans to expand the application of her thesis to Australia. Paula works particularly closely on examining British political behaviour, regularly contributing to print, broadcast and social media on issues of public opinion and voting behaviour. She has a keen interest in public opinion polling, both methodologically and substantively. She is a co-author of the latest volume in the Nuffield studies, a series of studies of British elections going back to 1945, called 'The British General Election of 2019'. Education 1991 - BSc Accounting and Financial Management, University of Warwick
International Conflict, Military, Political Science, Politics
Dr. Brian Crisher, an associate professor, has written on military capabilities and various aspects of war and politics. Much of his research examines international conflict. This includes the role of military capabilities 鈥 specifically naval power 鈥 on conflict processes and the role of domestic politics on conflict and how often issues of power and domestic politics interact to influence conflict. His work has been published in "International Interactions," "Foreign Policy Analysis," and "Research and Politics," among others. Topics he is examining include the influence of naval power on long-distance militarized disputes and how domestic political problems alter leaders鈥 incentives to initiate conflict. Crisher teaches both undergraduate and graduate courses. They include 鈥淚ntroduction to Comparative Politics,鈥 鈥淪tatecraft,鈥 鈥淚ntroduction to International Politics,鈥 鈥淚nternational Relations in East Asia,鈥 and 鈥淧olitical Science Research Methods.鈥 In addition to his publications, Crisher鈥檚 research findings have been presented at the American Political Science Association Conference, the International Studies Association Conference, the Peace Science Society (International) and elsewhere. He is a reviewer for Journal of Politics, British Journal of Political Science, Journal of Conflict Resolution, International Studies Quarterly, International Interactions, Conflict Management and Peace Science.
Inequality, labor market, Politics, Welfare State
The welfare state, public opinion, and inequality, attitudes toward immigration, the effects of labor market vulnerability, and Canadian politics. Anthony’s research investigates the interplay between public opinion and policy, with a particular focus on marginalized groups and the welfare state. Some of the questions he’s explored include: What factors shape the relationship between societal insiders and outsiders? How can we best understand social policy preferences? And what drives welfare state reform?
David L. Brennan Professor Emeritus of Law, School of Law
Case Western Reserve UniversityCivil Rights, Constitutional Law, Politics
Jonathan Entin has taught Constitutional Law; Administrative Law; Courts, Public Policy, and Social Change; the Law and Social Science Seminar; Law, Legislation, and Regulation; Mass Media Law; Property; and the Supreme Court Seminar for nearly four decades. He also served for nearly eight years as the law school’s associate dean for academic affairs. For many years he has been the faculty advisor to the Case Western Reserve Law Review. He also co-edited the Journal of Legal Education for nearly seven years and was a visiting fellow at the Federal Judicial Center.
He has published more than 100 articles, book chapters, essays, and reviews. His work has appeared in journals at such law schools as Harvard, Yale, Columbia, Northwestern, and Texas, as well as in the Administrative Law Review, Constitutional Commentary, Jurimetrics Journal, The Urban Lawyer and a number of social science publications. His 1993 article “Innumeracy and Jurisprudence” received the American Bar Association’s Loevinger Prize for the best work in science and technology law. He also has been a consultant on census issues to the National Research Council and on ethics matters to the Population Association of America.
Entin has received ten teaching awards, including the Distinguished Teacher Award of the Law Alumni Association. Five graduating classes honored him as Teacher of the Year, and two other classes selected him as Administrator of the Year. He also received the Federal Bar Association’s first national award for Excellence in Civics Education.
A graduate of Brown University (AB) and Northwestern University (JD), he was a law clerk to then-Judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg when she was on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit and did appellate litigation at Steptoe & Johnson in Washington, D.C., where he helped to exonerate an innocent man who came within hours of execution.
Publications
Education
Bachelor of ArtsBrown University1969Juris DoctorateNorthwestern University1981
Political Science, Politics
Kent Syler is a Professor of Political Science and Public Policy at Middle Tennessee State University. He has been immensely involved in Tennessee politics for over 40 years. Starting as a campaign “sound truck” driver in 1978, he has gone on to become one of Tennessee’s most respected political strategists and analysts.
Kent has taught at MTSU since 2002 and also serves as Special Projects Coordinator for the University’s Albert Gore Research Center.
He managed Congressman Bart Gordon’s first campaign for congress in 1984 and his tough re-election campaigns in 1994 and 1996. He served as Gordon’s Tennessee Chief of Staff from 1985 until his retirement in 2011.
He has been actively involved with dozens of other campaigns, ranging from city council to governor and U.S. Senate. Kent served as a winter school lecturer at Sciences Po (Paris Institute of Political Studies) in Reims, France where he designed and taught a course with Gordon. The class introduced European students to the ideas, practices, and institutions that constitute politics and government in the United States.
Kent is a political columnist and is frequently quoted in Tennessee and national news media. His work introducing students to archival constituent letters sent to Senator Albert Gore Sr. was featured in the New York Times. He serves as political analyst for WSMV-TV, 麻豆传媒 4 in Nashville.
Kent is active in the community serving as the Chair of the Murfreesboro Greenways Committee and is a Past President of the Murfreesboro Rotary Club. He and his wife Lynell have two daughters.
Politics, Public Policy
I am a Public Policy Specialist focusing on State Owned Entities, Institutional analysis, Development and Scenario Planning, and Local Economic Development. In addition to this one has experience in leading research and consulting projects aimed at producing applied Public Policy outcomes and actions.
In short, one is a 'professional thinker' and avid policy action practitioner.
Politics, Social Change, sociology of religion, Stratification
BIO
Philip Schwadel’s research explores the changing nature of Americans’ religious and political perspectives, addressing changes over time and between generations. He has examined how higher education and social status influence religious belief. He searches for social influences, emphasizing how religious congregations, social networks, age, time and other social contexts influence religion and politics. He holds a Ph.D. from Pennsylvania State University, where he was a postdoctoral researcher with the National study of Youth and Religion for two years. He has been a faculty member in UNL’s Department of Sociology since 2005.
My research focuses on religion and politics in the United States, with an emphasis on social status, social contexts, and social change. The association between social class and religious beliefs, practices, and affiliations has been a long-standing interest of mine, going back to my dissertation. My research also explores the changing nature of Americans’ religious and political perspectives, addressing both temporal and generational changes. Combining these areas of research, some of my work examines generational changes in the association between social class and religious and political perspectives. Always looking for the social influence, my work emphasizes how social contexts of various kinds—including religious congregations, social networks, and generational and temporal contexts—affect religious and political outcomes. Information on my publications can be found at my and pages.
Current Research
Building on the work I did with the while on leave from UNL in 2018-2019, I am now returning to some of my earlier work on adolescent religion in the U.S. I plan on writing a series of articles looking at the role of religion in school, how teenagers navigate religion among their friends, and the prevalence and consequences of religious bullying in school.
At the same time, I am continuing to use existing survey data to further explore the associations between religion and politics and the changing nature of American religion. This research focuses on the direct and indirect effects of religious affiliations and beliefs on political outcomes such as party affiliation, political tolerance, and views of government spending. I also have an ongoing project on social networks in churches. My colleagues and I have collected network data in three churches. I plan to continue this line of research with both additional churches and additional waves of data collection within the same church.
Most recently, I have been working with colleagues in psychology to examine the social-psychological consequences of religious disaffiliation. The proportion of Americans who have no religion has grown tremendously—from about 7% in 1990 to between a quarter and a third of the population today. Our work examines how Americans who leave religion often retain some of the psychological dispositions associated with being religious. We refer to this as the “religious residue effect.”
Current Teaching
I teach various courses on religion, including Sociology of Religion, Sociology of Global Religious Diversity, and a graduate seminar on religion. I also teach Social Problems, Sociological Theory, and the graduate-level publications seminar.
Student Opportunities
I regularly publish with graduate students. For instance, I recently published work on religious change among lesbian, gay, and bisexual young adults in the United States (with Brandi Woodell, former UNL graduate student and current faculty member at Old Dominion University) and on changes in the effects of social class on political tolerance (with Christopher Garneau, former UNL graduate student and current faculty member at University of Science and Arts of Oklahoma). I have works-in-progress with graduate students (current and former) on political messages and support for environmental initiatives, on the association between the religious makeup of a community and the prevalence of hate crimes, and on the effects of education on support for capital punishment. I also plan to do more with the data we collected on social networks in churches, with opportunities for student involvement.
Associate Professor of Philosophy, Chair of Politics and Philosophy
University of IdahoPhilosophy, Politics, Social Sciences
Bert Baumgaertner is an associate professor at University of Idaho. His research lies at the intersection of philosophy and the cognitive and social sciences. His approach to issues in these areas is informed by a computational perspective. The theory of computation continues to inform our understanding of the nature of knowledge, language and the mind, which have been Baumgaertner's primary areas of interest (you might call this, roughly, philosophy of artificial intelligence). His most recent work extends a computational methodology to include issues in social epistemology. Baumgaertner is also interested in a wide range of areas in both the humanities and the sciences, especially when they come in contact with computation and evolution.
election 2024, Election Law, Politics, Voting Rights
Doug Spencer is a Professor of Law at the University of Colorado. Professor Spencer is an election law scholar whose research addresses the role of prejudice and racial attitudes in voting rights litigation, the empirical implications of various campaign finance regulations, and the ways that election rules and political campaigns contribute to growing inequality in America.
Before moving to Colorado, Professor Spencer was Professor of Law & Public Policy at the University of Connecticut from 2013-2021. He has also taught as a Visiting Professor at the Yale Law School (2020) and the University of Chicago Harris School of Public Policy (2018-2019). His research has been published or is forthcoming in the California Law Review, Columbia Law Review, Cornell Law Review, Indiana Law Journal, Iowa Law Review, Northwestern Law Review, University of Illinois Law Review, Yale Law & Policy Review, Yale Law Journal Forum, Journal of Law & Courts, and the Election Law Journal. His work has also been featured in The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Slate and other media outlets.
Professor Spencer has worked as an expert witness in voting rights and campaign finance cases and, prior to law teaching, was a law clerk at the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights in San Francisco, an election monitor in Thailand for the Asian Network for Free Elections, and a researcher for the Pew Center on the States' Military and Overseas Voting Reform Project.
Professor Spencer holds a Ph.D. in Jurisprudence and Social Policy from the University of California, Berkeley. He also earned a J.D. at Berkeley Law and a M.P.P. at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley. He graduated magna cum laude from Columbia University in 2004 with a B.A. in Philosophy.
Economics, Election, Gas Prices, Politics, Presidential Debate, Recession
is a distinguished economist and professor, and the current Program Lead of Economics at Harrisburg University of Science and Technology (HU). Dr. Buryi has an extensive research portfolio spanning the economics of innovation, technological change, and public policy. Holding a Ph.D. in Economics from Southern Illinois University Carbondale, has previously held faculty positions at the University of Tampa and Northern Illinois University. His expertise lies in breaking down complex economic dynamics and providing clear, data-driven insights that cut through misinformation and the noise of the day to help Americans understand the factors that truly impact their financial well-being.
is an ideal expert for interviews on today’s most pressing economic topics, including personal finance, the impact of Trump's tariffs, the likelihood of a recession in America, egg prices, agricultural economics, and the complex world of R&D. His research has been featured in top economic journals, including Applied Economic Letters, Economic Modelling and Journal of Financial Economic Policy. He excels at translating economic theory into practical knowledge, making him a valuable voice in today’s policy discussions.
For expert commentary on these critical economic issues, is available for interviews and analysis.
PUBLICATIONS
Buryi, P. and Donou-Adonsou, F. (2020). Revisiting the relationship between unexpected inflation and output in the presence of indexation. Journal of Financial Economic Policy (ABDC Journal Ranking: B, Scopus CiteScore – 0.73)
Buryi, P. and Lahiri, S. (2019a). Research and development and trade policies for product innovation in the presence of foreign competition. Economic Modelling (ABDC Journal Ranking: A, Scopus CiteScore – 2.38), 80:429 – 440
Sameem, S. and Buryi, P. (2019). Impact of unemployment on happiness in the United States. Applied Economics Letters (ABDC Journal Ranking: B; Scopus CiteScore – 0.77), 26(12):1049–1052
Hutchinson, T., Ahmed, I., and Buryi, P. (2017). Impact of income tax on happiness: evidence from the United States. Applied Economics Letters (ABDC Journal Ranking: B, Scopus CiteScore – 0.77), 24(18):1277–1279
Buryi, P. and Lahiri, S. (2017). Matching Public Support for Private Product-Innovating R&D: a Theoretical Analysis. Economics of Innovation and New Technology (ABDC Journal Ranking: B, Scopus CiteScore – 1.65), 26(4):295–310
Buryi, P. and Gilbert, S. (2014). Effects of College Education on Demonstrated Happiness in the United States. Applied Economics Letters (ABDC Journal Ranking: B, Scopus CiteScore – 0.77), 21(18):1253–1256
EDUCATION
Ph.D. in Economics, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA, May 2015.
M.Sc. in Economics, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA, May 2013.
B.A. in Economics, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, IL, USA December 2010.
ABOUT HARRISBURG UNIVERSITY
Harrisburg University was recently recognized by US 麻豆传媒 & World Report as one of the nation’s . HU is accredited by the Middle States Commission on Higher Education and is a private, nonprofit university offering bachelor’s and graduate degree programs in the fields of science, technology, and mathematics. For additional information about HU’s affordable, demand-driven undergraduate and graduate programs, please call 717.901.5146 or email [email protected]. Stay updated by following Harrisburg University on , , , and .
Feminism, Girls, Politics, Social Media, social movements, Women in politics
, an assistant professor of English at the University of Notre Dame, is an expert on feminism, social movements and emotion in politics. She is the author of “Girls to the Front: The True Story of the Riot Grrrl Revolution” and “Political Disappointment.”
female politicians, female veterans, First Ladies, internationalization, Political Candidates, Politics, Presidency, Presidential Politics
As director of research strategy for the College of Liberal Arts & Sciences at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, Cornelius Smith analyzes data and develops strategies to support the college’s researchers across the math and physical sciences, humanities, and social and behavioral sciences. She previously held several leadership roles in external relations, alumni engagement, and research strategy and administration with Millikin University, Marietta College, the Center for Intelligent Process Automation, and the Pocasset Pokanoket Land Trust.
Her book (University of Kansas Press, 2022) examines the motivation, messaging, and connections between military and public service for female veterans—including Elaine Luria, Chrissy Houlahan, Elissa Slotkin, Tammy Duckworth, Joni Ernst, Martha McSally, and Tulsi Gabbard. She contributes interdisciplinary research to collections examining depictions of female presidents in American popular culture, the office of the First Lady of the United States, internationalization strategies, and central and eastern European politics.
Cornelius Smith earned her PhD in History from Purdue University, MA in political science from Eastern Illinois University, and BA in philosophy and political science from Millikin University.
Senior Research Fellow, Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship
University of PretoriaAfrica, Conflict Resolution, European Union, Geopolitics, Literature, Peace, Politics, Regional Collaborations, Security Studies
Prior to his role at UP’s Centre for the Advancement of Scholarship, Prof Adebajo was the Director of the at the and was Executive Director of the Centre for Conflict Resolution at the . He served on missions in South Africa, Western Sahara and Iraq, and was Director of the Africa Programme at the in New York.
He is the author of ten books, including Building Peace in West Africa, UN Peacekeeping in Africa, and Boutros Boutros-Ghali: Afro-Arab Prophet, Pharaoh, and Pope. He is co-editor or editor of 11 books on Africa’s international relations including From Global Apartheid to Global Village: Africa and the United Nations. A graduate of the University of Ibadan, Nigeria, and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy in Massachusetts, US, he obtained his doctorate from Oxford University in England.