Prominent Scholarship

In the July 2018 issue of the American Journal of Political Science are three articles written by four recent Rochester PhDs—Casey Crisman-Cox, Michael Gibilisco, Bahar Leventoglu, and William Spaniel. And a fifth PhD student, Gary Hollibaugh, appears in the April issue, coauthoring with Professor Lawrence Rothenberg.

Bright Line Watch

Professor Gretchen Helmke helps lead group monitoring the health of U.S. democracy.

Abramson Award

Professor Scott Abramson is recipient of the 2018 Robert O. Keohane Award. The award is given annually to the best article in International Organization by a junior scholar published in the preceding calendar year. It is for Professor Abramson's article titled "The Economic Origins of the Territorial State."

Methodology Scholar

Arthur Spirling is recipient of the 2018 Society for Political Methodology Emerging Scholar Award. Spirling, who received his PhD in Political Science from Rochester in 2008, is now an associate professor at New York University.

Student Leaders

Congratulations to Beatriz Gil '19 (economics and political science) and Jamal Holtz '20 (political science), who will be serving in 2018-19 as the Students' Association president and vice president.

Outstanding Teacher

At the 2018 Commencement ceremony, Professor David Primo received the Edward Peck Curtis Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Teaching. He previously received the Goergen Award and the Students' Association Undergraduate Professor of the Year Award.

Peace through Entrepreneurship

Bienfait Mugenza '21 (political science) and Philemon Rono '21 (mechanical engineering) have won a $10,000 grant from Davis Projects for Peace. They will run "Peace through Entrepreneurship," a one-week workshop to be held in Kigali, Rwanda, in Summer 2018.

Carnegie Fellow

Daniel Gillion, Rochester PhD '09 and now a professor of political science at the University of Pennsylvania, has been named a 2018 Andrew Carnegie Fellow. His project is titled "The Loud Minority: Why Protests Matter in American Democracy."

Federal Prosecutor

Robert Khuzami '79, Deputy U.S. Attorney in the Southern District of New York, is leading the criminal investigation of Michael Cohen, attorney for President Trump. In 2004 Khuzami addressed the Republican National Convention to support President George W. Bush, and he helped prosecute the person who bombed the World Trade Center in 1993.

State Politics

Professor Mary Kroeger receives the State Politics & Policy Quarterly 2018 Best Paper Award. The award honors the author of the best paper on state politics presented at any professional meeting or conference in 2017. Professor Kroeger wins the prize for her paper "Bill Changes in State Legislatures."

Acemoglu and Robinson

Daron Acemoglu (MIT) and James Robinson (Chicago) win the 2017 William H. Riker Prize, awarded by the Rochester Department of Political Science in recognition of a body of work that advances the scientific study of politics.

U.S. News ranks Rochester #4 in the nation in political methodology, #14 in international relations, and #17 overall in political science.

Bright Line Watch, a project led by Professor Gretchen Helmke and colleagues from Dartmouth and Yale, is periodically assessing the health of American democracy.

Josh Shapiro '95 is Attorney General of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. Formerly chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Commissioners and a member of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives, Shapiro once served as president of the University of Rochester SA Government.

Explore 60 years of congressional scholarship on the new website dedicated to the life and work of Richard Fenno. The site includes information on each of his books, unpublished papers, lectures, and photos.

The Laurin Taylor Frisina '06 Ventura Award has been established by the family and friends of Laurin Taylor Frisina and in her memory. It honors "the graduating senior who, as a Political Science research assistant or in other research activities, best represents creativity and collaboration in pursuit of knowledge."

Created to support students pursuing a summer experience in politics or policy, the Richard and Nancy Fenno Summer Fellowships are awarded annually.

Jeanette Moy '02, who majored in Political Science at Rochester, is now the chief strategy officer and vice president for strategic planning at the Brooklyn Public Library, fifth largest public library in the U.S.

Controlling for size, "PS: Political Science & Politics" ranks Rochester Political Science first in the country in the productivity of its PhD alumni.