Amel Ahmed (Ph.D., University of Pennsylvania)
Assistant Professor: Comparative Politics, West European Politics, American Political Development, Normative and Empirical Democratic Theory, Electoral Studies
email: Amel Ahmed
Courses: Comparative Politics, Comparative Democratization, Political Economy of Development, West European Politics

Roberto Alejandro-Rivera (Ph.D., Princeton University)
Professor: Political Theory; American Political Thought
email: Roberto Alejandro
Courses: Hermeneutics and Post-Modernity; Hobbes and the Politics of Interpretation; Rawlsian Justice
Author: The Limits of Rawlsian Justice (1997); Hermeneutics, Citizenship, and the Public Sphere (1993). Co-Author: Las vallas rotas (1982). Articles in Pensamiento Critico, The Canadian Journal of Philosophy, Journal of Politics.

Sonia Alvarez (Ph.D., Yale University)
Professor: Director of Center for Latin American Studies
email: Sonia Alvarez
Courses: Government & Politics of Latin America
Author: Engendering Democracy in Brazil: Women's Movements in Transition Politics (1990); Co-editor: The Making of Social Movements in Latin America: Identity, Strategy, and Democracy (1992) and Cultures of Politics/Politics of Cultures: Re-visioning Latin American Social Movements (1998). Articles in Signs, Feminist Studies, Revista Estudos Feministas, Estudios Latinoamericanos, International Feminist Journal of Politics, Debate Feminista, Meridians, Revista Mora, and numerous edited collections and social movement publications. Before coming to UMass, Alvarez was Professor of Politics at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In Brazil, she has been Fulbright visiting professor in the Department of Political Science and the Inter-Disciplinary Graduate Program in Social Sciences at the State University of Campinas and visiting scholars at the Center for Philosophy and Human Sciences at the Federal University of Santa Catarina. She was a Program Officer in Rights and Social Justice for the Brazil Office of the Ford Foundation from 1993 to 1996 and is currently on the national or international boards of editorial advisors of several scholarly journals, including Latin American Politics and Society, Political Geography, Bulletin of Latin American Research and Revista Estudos Feministas. She served as President of the Latin American Studies Association from November 2004 to May 2006.

John Brigham (Ph.D., University of California at Santa Barbara)
Professor: Public Law
email: John Brigham; website
Courses: Introduction to Constitutional Law; The Politics of Law; Administrative Law; The Art of the Impossible.
Professional Activities: Fellow, International Institute for the Sociology of Law; Trustee, Law and Society Association; Past President Law and Courts Section, American Political Science Association; Chair, Law and Semiotics Round Table; Editorial Board, Legal Studies Forum.
Author: Law, States and Questions of Significance w/ Roberta Kevelson (1997); The Constitution of Interests (1996); Politics of Entitlement (1990); The Cult of the Court (1987); Civil Liberties and American Democracy (1984); Policy Implementation: Penalties or Incentives (1980); Constitutional Language (1978); Making Public Policy (1977) and articles in various journals and a few web sites.

Brenda Bushouse (Ph.D., Indiana University)
Assistant Professor of Political Science and Public Policy
email: Brenda Bushouse
Courses: Politics of the Policy Process; Nonprofit Management; Public Management; Urban Politics and Government; Health, Education, and Arts Policy.
Research Interests: Early childhood policy, nonprofit governance, policymaking  processes.
Professional Activities: Ian Axford Fellowship in Public Policy (2008) to conduct early childhood policy research in New Zealand; Leaders for the 21st Century Fellowship, Zero to Three (2007-2008) to study the impacts of universal preschool on market for infant and toddler care.
Author:Her book Universal Preschool in the United States: Policy Change, Stability, and the Pew Charitable Trusts is currently under review.  Other published works include Comparative Public Policy (2005, co-editor) and articles in Public Administration Review, Public Affairs Education, Michigan Journal of Community Service Learning, and Public Works Management and Policy. 

Barbara Cruikshank (Ph.D., Minnesota University)
Associate Professor and Undergraduate Program Director : Political Theory
email: Barbara Cruikshank
Courses: History of Social and Political Thought; Contemporary Theory and Politics; Feminist and Democratic Theory; The Politics of Sex; Cultural Politics; and seminars in the Social Thought and Political Economy Program.
Professional Activities: Interim Chair of Women's Studies, Director of Undergraduate Studies.
Author: The Will to Empower: Democratic Citizens and Other Subjects (1999); articles in Socialist Review, Economy & Society, Signs; and book chapters on cultural politics and social policy. Associate Editor of Politics & Gender

Carlene J. Edie (Ph.D.,University of California at Los Angeles)
Professor: Comparative Politics (Caribbean, Africa); International Relations and Development Studies.
email: Carlene J. Edie
Courses: Caribbean Politics; African Politics; Comparative Politics; Democracy and Development; Politics of Structural Adjustment.
Author: Politics in Africa: A New Beginning? (2002); Democracy by Default: Dependency and Clientelism in Jamaica (1991); Editor: Democracy in the Caribbean: Myths and Realities (1994); Articles in: Social and Economic Studies (2000); Global Development Studies (2000); Africa Development (2000); Journal of Inter-American Studies and World Affairs (1997); Studies in Comparative International Development (1986); Journal of Development Studies (1984); Journal of African Studies (1987).

Eric S. Einhorn (Ph.D., Harvard University)
Professor and Departmental Honors Coordinator: Comparative Politics and Policy; Western Europe; Scandinavia.
email: Eric S. Einhorn
Courses: Comparative Public Policy; European Politics; Comparative Foreign Policies.
Professional Activities: Research Fellow, Danish Institute for International Affairs (2000).
Author: “Social Defense and National Security: the Globalized the Danish Welfare State,” in Danish Foreign Policy Yearbook 2006, “Denmark: Euro-Pragmatism in Practice,” in The European Union and the Member States, 2nd ed. Edited by E. Zeff and E. Pirro. (2006), “Liberalism and Social Democracy in Western Europe” in Comparative Democracy and Democratization, H.J. Wiarda, ed. (2001); National Security and Post-War Politics in Denmark (1975). Co-author with John Logue: Modern Welfare States: Politics and Policy in Social Democratic Scandinavia (rev. ed. 2003); “Scandinavia,” in European Politics. Edited by C.Hay and A. Menon. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2007. "Scandinavia; Still the Middle Way?" in Europe Today, edited by R. Tiersky (rev. ed. 2007).

Jane E. Fountain (Ph.D., Yale University)
Professor of Political Science and Public Policy: Organization Theory; Information Technology and Politics; Economic Sociology; Public Policy; Political Sociology; Gender; Science, Technology and Society.  Director of the Science, Technology, and Society Initiative; the National Center for Digital Government; and the Women in the Information Age Project
email: Jane E. Fountain; website
Courses: Organization Theory; Public Policy and Management.
Professional Activities: Advisory roles and consultancies include the U.S. National Institutes of Health, Treasury, U.S. Information Agency, Government of Slovenia, Internet Policy Institute, MacArthur Foundation, Social Science Research Council, and Meetup.com. Recipient of grants from the National Science Foundation, 2001-present. Interim Director, UMass Amherst Center for Public Policy and Administration, 2006-07.  Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study Fellow, 1999-2000, 2000-01.
Author:Building the Virtual State: Information Technology and Institutional Change (2001; Chinese translation, 2004; Japanese translation, 2005; Portuguese translation, 2005; Choice Outstanding Title Award); Recent articles include "Challenges to Organizational Change: Facilitating and Inhibiting Information-Based Redesign of Public Organizations," in D. Lazer and V. Mayer-Schoenberger, eds. Governance and Information Technology: From Electronic Government to Information Government (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2007); “Central Issues in the Political Development of the Virtual State,” in M. Castells and G. Cardoso, eds. The Network Society: From Knowledge to Policy (Washington, D.C.: Johns Hopkins Center for Transatlantic Relations, 2006); and “Prospects for Improving the Regulatory Process using E-Rulemaking,” Communications of the ACM, 2003. Other articles in Governance, Technology in Society, Science and Public Policy, the National Civic Review. Editorial boards: Journal of Information Technology and Politics, International Public Management Journal.

Sheldon Goldman (Ph.D., Harvard University)
Professor of Political Science and Chief Undergraduate Advisor: Public Law
email: Sheldon Goldman
Courses: Civil Liberties; Constitutional Law; Politics, Law, and Judicial Behavior
Professional Activities: Chair, Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science Association, 2000-2001 and serving on the editorial boards of several journals. Recipient of Chancellor's Medal and Distinguished Faculty Lecturer, 2004. Recipient of Lifetime Achievement
Award from the Law and Courts Section of the American Political Science
Association, 2006.
Author: Picking Federal Judges (Yale University Press, 1997); Constitutional Law: Cases and Essays (2nd ed., Harper Collins, 1991); The Federal Courts as a Political System, (3rd ed., Harper & Row, 1985), American Politics and Government (Scott Foresman/Little Brown, 1990) (co-authored with Barbara Hinckley); American Court Systems (2nd ed., Longman, 1989) (co-authored with Austin Sarat); and Judicial Conflict and Consensus (University of Kentucky Press, 1986) (co-authored with Charles Lamb). He has also authored numerous articles in law journals and professional political science journals. He has contributed numerous book chapters and contributed to several encyclopedias. Recent works include: "Judicial Confirmation Wars: Ideology and the Battle for the Federal Courts" University of Richmond Law Review (2005); "Is There A Crisis in Judicial Selection?" in George C. Edwards (ed.) Presidential Politics (2006); "W. Bush's Judiciary: The First Term Record," (with others), Judicature (2005); "Right to Travel," in Oxford Companion to the Supreme Court of the United States, 2nd ed. 2005;"Unpicking Pickering in 2002: Some Thoughts on the Politics of Lower Federal Court Selection and Confirmation," in Segal Diascro and Ivers, eds., Inside the Judicial Process (2006); "The Politics of Appointing Catholics to the Federal Courts," University of St. Thomas Law Review (2006); and (with others), "Picking Judges in a Time of Turmoil: W. Bush's Judiciary During the 109th Congress," Judicature (2007).

Peter M. Haas (Ph.D., MIT)
Professor: International Relations; International Relations Theory; International Political Economy; International Environmental Politics; International Institutions; Global Governance.
email: Peter M. Haas
Courses: International Environmental Governance; International Relations Proseminar; Constructivism and Global Governance, International Political Economy, International Environmental Politics.
Professional Activities: Member of the editorial boards of Journal of European Public Policy, Global Environmental Politics, and MIT Press series on Politics, Science and the Environment. Consultancies include United Nations, United Nations Environment Program, US Department of State, US EPA, US CIA, Commission on Global Governance. Fellowships/grants received from the NSF, German Marshall Fund, and Rockefeller Brothers Fund.
Author: Global Environmental Governance(with Gus Speth), Emerging Forces in Environmental Governance (edited with Norichika Kanie), The International Environment in the New Global Economy (edited), Knowledge, Power and International Policy Coordination (editor), Institutions for the Earth (edited with Robert O. Keohane and Marc A. Levy), and Saving the Mediterranean. Recent articles include "Addressing the Global Governance Deficit" Global Environmental Politics 2004, "When Does Power Listen to Truth?" Journal of European Public Policy 2004, and "Pragmatic Constructivism and the Study of International Institutions" Millennium 2002 (with Ernst B. Haas). Has 16 peer reviewed articles and over 35 chapters in edited books.

John A. Hird (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley) Department Chair
Professor of Political Science and Public Policy
email: John A. Hird; website
Courses: Controversies in Public Policy; American Public Policy; Public Policy Analysis; Capstone in Public Policy; Environmental Policy
Professional Activities: Areas of interest include policy expertise and advising, the use of information in policymaking, policy analysis, and environmental policy.  His prior service includes positions at Resources for the Future, the Brookings Institution, and the President's Council of Economic Advisers.  He serves as Co-editor and on the editorial board of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, and on the Policy Council of the Association of Public Policy Analysis and Management.  He was Director of the UMass-Amherst Center for Public Policy and Administration from 1998-2006.
Author: His books include Power, Knowledge, and Politics: Policy Analysis in the States (Georgetown University Press, 2005), Controversies in American Public Policy (Thompson/Wadsworth, 3rd edition, 2004) and Superfund: The Political Economy of Environmental Risk (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), and he has published articles in the American Political Science Review, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Policy Studies Journal, Yale Journal on Regulation, Social Science Quarterly, and other professional journals.

Raymond La Raja (Ph.D., University of California, Berkeley)
Assistant Professor: American Politics
email: Raymond LaRaja; website
Courses: American Politics; Political Parties and Elections; Political Participation.
Professional Activities: Research interests include political parties, interest groups, elections, campaign finance, political participation, state politics, public policy and political reform. Managing editor of the The Forum: A Journal of Applied Research in Contemporary Politics. Academic Advisory Board of the Campaign Finance Institute.
Author: Small Change: Money, Political Parties and Campaign Finance Reform (University of Michigan Press, forthcoming 2007); articles on political parties, campaign finance and political reform appear in numerous professional publications, including the Journal of Politics, Legislative Studies Quarterly and the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

Vincent Moscardelli (Ph.D., Emory University)
Assistant Professor and Internship Coordinator: American Politics; U.S. Congress; Political Leadership; Public Policy
email: Vincent Moscardelli; website
Courses: Introduction to American Politics; Congress and the Legislative Process; American Political Leadership; Legislative Process (graduate).
Professional Activities: Professor Moscardelli has provided expert commentary and analysis on current events for dozens of news stories, for both print and radio outlets including The Boston Globe, Investor's Business Daily, Congressional Quarterly's Politics Daily, and Public Radio International.  In 2003, he was named Best Chapter Adviser by Pi Sigma Alpha, the national political science honor society.  In 2003-04, he served as an American Political Science Association Congressional Fellow in the office of United States Senator Richard J. Durbin, and participated in a staff-level exchange with the Canadian Parliament in the spring of 2004. 
Author:  His work on legislative politics, political leadership, and public policy appears in The Journal of Politics, Polity, State Politics and Policy Quarterly, Congress and the Presidency, and American Politics Research.