Faculty and Staff | Department of Political Science

Department of Political Science Faculty and Staff

	Dexter Boniface, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Political Science Email: dboniface@rollins.edu Dexter Boniface is the Weddell Professor of the Americas at Rollins. He teaches courses in comparative politics and international relations, with a specialization in Latin American politics. His research interests include Brazilian politics and democracy promotion efforts in Latin America. He is co-editor of Promoting Democracy in the Americas (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007). Professor Boniface received his Ph.D. in political science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. To visit Dr. Boniface's website, click here.

	Dan Chong, Ph.D Assistant Professor of Political Science Email: dchong@rollins.edu Dan Chong teaches courses in international relations, human rights, global poverty, and conflict resolution. His recent book is titled Freedom from Poverty: NGOs and Human Rights Praxis (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2010). He has published in journals such as Human Rights Review and Development and Change, and wrote a chapter for a book called The International Struggle for New Human Rights. Dan received his M.A. in international peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, and his Ph.D. in international relations from American University. Outside of academia, Chong has worked for several organizations involved in human rights, peace, and social justice work. His work for Save the Children brought him to a refugee camp in Thailand, and his work for Catholic Relief Services brought him to field offices in Burkina Faso, Eritrea, and Ecuador. He has also served with policy advocacy organizations in Washington D.C., such as the Burma Fund, the Peace Tax Fund, and the United States Institute of Peace. He and his wife are proud parents of a nine-year old daughter and a seven-year old son.

	Don Davison, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science Email: ddavison@rollins.edu Don Davison teaches courses in American politics, public policy/political economy, and formal theory and methodology. He earned his B.A. from St. Louis University (Phi Beta Kappa), an M.A. in international relations from the University of Notre Dame, and the Ph.D. from Washington University in St. Louis. His current research examines comparative national approaches to tolerance and integration of minority groups, the distinctive Catholic vote in America, and civil rights policy. Recent publications include,"The Behavioral Consequences of Institutional Rules: Republicans in the House" (2005) and "Alternative Approaches to Equality and Inclusion: Affirmative Action Policies in the United State, Norway, and Sweden" (2004). He has also created an ICPSR data set that has been used at institutions including Harvard, Penn State, UCLA, Emory, Rice, University of Chicago, and the University of Texas. Professor Davison served as a Senior Fulbright Scholar in Poland at the time of democratic transition during which he taught Voting and Elections and Civil Rights at the University of Warsaw. He consulted on electoral practices during the post-Mandela period in South Africa. Professor Davison also serves on the Board of the ICPSR for Quantitative Instructional Technology affiliated with the University of Michigan. He enjoys sports, has two daughters and a golden retriever.

	Joan Davison, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science Email: jdavison@rollins.edu Joan Davison currently chairs the Department of Political Science. She studies and teaches courses in international relations, European politics, modern ideologies and American foreign policy. Her current research focus is democratization and ethno-religious politics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. She recently published "The Politics of Hate: Ultranationalist and Fundamentalist Tactics and Goals" and "Bosnia and Herzegovina's Foreign Policy: A Multi-level Game." Professor Davison received her Ph.D. in government and international affairs from the University of Notre Dame. She also serves as Rollins’ NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative.

	Rick Foglesong, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science Email: rfoglesong@rollins.edu Richard Foglesong is the George and Harriet Cornell Professor of Politics at Rollins, where he has taught American national and sub-national politics since 1984. He has also taught at UCLA, where he was the Harvey Perloff Professor of Urban Planning in 1990; at Hong Kong University, where he was a Fulbright Fellow in 2002; and at Amherst College in Massachusetts, where he began his career. Professor Foglesong is the author of Planning the Capitalist City, published by Princeton University Press, and the co-editor of The Politics of Economic Adjustment. His book Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando was published by Yale University Press in 2001. Professor Foglesong's latest book is Immigrant Prince: Mel Martinez and the American Dream. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago.

	Michael Gunter, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Political Science Email: mgunter@rollins.edu Michael Gunter is a 2007-2010 Cornell Distinguished Faculty Scholar and was selected as a Fulbright Scholar for the U.S. State Department in 2007, targeting civil society and sustainable development at Univerzita Komenskeho in the Slovak Republic. The author of Building the Next Ark: How NGOs Work to Protect Biodiversity with Dartmouth College (2004/2006), Gunter teaches courses in international organization and international security as well as U.S. and global environmental politics. His current research agenda focuses on eco-tourism, namely building on grants to Tambopata Research Center in the Peruvian Amazon, Charles Darwin Research Station in the Galapagos Islands, the Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Austrailia, Hluhluwe-iMfolozi National Park in South Africa, and the peninsula of Antarctica. On the Rollins College campus, Gunter serves as director of the International Relations Program as well as the advisor for the Washington Semester Program and Model U.N. student organization. To visit Dr. Gunter's website, click here.

	Tom Lairson, Ph.D. Professor of Political Science Email: tlairson@rollins.edu Tom Lairson is the Gelbman Professor of International Business, and former director of the International Studies Center at Rollins. He teaches courses in Asian political economy, U.S.- China Relations, Chinese business, and East Asian politics. Professor Lairson received his Ph.D. in political science and a B.S. in economics from the University of Kentucky. Professor Lairson was the first Ford Foundation Professor of International Relations at the Institute for International Relations in Hanoi, Vietnam. He is a Fulbright Fellow at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Lairson has taught at the semester-long program at the Rollins Center in Shanghai and in the MBA program at East China University of Science and Technology in Shanghai. He is the author of works on international political economy, the global financial crisis, economic growth in Vietnam, DARPA and supply chain management. Lairson has taken research trips to Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Hong Kong, and the United Kingdom. He has also conducted several field studies for Rollins students to destinations such as Vietnam, China, Costa Rica, Malaysia, and Singapore.

	Julia Maskivker, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Political Science Email: jmaskivker@rollins.edu Julia Maskivker teaches courses in Problems in Political thought, Justice and the Welfare State, Contemporary Political Theory, Constitutional Law, and Ancient Political Thought. Her teaching and research agenda focuses on analytic ethical and political philosophy, and more specifically on contemporary theories of justice, global ethics, and theories of social and economic citizenship. Her additional scholarly interests include gender and its intersection with social psychology. Her recent publications include: Self-Realization and Justice: A Liberal-Perfectionist Defense of the Right to Freedom from Employment (Book manuscript, publication contract with Routledge), “Discursive Practices in Ancient Athens: A Habermasian Approach” ( The European Legacy, 15:7, 2010, forthcoming),“A Non-Cosmpolitan Case for Sovereign Debt Relief” (The Journal of Global Ethics, 6:1, 2010), “Work-Lovers, Freedom, and Basic Income” (Contemporary Political Theory 9: 4, 2010, forthcoming),“Employment as a Limitation on Self-Ownership” (The Human Rights Review, 12:1 2001, forthcoming, available online), “An Alternative Reply to the Free-Rider Objection Against Unconditional Citizenship Grants” in Ethics and Public Policy, edited by Jonathan Boston. Canberra: The Australian National University Press, 2011 (forthcoming). Maskivker received her Ph.D., M.A., and M. Phil from Columbia University. She received a B.A. from Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, in Buenos Aires, Argentina. To visit Dr. Maskivker's website, click here.

	Eren Tatari, Ph.D. Assistant Professor of Political Science Email: etatari@rollins.edu Eren Tatari teaches courses in comparative politics, Middle East Politics, Muslims in Western Politics, and research methods. Her teaching and research focuses on ethnic and religious minorities in the U.S. and Western Europe (particularly Muslims and Arab Americans), Middle East politics, democratic theory and minority rights, politics and religion, women in Islam, gender politics, and intersectionality. Her recent publications include: “The Politics of Representation in Arab Detroit: Explaining Minority Underrepresented in High Concentration Localities” with A. Sinno, in Target of Opportunity: Arab Detroit in the Terror Decade, edited by N. Abraham, S. Howell, and A. Shryock (forthcoming), “Muslims in UK Institutions: Effective Representation or Tokenism?” with A. Sinno, in Muslims in Western Politics, edited by A. Sinno, “Theories of State Accommodation of Islamic Religious Practices in Western Europe” Journal of Ethnic and Migration Studies, “Institutional Constraints on Effective Minority Representation” European Journal of Economics and Political Studies, forthcoming. Tatari received her Ph.D. from Indiana University and her M.A. from Purdue University. She received a B.A. from Franklin and Marshall College in government and economics. To visit Dr. Tatari's website, click here.

	Austa Weaver Administrative Assistant Email: aweaver@rollins.edu