Department of Political Science
Political Science Faculty & Staff
Meet the Department of Political Science's faculty and staff members.
Faculty
Mike Gunter, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science | Department Chair
CSS 214
T. 407.646.2263
Ph.D., MA University of Kentucky
BA Vanderbilt University
Michael Gunter, Jr., Ph.D. is a Cornell Distinguished Faculty and Arthur Vining Davis Fellow at Rollins College where he chairs the Department of Political Science and serves as the college’s NCAA Faculty Athletic Representative. A former Fulbright Scholar for the US State Department at Univerzita Komenského in the Slovak Republic, and a veteran traveler across all seven continents, Gunter writes and speaks about climate change politics, ecotourism, and all things sustainable development. His work has appeared in/on Inside Higher Ed, NPR, The Washington Post, and USA Today. Books include: Climate Travels: How Ecotourism Changes Mindsets and Motivates Action (forthcoming with Columbia University Press in April 2023), Tales of an Eco-tourist: What Travel to Wild Places Can Teach Us about Climate Change (SUNY, 2018), and Building the Next Ark: How NGOs Work to Protect Biodiversity (Dartmouth, 2004/2006). His literary agent is Jane Dystel of Dystel, Goderich & Bourret LLC. More information on Dr. Gunter can be found here.
Dexter Boniface, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
Cornell Hall – Room 202
T. 407.646.2389
MA., Ph.D. University of Illinois
Dr. Boniface is Professor of Political Science and holds the Weddell Chair of the Americas at Rollins. Dexter was a visiting fellow at the Center for Inter-American Studies and Programs at the Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México (ITAM) in Mexico City in 2009-2010. He is co-editor of the book Promoting Democracy in the Americas (Johns Hopkins, 2007) and the author of numerous articles in journals such as Comparative Politics, Foreign Affairs Latinoamérica, and Global Governance.
Dan Chong, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
Cornell Hall – Room 208
T. 407.691.1709
Ph.D., International Relations from American University
MA, International Peace Studies from the University of Notre Dame
Dr. Dan Chong teaches courses in international human rights, global poverty, and peace and conflict resolution. He has led international field study courses focused on human rights and poverty to Guatemala, South Africa, Tanzania, and the Thai-Burma border. His first book, Freedom from Poverty: NGOs and Human Rights Praxis (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2011), analyzes the methods that NGOs use to advocate for rights to food, housing, and health care. He has also contributed to journals such as Development and Change, Human Rights Review, and Global Environmental Politics. His Debating Human Rights (Lynne Rienner Publishers, 2014), is an undergraduate textbook that examines major controversies in the field of human rights. He is currently working on an undergraduate textbook on global development for Lynne Rienner Publishers. He also serves as the faculty advisor for the Amnesty International student club and as the Program Director for the Social Innovation major at Rollins.
Don Davison, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
Cornell Hall – Room 205
T. 407.646.2505
Ph.D., Washington University in St. Louis
MA, University of Notre Dame
BA, St. Louis University
Dr. Davison specializes in political behavior, American institutions, public policy and formal theory and methodology. His research focuses upon the effects of race and religion on political behavior and the reactions by majority populations to minority voting rights. During Poland’s transition to democracy in the 1990s he taught courses on democracy and rights at the Graduate School of the University of Warsaw as a Senior Fulbright Scholar. His research enables him to travel extensively including to South Africa, Turkey, Portugal, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Panama, Malta, and Spain. Dr. Davison served as the Associate Dean of the College of Liberal Arts from 2009 - 2011. His most recent publications include “The Myth of the Catholic Vote: The Influence of Ideology and Theology on Catholics in Presidential Elections, 1972-2008,” with Michael Krassa, (2011), “Deliberative Democracy: Health Care and the Limits of Increased Information Levels,” with Daniel Reagan and Josh Raines, (2011), and “American Conservatism: The Influence of the Tea Party on the Republican Party,” (2013). He is also the editor for the European peer reviewed Politics and Religion Journal’s special edition on the United States and a member of its international editorial board.
Pavielle Haines, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of Political Science
Cornell Hall - Room 211
T. 407.646.2852
Dr. Pavielle Haines specializes in American identity politics, political psychology, political behavior, and public opinion. Her current research examines how presidential candidates use patriotic rhetoric to shape public attitudes about who counts as “truly American" — and who does not. She received her PhD from the Department of Politics at Princeton University in the spring of 2018. Her research won the 2019 Best Dissertation in Political Psychology Award from the American Political Science Association
Julia Maskivker, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
Cornell Hall - Room 212
T. 407.646.2301
Ph.D., Political Science, Columbia University
BA, Political Science, Universidad Di Tella, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Dr. Julia Maskivker is a political theorist whose teaching and research focuses on contemporary theories of justice, global ethics, and social and economic citizenship. She teaches the following courses at Rollins: Problems in Political Thought, Ancient Political Theory, Welfare and Justice, Constitutional Law and Contemporary Political Theory. Her recent publications include: Self-Realization and Justice: A Liberal-Perfectionist Defense of the Right to Freedom from Employment (Routledge 2012), and “Discursive Practices in Ancient Athens: A Habermasian Approach” (The European Legacy, 15:7, 2010).
Dr. Tahmina Rahman
Visiting Assistant Professor
Cornell Hall - Room 206
T. 407-646-2551
Faculty Emeriti
Joan Davison, Ph.D.
Professor Emerita
T. 407-646-2155
M.A., Ph.D., University of Notre Dame
Joan Davison joined the Political Science Department faculty in 1986, teaching courses in international relations and comparative politics, including International Law, Globalization, and US Foreign Policy. Her research interests focus upon both societal and institutional responses to ethnoreligious diversity particularly in the Balkans. She is the author of more than 30 articles and the co-editor of Walling, Boundaries and Liminality: A political anthropology of transformations (Routledge, 2018). She continues to serve as a media expert on issues related to the region, especially Ukraine and Russia. Dr. Davison is a recipient of the Cornell Distinguished Faculty Fellowship, Arthur Vining Davis Fellowship, Wye Fellowship, Jesse Ball duPont Fellowship, and Institute of European Studies Fellowship; she is a member of the Pi Sigma Alpha, Alpha Sigma Nu, and Omicron Phi Delta honor societies. Dr. Davison served as Rollins’ NCAA Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) for more than 30 years. She was an active voice for academic integrity and student athlete well-being in intercollegiate athletics. Her service included six years as a member of the Faculty Athletics Representative Association (FARA) Executive Committee, three years of which she served in the national presidency. Dr. Davison is a recipient of the National Student Athlete Advisory Council FAR of the Year Award. In recognition of her work, Dr. Davison became a 2022 inductee of the Sunshine State Conference Athletics Hall of Fame. She previously was inducted as a member of the inaugural class into the Wheeling University Athletics Hall of Fame as a basketball student-athlete.
Rick Foglesong, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
T. 407-646-2155
MA., Ph.D. University of Chicago
Richard Foglesong is the George & Harriet Cornell Professor of Political Science, and teaches courses on American national politics, urban politics, and urban policy. He is also the political analyst for Orlando’s ABC-affiliate TV station, WFTV-Ch.9. Dr. Foglesong was the first recipient of Rollins’ Bornstein Award for Outstanding Scholarship; his books include Immigrant Prince: Mel Martinez and the American Dream (University Press of Florida, 2010); Married to the Mouse: Walt Disney World and Orlando (Yale, 2001); and Planning the Capitalist City (Princeton, 1986). He has also taught at UCLA, where he was the Harvey Perloff Visiting Professor of Urban Planning, and Hong Kong University, where he was a Fulbright Fellow. His civic activities include chairing the Citizens Advisory Committee for MetroPlan Orlando, the Orlando area’s three-county transportation planning agency. Dr. Foglesong received his MA in Urban Studies and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago, where he was a Ford Foundation Fellow.
Thomas D. Lairson
Professor Emeritus
Thomas D. Lairson is Professor of Political Science at Jindal Global University and Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Rollins College. He was formerly the Gelbman Professor of International Business and Professor of Political Science at Rollins College. He received the Ph.D. in political science from the University of Kentucky. Dr. Lairson was the first Ford Foundation Professor of International Relations in 1994 at the Institute for International Relations in Hanoi and has taught at East China University of Science and Technology, Wuhan University, and at Jindal Global University in India. He was awarded a Senior Fulbright Fellowship for Singapore in 2011. Dr. Lairson teaches courses on the political economy of Asia, with a focus on China and India. He has published articles recently on the global financial crisis, U.S.-China relations, Vietnam and China, the global economy, state capitalism in China, and the strategic relationship of China and Russia. With David Skidmore, he is author of International Political Economy: The Struggle for Power and Wealth in a Globalizing World, Routledge, 2017. Professor Lairson is currently completing a book entitled “State Capitalism and Economic Growth in China.”