Our graduate students possess a wealth of talent and scholarly accomplishment. We are proud to draw your attention to Ph.D. candidates seeking academic appointments. Please contact them directly regarding their credentials and areas of interest.

For further information about our Ph.D. program, please contact Richard Olson, Chair, Department of Political Science.

 

D. Jason Berggren (Ph.D. expected Spring 2007). [email link] [CV link] Jason's primary research and teaching interests include the American presidency, parties, the South, and religion and politics. Jason was recently selected to receive a one-year university presidential fellowship to complete his Ph.D. dissertation, "'I Had a Different Way of Governing": The Evangelical Presidential Style of Jimmy Carter and His Quest for Middle East Peace." Since 2002, he has taught American Government and Political Parties at the undergraduate level. For the 2005-2006 school year, he won the university-wide Graduate Student Excellence in Teaching award. Jason has published single-authored articles in the following peer-reviewed journals: the Forum, the Journal of Church and State, the Middle East Affairs Journal (2), Presidential Studies Quarterly, and White House Studies. Additionally, one of his articles that appeared in the Middle East Affairs Journal was translated into Arabic and re-published by the King Faisal Center for Research and Islamic Studies in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. As co-author with Dr. Nicol C. Rae, he has a forthcoming book chapter, "George W. Bush, Religion, and European Anti-Americanism," which will appear in Brendon O'Connor's multi-volume work on the sources and politics of global anti-Americanism. He holds a B.A. degree from Eckerd College and an M.A. degree from Florida State University.

Kathryn DePalo (Ph.D. 2006). [email link] [CV link] Kathryn DePalo received her Ph.D. in political science from Florida International University in 2006. Her dissertation examining the effects of term limits on Florida’s state legislature is under final revisions as a book length manuscript entitled, Shifting Political Ambition: The Case of Term Limits in Florida. Dr. DePalo has extensive experience in state and local government processes and elections both in Connecticut and Florida. Her teaching focus is American Government, including judicial process, public opinion and electoral behavior, and state and local government. Dr. DePalo’s primary research interest is in state and local politics, ranging from state judicial selection, legislative behavior, and gubernatorial elections. She is currently working on the effects of gender in state legislative politics and career paths of term-limited legislators, and the effects of partisanship in state legislatures. Dr. DePalo has been a Visiting Professor in the political science department at Florida International University since 2006.

Gaye Gungor (Ph.D. expected Spring 2007). [email link] [CV link] Gaye's main fields of interest are comparative politics and international relations, focusing geographically on Europe and theoretically on questions of institutional change. Her dissertation examines the impact of the European Union eastern enlargement on the European Parliament and its supranational party systems. She has taught courses at University of Florida, Gainesville and at Vesalius College, Brussels on "Politics and Institutions of the European Union," "Dynamics of World Politics," and "Introduction to International Relations." Her article on the European Parliament was recently published in an edited volume, Towards the Completion of Europe: Analysis and Perspectives of the New European Union Enlargement (Miami-EU Center of Excellence, University of Miami Press, 2006). She is also the co-author of an article (with Amie Kreppel) "Institutional Integration of an Expanded EU or How 'New' European Actors Fit into 'Old' European Institutions" in IHS Political Science Series, March 2006.