Job Market PhD

Cammie Jo Bolin
Ph.D. Candidate – American Government
BA Centre College; MA Georgetown University
Women and politics; Political representation; Campaigns and elections; Religion and politics.

Ph.D. dissertation
Redesigning Women? Congressional Candidate Advertising Strategy and Women’s Political Engagement
Jamil Scott (Chair), Michele L. Swers, Clyde Wilcox

Publications
Benjamin R. Knoll and Cammie Jo Bolin. (2018) “She Preached the Word: Women’s Ordination in Modern America”. New York, NY: Oxford University Press. 
Benjamin R. Knoll and Cammie jo Bolin. (2019). “Religious Communication and Persuasion”. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Politics, edited by Paul A. Djupe, Mark Rozell and Ted G. Jelen. New York: Oxford University Press.
Cammie Jo Bolin. Women as Religious Leaders: The Gendered Politics of Shutting Down. (forthcoming).

Justin Casey

Ph.D. Candidate – International Relations
BS Towson University; MA Georgetown University
Propaganda; Ideology; Power Politics; Subversion; Hegemony; the Far Right

Ph.D. dissertation
Enemy Voices: The Evolution of Anglo-American Propaganda
Daniel Nexon (Chair), David Edelstein, Abraham L. Newman

Abstract
Despite a long and illustrious history, and increasing scholarly attention to subversion, propaganda — the use of information to achieve foreign policy outcomes by influencing populations — remains largely untheorized in international relations. Depending on who you ask, propaganda is either a relic of the past or a ubiquitous tool that all states use, a weapon of the weak or a means for the strong to subvert the weak. But these assumptions mask important variations in where and why democracies employ propaganda in peacetime. In comparison to authoritarian states, I find that democracies have immense difficulty in building and maintaining support for propaganda policies. This is because elites disagree about the risks, effectiveness, and appropriateness of propaganda. I argue that strong propaganda policies, with greater scope, intensity, and institutional support, emerge when policymakers perceive their country’s influence to be waning. Doubters of propaganda may assume that rival propaganda is hitting its mark, leading them to discount their misgivings. Meanwhile, greater sophistication in measuring public opinion and indicators of “success” further embolden leaders to take action. Normative concerns are harder to allay, and they prompt either restraint or innovative reframings like public diplomacy and soft power. To test this argument, I draw on thousands of archival documents gathered from The National Archives in London and the Truman, Eisenhower, and Reagan Presidential Libraries. I conduct comparative process tracing of US and UK policymaking at four critical junctures: the interwar (1919-1941), Early Cold War (1945-1956), Late Cold War (1977-1987), and post-1991 world. This dissertation draws on recently declassified documents on the covert propaganda policies of the Thatcher administration and speaks to the need for the US and UK to reply to Chinese and Russian disinformation campaigns. 

Publications
Ideological Topography in World Politics: A Guide to the End of the Unipolar-Homogeneous Moment (International Studies Quarterly)
With Friends Like These: The Disadvantages of Total Ideology (working) Alternate Universalities: The Sources, Conduct, and Outcomes of Ideological Bloc Conflicts(with Daniel Nexon, Working)

Andrew P. Gibson
PhD Candidate – Political Theory/International Relations
BA Michigan State University; MA The University of Chicago; MA Georgetown University
Machiavelli, Republicanism, Renaissance Political Thought, IR Realism

Ph.D. dissertation
The Transatlantic Machiavelli: Political Realism, Renaissance Republicanism, and Twentieth Century Power Politics (1915-1975)

Abstract
This dissertation traces the place of Niccolò Machiavelli(1469-1527) in twentieth century political thought. Part I begins by examining the triplet concepts of Machiavellismus, Militarismus (militarism), and Machtpolitik (power politics) during the early days of the Weimar Republic into the rise of the Third Reich. In these chapters, I explore how Friedrich Meinecke (1862-1954), Gerhard Ritter (1888-1967), and other historians of the modern state used the popular image of Machiavelli and the historical development of his writings to reflect on themes of republican government and great power conflict in modernity. In Part II, I trace how German-Jewish émigré scholars—influenced by these earlier debates and their own experience of persecution and exile—wrote scholarly monographs on Machiavelli seeking to revive and defend “republican” and “civic humanist” theories of citizenship. In these chapters, I focus on the lives and works of Felix Gilbert (1905-1991) and Hans Baron (1900-1988). By uncovering the political origins of these émigré engagements, I show how layers of thinking on crisis in republican governments shaped twentieth century visions of state power.

Publications
A ‘Republican by Reason’: Friedrich Meinecke, the Reason of State, and the Problem of Machiavellism (working paper)

Ji Min Kim
Ph.D. Student – Political Theory
MA New York University
People’s sovereignty in liberal democracies; Constitutional justification of ‘the people’; Political participation through non-institutional means

Ahmed Khattab
Ph.D. Candidate – Comparative Government
BA American University in Cairo; BBA American University in Cairo; MA University of Toronto
Migration; Diaspora politics; Citizenship; Autocracy

Ph.D. dissertation
Crises and Emigrants: The Engineering of Domestic Politics Abroad

Abstract
How do political crises affect the relationship between home states and their emigrants? When offered political engagement opportunities, why do some emigrants choose to participate, refrain, or shift between these alternatives? What explains these variations? Through the lens of the Arab uprisings and antecedent politics, I examine how developing [sending] states in crisis engage with their extraterritorial citizens. My dissertation strives to account for the contentious politics of activating and deactivating diasporic communities during politically turbulent times. 

Publications
Ahmed Khattab. “When Social Mobility is Not an Option: How the Kafala System Encourages Anti-Immigrant Sentiment”. (Under review).
Ahmed Khattab. “A Tale of Two Uprisings: Egyptians and the Military”. (R&R).
Ahmed Khattab. “Political Crises and Diaspora Enfranchisement: Egypt and Tunisia’s Emigrant-Citizens”. (Working paper).