Larry Boothe

Huiyun Feng is Assistant Professor of Political Science at Utah State University where she teaches courses in comparative politics, Chinese government and politics, and foreign and security policy making of the Asia Pacific. She received her Ph.D. from Arizona State University in 2005. She was a former peace scholar from the United State Institute for Peace (2003-04). Her research interests include foreign policy decision-making, security and strategic studies, Chinese foreign policy, Asian security, and track II diplomacy. Her publication includes her book Chinese Strategic Culture:   Confucianism, Leadership and Operational Code Analysis (2007), a book chapter "Crisis Deferred: An Operational Code Analysis of Chinese Leaders Across the Straits." In Stephen G. Walker and Mark Schafer (eds.) Beliefs and Leadership in World Politics (2006) and an article "The Operational Codes Of Mao Zedong:  Offensive or Defensive Realists?" Security Studies (2005).

William Furlong is a professor of political science. He received his Ph.D. and a Certificate in Latin American Studies from the University of Florida in 1967. He previously taught at New College in Sarasota, Florida. His teaching interests include: Latin American politics, U.S.-Latin American relations, U.S. Foreign Policy, Comparative Politics, and International Relations. He was a contract employee for USAID in Peru for two years. He lived and taught in Argentina for nearly three years. He has received three senior Fulbright Lectureships to Costa Rica and Panama, and has taught several special workshops and lectured for USIA in several Latin American countries. He was awarded USU’s Professor of the Year in 1984, and since has been the HASS College Researcher of the Year and Advisor of the Year. He is one of the Pi Sigma Alpha’s advisers and has twice been awarded the National Adviser of the Year. He is the author of two books: The Dynamics of Foreign Policy Making: The President, the Congress, and The Panama Canal Treaties, with Margaret Scranton; and The End of the Beginning or the Beginning of the End: Twenty Years of Electoral Politics in Costa Rica. He has published several articles and chapters in books on Latin American politics and on U.S.-Latin American relations.

Peter Galderisi

David Goetze

Roberta Herzberg

Jeannie Johnson teaches political science and university studies courses, primarily focusing on institution building, world cultures, and development. Her regional speciality -- studies regarding the former Yugoslavia -- comes from recent work experience with the Central Intelligence Agency and State Department. This background provides the foundation for two upper division courses: Careers in Government and Balkan Politics. Her love for teaching was rewarded last year when she received the university's student-nominated Gerald R. Sherratt Award for excellence in teaching and student relations. Jeannie dedicates her free time to travel, photography, exploring Utah's deserts, running, and her family.

Patria de Lancer Julnes

Charles Kay

Michael Lyons received his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of California, Santa Barbara in 1979. He specializes in U.S. national institutions and environmental policy. Together with Peter F. Galderisi and Marni Ezra, he edited Congressional Primaries and the Politics of Representation (Rowman and Littlefield, 2001). Other notable, recent publications include "Political Self Interest in U.S. Environmental Policy," Natural Resources Journal (July, 1999), and "Presidential Character Revisited," Political Psychology, (December, 1997). He is currently working on "The Political Rationality of Economic Inefficiency in U.S. Environmental Policy," and "Presidential Legacies In U.S. Environmental Policy." He has served as an A.P.S.A. Congressional Fellow, represented Utah as a delegate to the Democratic National Convention, and consulted on a U.S. House campaign. He was also selected as the 1986 U.S.U. Professor of the Year and as the 2002 U.S.U. Social Science Teacher of the Year.

Carol McNamara is a lecturer in Political Science at Utah State University in Logan. She received her Ph. D. from Boston College in 1996. She teaches political theory and a course on the American Presidency. Her research interests are in ancient political thought and politics and literature. In particular, she works on the thought of Xenophon and Plato. Currently, she is working on the writings, both fiction and non-fiction, of Tom Wolfe. She is the author of "Men and Money in Tom Wolfe’s America," published in Seers and Seekers (Lexington Press, 2001), and a recent as yet unpublished paper, "Transcendence in Tom Wolfe’s America," (presented at the American Political Science Association Annual Meeting, Boston, 2002).

Peter McNamara teaches political theory. He specializes in early modern political thought. He is the author of Political Economy and Statesmanship: Smith, Hamilton and the Foundation of the Commercial Republic (1997) and editor of The Noblest Minds: Fame, Honor, and the American Founding (1999). His current project is "Liberalism and Human Nature."

Anthony A. Peacock teaches public law in the Political Science Department at Utah State University. He has a Ph.D. from the Claremont Graduate School (1997) and a law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School, York University (1987). He practiced civil litigation in Toronto from 1989 - 1992. He is the author or editor of three books: Deconstructing the Republic: The Supreme Court, the Voting Rights Act, and the Rationalist and Multiculturalist Challenge to the Founders’ Republicanism (forthcoming, The AEI Press), Affirmative Action and Representation: Shaw v. Reno and the Future of Voting Rights (Carolina Academic Press, 1997), and Rethinking the Constitution: Perspectives on Canadian Constitutional Reform, Interpretation, and Theory (Oxford University Press, 1996). He has published numerous articles, book chapters, and book reviews. His interests are in the fields of constitutional law, constitutional theory, and political philosophy.

Shannon Peterson is a lecturer in Political Science at Utah State University where she teaches courses in international relations and comparative politics.  She received her Ph.D. from the Ohio State University in 2003.  Her research interests include transnational relations, international organizations, and U.S. foreign policy.  Her current research focuses on understanding the decision making process behind U.S. decisions of armed humanitarian intervention in the post-cold war era. Shannon is also the co-advisor for the Alpha Iota chapter of the Political Science National Honor Society, Pi Sigma Alpha (PSA), which  for the past three years has received the Best Chapter award for universities in its class (over 17,000 students).  In addition, last year Shannon and her co-advisor, Dr. William Furlong, collectively received the best  PSA Advisor award. Although originally from Utah, Shannon has lived in Asia, Europe and Central America. Shannon and her husband, Mike Rigby, love to travel and hope to resume their adventures abroad sometime in the near future with their two young daughters.

Carolyn Rhodes is Professor of Political Science at Utah State University where she teaches courses in international and comparative politics. She received her Ph.D. from Brandeis University in 1987. Her research interests include international trade relations and bilateral negotiations within international institutional contexts. In particular, she has examined United States - European Union, United States - Canada, and United States - Japan relations within the context of the World Trade Organization. She is also interested in the development of the European Union and its role as an international actor. Her books include Reciprocity, U.S. Trade Relations and the GATT Regime (1993), The State of the European Union: Building a European Polity? (1995), The European Union in the World Community (1998), and Pivotal Decisions: Selected Cases in Twentieth-Century International Politics (2000). In her teaching Dr. Rhodes often utilizes the case method approach and enjoys engaging her students in critical discussions about the policy making process. Raised on a ranch in the mountains of Idaho, she has a strong appreciation for "wide open spaces" and time spent with her family. She likes horse-back riding, gardening, cooking and reading. With her husband Tod Shenton, a livestock nutritionist and rancher, she has two small children Brett and Matthew.

Randy Simmons is a political scientist who emphasizes the importance of economic reasoning to better understand public policy. He believes the study of politics cannot be separated from the study of markets. Simmons uses this framework to evaluate environmental and natural resource policies. The real challenge of the social process, as he sees it, is to design institutions that have outcomes that closely represent the wishes of individuals. He believes that markets are often the best way to achieve this objective when they are insulated from political influence.  Simmons’ current research focuses on the Endangered Species Act. He stresses that threatened and endangered species are not simply a biological problem but a social problem, since the threat to their existence is a consequence of economic and political processes. In 2002 he had two books published. The first, Critical Thinking About Endangered Species, is a source book for middle and high schoolers. The second, credited with Charles Kay is titled Wilderness and Political Ecology: Aboriginal Influences and the Original State of Nature. It challenges conventional wisdom about the state of the Americas at Columbian contact.  His other books include Beyond Politics: Markets, Welfare, and the Failure of Bureaucracy, a primer on public choice economics coauthored with William Mitchell, and The Political Economy of Culture and Norms, co-edited with Terry Anderson. Simmons has also written widely on the conservation of African elephants.

V. James Strickler is an Assistant Professor of Political Science.  He received his Doctorate of Philosophy in Political Science from Stanford University in 2006, with emphasis in the areas of American Politics, Political Theory, and U.S. History.  He also has a Juris Doctorate from the J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University.  It was at BYU that he also earned his Bachelor of Arts degree, in Political Science and History Teaching.  Prior to joining the faculty at Utah State, he had taught courses in political science and history at DePauw University, San Jose State University, Stanford University, Brigham Young University, Utah Valley State College, and Ballou Senior High School in southeast Washington, D.C.  At Utah State he primarily teaches in the Law and Constitutional Studies major.  His research and teaching interests are centered on the American courts and constitutional law, but he also has interests in political philosophy and media & politics.  He is originally from Sweet Home, Oregon.  He has a beautiful wife, Kathleen, a daughter, Brooklyn, and three sons, Nathanael, Powell, and Reagan.  He enjoys arguing about politics and sports, playing football and basketball, watching science documentaries, and reading thrillers.

Veronica Ward