Letter from the Director

Dear Friends,

In 2015 we continued to execute the School’s mission to generate and diffuse knowledge that contributes to society’s understanding of politics and governance at local, national and global levels.   [[{"fid":"798","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: right;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]

Letter from the Director

Dear Friends,

In 2015 we continued to execute the School’s mission to generate and diffuse knowledge that contributes to society’s understanding of politics and governance at local, national and global levels.   [[{"fid":"798","view_mode":"default","fields":{"format":"default","field_file_image_alt_text[und][0][value]":"","field_file_image_title_text[und][0][value]":""},"type":"media","link_text":null,"attributes":{"style":"float: right;","class":"panopoly-image-original media-element file-default"}}]]

The School of Politics and Global Studies benefited in 2013 from a generous gift from 1980 alumnus, Brian A. Kopf. Kopf earned his B.S. in Political Science from Arizona State University. He also attended DeVry Institute, becoming an expert on information technology. He retired from J.P. Morgan Chase Bank as vice-president in 1952.

Questions of political violence and rights have motivated scholars, thinkers, and policy-makers for generations. This working group represents several different perspectives of this important area of research. Our researchers come from several different methodological perspectives and conduct research on topics ranging from why states go to war, the dynamics of civil conflict, the scope of repression in states, the development and dynamics of Human Rights institutions, how conflict shapes state development, and the role of gender in conflict.

A major source of political activity, as well as violent conflict, is generated by nationalist movements, ethnic and religious-based groups. Our working group, Nationalist and Ethno-religious Dynamics (NERD), seeks to better understand the role of religion and ethnicity in collective political action, variations in patterns of behavior by such groups, their interactions with states and other international actors, their influence on the promotion or violation of human rights, and the sources and impact of their motivations and capacities for organization and any subsequent political action.