Faculty News

Jeffrey Legro chaired the American Political Science Association Task Force on U.S. Standing in the World.  The Task Force report U.S. Standing in the World: Causes, Consequences, and the Future was released October  1, 2009 and can be accessed at http://www.apsanet.org/content_59477.cfm.

Carol Mershon was named as a Program Director at the National Science Foundation for 2009-2010. She also has a grant from the UVa-Rome Faculty Exchange for 2009.

Sonal Pandya received 2009 Mancur Olson Award for the Best Dissertation in Political Economy awarded by the American Political Science Association.

Eric Patashnik is currently working on a research project with Alan Gerber from Yale Univ. on the politics of evidence-based medicine.  They have received $485,000 in grants from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Smith Richardson Foundation.  Eric has been appointed Associate Dean of the Batten School of Leadership and Public Policy. The August annual meeting of the American Political Science Association featured an “Author Meets Critics” Roundtable on Eric Patashnik’s new book just out from Princeton University Press.

James Savage was elected Vice Chair and forthcoming Chair of the Association for Budgeting and Financial Management. The ABFM is the largest section of the American Society for  Public Administration, which publishes the journal Public Administration Review.

Vesla Weaver received an award from the Public Policy Section of APSA for best paper on public policy presented at the annual meetings. The paper (co-authored with Jennifer Hochschild) was “The Shifting Politics of Multiracialism in the United States.”

Stephen White won a UVA “All-University Teaching Award” and has been nominated for an award from Virginia State Council of Higher Education.

Brantly Womack organized a series of five two-person mini-conferences at the Miller Center on China’s Rise in Historical Perspective.  The resulting book will be published in 2010.  He also participated in a conference at National University of Singapore on Bridging China Studies and International Relations Theory, Furman University’s National Conference on the Rise of China, and lectured at Seoul National University, Dongkuk University, Jilin University, and East China Normal University.

Emeritus News

Matthew Holden, Jr.,  Henry L. and Grace Doherty Professor Emeritus in the Department of Politics, was named as the first Wepner Distinguished Professor in Political Science at the University of Illinois at Springfield, where he also delivered the commencement address at the University of Illinois - Springfield, on May 16, 2009.

In Memoriam

Alfred P. Fernbach, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Politics, passed away on February 27, 2009, at the age of 93.  Professor Fernbach's obituary may be found at the following address: http://www.legacy.com/DailyProgress/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStoryPrint&PersonID=125330435