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Our program has been quite successful in placing our graduates. Since 2000, 32 out of 33 of our graduates from the PhD program have received tenure-track appointments in a variety of academic institutions. Almost all of these students received offers during their final year in the program while completing their degree and in their first year on the job market. Below you will find profiles of some recent graduates and a list of recent placements.


Spotlight on Placements
Sarah Fulton Sarah A. Fulton (PhD, 2006) is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University. She is interested in campaigns and elections, with an emphasis on women in American politics. Her dissertation, Alice Through the Looking Glass: Gender, Perceptions and the Decision to Run, considered the impact of gender and attitudes on the decision to run for higher office, using a large-n mail survey she conducted among a national sample of state legislators. Sarah has received a number of awards, most recently the Pi Sigma Alpha Award for the best paper presented at the 2007 meeting of the Western Political Science Association for research based on her dissertation. She has published articles in the Political Research Quarterly and the American Political Science Review (with Cherie Maestas, L. Sandy Maisel, and Walter J. Stone) and is currently working on a project that examines the impact of gender on electoral outcomes and fundraising success. dbrunstetter.jpg Daniel Brunstetter (PhD, 2005) is an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Irvine. Daniel studies political theory, with a focus on early modern thought. His dissertation, Conquest of Paradigms: The Discovery of the New World and the rise of Modernity, explored the impact of the Discovery of the New World on the evolution of European thought, illustrating how the shock of this unforeseeable encounter led to a paradigm shift in the European understanding of human nature and politics. As a graduate student, Daniel received a number of awards, including a Chateaubriand Fellowship to conduct research in France. His current research interests include early modern political thought, the just war, and French political thought in the Enlightenment. He is currently working on a project that examines the importance of the sixteenth-century Spanish debates about the conquest of the New World in clarifying contemporary questions about the just war.
Michael Koch (PhD, 2002) is an Assistant Professor at Texas A&M University. Mike's research focuses on the intersection of domestic and international politics. He examines how variations in the political systems within states affect foreign policy, for example how political competition and the subsequent partisan outcomes in democratic governments shape foreign policy decisions between states. Mike received an Institute of Global Conflict and Cooperation dissertation fellowship, and after graduating was a post-doctoral research fellow at Pennsylvania State University and was then awarded a UC Davis Faculty Fellowship. His publications include "Casualties and Democratic Accountability: Electoral Rules and Costly Conflicts" in Journal of Conflict Resolution (with Scott S. Gartner) and "Testing Contending Explanations of the Democratic Peace" in Conflict Management and Peace Science (with Bruce Bueno de Mesquita and Randolph M. Siverson). Patricia Sullivan (PhD, 2004) is an Assistant Professor at the University of Georgia. Tricia's dissertation, The Utility of Force: War Aims and Asymmetric War Outcomes, explored why militarily strong states frequently fail to achieve their political objectives when they use military force against weak state and non-state targets. As a graduate student, Tricia received several research fellowships, including dissertation fellowships from the Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation and University of California. She was also awarded an NSF dissertation improvement grant. A paper based on a chapter of her thesis was awarded the 2004 Graduate Student Paper Prize by American Political Science Association section on Military Operations and Strategy. She has a recent article (with Scott S. Gartner) in International Interactions: "Disaggregating Peace: Domestic Politics and Dispute Outcomes."

Recent Placements
   
Leo Blanken Naval Postgraduate School (2008)
Skyler Cranmer University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (2008)
Nikolaus Emmanuel Oklahoma State University (2008)
Gregory Love University of Mississippi (2008)
Molly M. Melin Loyola University Chicago (2008)
Jennifer Ramos Loyola Marymount University (2008)
Gloria Walker Centenary College of Louisiana (2008)

Olga Bogatyrenko SUNY, Fredonia (2007)
Ryan Dudley California Maritime Academy (2007)
Sarah Fulton Texas A&M University (2007)
V. Gregg Garbesi United States Naval Academy (2007)
Dana Zartner-Falstrom Tulane University (2007)

Daniel Brunstetter University of California, Irvine (2006)


Matthew Carlson University of Vermont (2005)
Ryan Claassen Kent State University (2005)
Michael Koch Texas A&M University (2005)
Michael Rocca University of New Mexico (2005)
Patricia Sullivan University of Georgia (2005)

Cynthia Boaz SUNY, Brockport (2004)

Christian Erickson Roosevelt University (2003)
Tiffany Jones University of Dallas (2003)
Kimberly L. Nalder California State University, Sacramento (2003)

Bethany Barratt Roosevelt University (2002)
Teena Gabrielson Southwestern University (2002; currently at University of Wyoming)
John J. Kennedy University of Kansas (2002)

Richard Andres School of Advanced Airpower Studies (2001)
Thomas G. Hansford University of South Carolina (2001; currently at University of California, Merced)
Stephen R. Routh California State University, Stanislaus (2001)
Lisa Sharlach University of Alabama (2001)

Craig Collins California State University, Hayward (2000)
David Damore University of Nevada, Las Vegas (2000)
Matthew Hoddie Texas A&M University (2000; currently at Towson University)

Monica Barczak University of Nevada, Las Vegas (1998)
Stephen Nicholson Georgia State University (1998; Currently at University of California, Merced)

Stacy (Burnett) Gordon University of Nevada, Reno (1997)
Roger Rose Benedictine University (1997)
Nancy Shulock California State University, Sacramento (1997)
Linda Valenty San Jose State University (1997)

Haeran Lim Seoul National University (1996)
Catherine Nelson Sonoma State University (1996)

Ross Miller Santa Clara University (1995) (Currently at University of Nebraska)

Caroline A. Hartzell Gettysburg College (1994)