International Relations Graduate Alumni Newsletter Spring 2009
In This Issue … Chairman’s Message, Alumni Reception, Alumni Profiles, Department News, Faculty Publications
Message From the Chairman
Dear members of the Boston University Department of International Relations Graduate Program community:
Our department is now drawing to the close of our 20th year and there is much exciting news to share. We began the Alumni Newsletter in the Autumn of 2005 in order to bring you up to date on departmental news and to provide alumni with opportunities for staying in contact with each other and with the Department. It is with great pleasure that we present you with the Spring 2008 issue of this semiannual newsletter.
In addition to letting you know about developments in the department, we would like to hear from you, learn what you are doing, and provide you with opportunities for networking with fellow graduates and current faculty.
Thus, in addition to notes regarding new faculty, events on campus, and recent publications by the faculty, we ask that you would email us and let us know what you are doing. In each issue, we will feature an “Alumni Profiles” section spotlighting two of our alumni.
In this issue we report on some exciting faculty and departmental news, and we provide details on the upcoming Alumni Reception. We also feature two alumni, both MA in International Relations graduates, with exciting careers in the field. I hope you enjoy it.
I sincerely look forward to future contact with each and every one of you.
Best Regards,
Erik Goldstein
Chair, Department of International Relations
2009 Alumni Reception
The IR Department is pleased to announce the 2009 IR Alumni Reception. This year’s event will be held on Thursday, March 5, from 6:00 to 9:00 pm. As in past years, the Reception will be held in the IR Department, on the first floor of 154 Bay State Road.
This year, instead of inviting a speaker, we have opted for a more informal affair, a simple, casual reception. A variety of light refreshments and beverages, including beer and wine, will be served. This is a wonderful occasion for spending some time with other alumni and our current students in a relaxed atmosphere, and it is also a great opportunity to reconnect with your former professors.
All alumni from any of our MA programs, as well as their spouses, are welcome to come.
We hope to see many of you there!
Alumni Profiles
Nathan George, IREL, 2007
Nathan George graduated from Boston University in January 2007 with his Master of Arts in International Relations. Shortly thereafter, Nathan moved to Washington, D.C. to take part in the inaugural class of the Department of Homeland Security’s Honors Fellowship Program.
The Honors Fellowship is a two-year program designed to offer those who have recently completed graduate study in the fields of public policy, international relations, or security studies a rotational position at DHS. Participants spend eight months in three different areas of the Department. Rotational assignments are determined through the consideration of both the participant’s interests and DHS personnel needs.
Since beginning the Fellowship in April 2007, Nathan has worked on topics ranging from immigration reform, the screening of goods and people entering and exiting the United States, and the REAL ID initiative. He will complete the Honors Fellowship in April 2009 and is looking forward to continuing his career in the Federal Government.
Sebastián Royo, IREL, 1993
Sebastián Royo graduated from Boston University with a MA in International Relations, a Master in Business Administration in 1993 and a Ph.D. in Political Science in January 1998. Upon graduation, he accepted a faculty position at Suffolk University’s Government Department in Boston, MA, where he has taught courses in Comparative Politics, European Politics, International Relations, and Political Economy.
In October of 2004, he was named director of the Campus that Suffolk University has in Madrid, Spain, one of only two fully accredited American campuses in Spain. Since he lives in Boston, he has developed a long-distance management model using video conferences and online technology to run the campus. He also travels regularly to Spain to visit the campus.
He became Associate Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Suffolk University in Boston in the summer of 2006. In this capacity, he is responsible for academic assessment and accreditation for the College. In addition to the Madrid campus, he also oversees Suffolk University’s other off-site campuses/programs in Dean College and Cape Cod Community College, international and study abroad programs for the College, and College- related SU Dakar Campus issues. He also oversees all university-wide academic support services: the Ballotti Learning Center, and Second Language Services. Finally, he is in charge of the College’s undergraduate advising office, students’ scholarships, retention initiatives, summer programs, and the development of new online courses.
Royo is also an affiliate at the Minda de Gunzburg Center for European Studies at Harvard University, where he co-chairs the Iberian Study Group.
Royo’s articles and reviews on comparative politics have appeared in journals such as Comparative Political Studies, European Journal of Industrial Relations, PS: Political Science and Politics, West European Politics, South European Society and Politics, Democratization, Mediterranean Quarterly, SELA, FP, Perspectives on Politics, and other publications.
His books include From Social Democracy to Neoliberalism: The Consequences of Party Hegemony in Spain, 1982–1996 (2000), A New Century of Corporatism? Corporatism in Southern Europe: Spain and Portugal in Comparative Perspective (2002), Spain and Portugal in the European Union: The First Fifteen Years (with P. Manuel, 2003); Portugal, Espanha e a Integração Europeia: Um Balanço (2005); Varieties of Capitalism in Spain: Remaking the Spanish Economy for the New Century (2008); and Portugal in the 21st Century: Politics, Society and Economics (Forthcoming in 2010). Royo writes a regular column for the Spanish daily Cinco Dias.
His research interests include Southern European and Latin American politics and economic institutions. He is currently working on a project examining the role of institutional arrangements at the regional level in determining national adjustment paths.
Department News
APSIA Membership
The International Relations Department is pleased to announce that after a rigorous application process, we have been accepted as a new Affiliate Member of the Association of Professional Schools of International Affairs (APSIA). APSIA is the premier organization of graduate programs in International Relations. Our acceptance into this prestigious association is a mark of how far the department has come since its founding twenty years ago.
The website for APSIA can be found here.
Vivien Schmidt
Vivien Schmidt, Jean Monnet Professor of European Integration and Director of the Center for International Relations in the Department of International Relations was awarded an honorary doctorate (doctor honoris causa) at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB—Free University of Brussels) on December 9, 2008. She was one of nine honorees in an event that takes place only every two or three years. Other honorees included an Swiss astronomer who discovered a planet in another solar system, a cancer researcher, and an economist working on Grameen microfinance. Schmidt’s work focuses on questions related to European political economy, institutions, and democracy. In addition to the honorary doctorate, the Jean Monnet program of the European Union Commission listed her as one of their Jean Monnet Professor ‘Success Stories’ of 2008.
BU a Top 50 University
The Times Higher Education, a British weekly newspaper about higher education, ranked BU as one of the top 50 universities in the world in its 2008 World University Rankings. BU was listed as number 46 globally and number 21 in the United States. The Times Higher Education rankings are a widely watched barometer of excellence in higher education.
BU President Robert A. Brown said of the ranking that “it is wonderful to be recognized as one of the leading research universities in the world and to be listed along with these peer institutions.”
The complete list of universities can be found here.
China Conference
On December 8, the Pardee Center for the Study of the Longer Range Future and Boston University’s newly established Center for the Study of Asia hosted a major conference called “Three Decades of Reform and Opening: Where Is China Headed?” Organized by International Relations Professor Joseph Fewsmith, this conference brought together leading scholars from Asia, Europe and the United States to assess the enormous changes in China over the past three decades and to discuss the parameters affecting China’s development over the next three decades and more. Organized in four panels, the conference looked at politics, social order, economics and economic decision-making, and systemic constraints, including environment and energy issues. Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy addressed more than 85 people attending the lunch (a video of his address is available on the Pardee Center’s website, http://www.bu.edu/pardee/). By the time the day had ended, more than 120 students and faculty had attended one or more sessions. The papers for the conference are currently being revised. They will be edited into a conference volume by Professor Fewsmith and published by Roman and Littlefield by late 2009 or early 2010.
Faculty Publications
The Immigrant Divide: How Cuban Americans Changed the U.S. and Their Homeland
By Susan Eva Eckstein
Are all immigrants from the same home country best understood as a homogeneous group of foreign-born? Or do they differ in their adaptation and transnational ties depending on when they emigrated and with what lived experiences? Between Castro’s rise to power in 1959 and the early twenty-first century more than a million Cubans immigrated to the United States. While it is widely known that Cuban emigres have exerted a strong hold on Washington policy toward their homeland, Eckstein uncovers a fascinating paradox: the recent arrivals, although poor and politically weak, have done more to transform their homeland than the influential and prosperous early exiles who have tried for half a century to bring the Castro regime to heel. The impact of the so-called New Cubans is an unintended consequence of the personal ties they maintain with family in Cuba, ties the first arrivals oppose. This historically-grounded, nuanced book offers a rare in-depth analysis of Cuban immigrants’ social, cultural, economic, and political adaptation, their transformation of Miami into the ‘northern most Latin American city’, and their cross-border engagement and homeland impact. Eckstein accordingly provides new insight into the lives of Cuban immigrants, into Cuba in the post Soviet era, and into how Washington’s failed Cuba policy might be improved. She also posits a new theory to deepen the understanding not merely of Cuban but of other immigrant group adaptation. (From the publisher)
China Since Tiananmen (2nd Edition)
By Joseph Fewsmith
In a new edition of his path-breaking analysis of political and social change in China since the crackdown in Tiananmen Square in 1989, Joseph Fewsmith traces developments since 2001. These include the continuing reforms during the final years of Jiang Zemin’s premiership and Hu Jintao’s succession in 2002. Here the author also considers social trends and how Chinese citizens are starting to have a significant influence on government policies. As Fewsmith – a highly regarded political scientist and a seasoned China-watcher – observes, China is a very different place today than it was eighteen years ago. In the interim, it has emerged from isolation to become one of the most significant players on the world stage. This book – more than any other – explains the forces that have shaped China since Tiananmen. (From the publisher)