Four new faculty members join department.
September 1, 2007
We are pleased to announce the arrival of four new faculty members to the Political Science Department for the 2007-08 academic year.
Christopher Zorn joins us from previous positions as Professor of Political Science at the University of South Carolina (2005-2007), Visiting Scientist and Program Director for the Law and Social Science Program at the National Science Foundation (2003-2005), and Winship Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science at Emory University, where he taught from 1996 to 2003. In addition to his regular position here at Penn State, he regularly teaches courses at the University of Michigan and Oxford University. His research focuses on judicial politics and on statistics for the social sciences. He is currently the principal investigator for two NSF-supported projects; the first examines the roles played by judges' positions in the legal/judicial hierarchy on their decision making, while the second develops a class of mixture-based item response models for proximity and dominance items. He is the author of two forthcoming books and more than two dozen articles and the recipient of four grants from the NSF, as well as numerous other fellowships and awards. In addition, he currently serves as Editor-in-Chief of the journal Political Analysis, and on the executive boards of the Midwest Political Science Association, the American Judicature Society, the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research, and the Empirical Legal Studies weblog, as well as on numerous editorial boards. He holds a Ph.D. in political science from Ohio State University (1997) and a B.A. in political science and philosophy from Truman State University (1991).
Zaryab Iqbal comes to Penn State from the University of South Carolina, where she was previously Assistant Professor of Political Science. Her primary research and teaching interests are in international relations, particularly international conflict and security. She is currently completing a book manuscript for Stanford University Press on the relationship between war and public health in a cross-national context; this project explores the various mechanisms through which violent conflict affects human security and the well-being of populations. Her other research focuses on questions of state failure, political assassinations, and forced migration. Professor Iqbal received her Ph.D in political science from Emory University in 2004; she holds her M.A. from the University of Denver and her B.A. from the University of North Carolina.
Suzanne Gold joins the Department from Michigan State University, where she received her PhD in 2007. Her research focuses on the relationship between voter preferences and the behavior of members of the U.S. House of Representatives. At Penn State, she will be teaching courses in American government, Congress, and American political campaigns.
Robert Packer comes to Penn State from The University of Michigan, having previously been on the faculty at Carleton College (Minnesota) and Middlebury College (Vermont). He received his PhD from the University of Michigan in 1996. At Penn State, he will be teaching courses in international relations, especially in the areas of International Political Economy, Arab-Israeli Conflict, and African politics.