Delia Popescu

Chair
Director of the Legal Studies Program
315 445 4495 (office)
popescd@lemoyne.edu
Ph.D. Political Science
University of Colorado, Boulder
Fields: Political Theory, Comparative Politics, International Relations
M.A. University of Colorado, Boulder Political Science
B.A. Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, Louisiana
Summa Cum Laude, and with University Honors (4.0 GPA)
Major: Political Science | Minor: Italian
Romanian-American University, Bucharest, Romania Law School

General Interests: Political philosophy; Comparative Political Theory; Eastern European political theory as it relates to dissidence, resistance, totalitarianism and political ideology; Vaclav Havel’s political thought. Most recent book: Political Action in Vaclav Havel's Thought: The Responsibility of Resistance  Download Popescu's complete C.V.

My choice of research topics is a reflection of my life experience. The 1989 Eastern European revolutions changed my outlook on political life, and I decided that it was a worthwhile effort to analyze and explain the nuances of political change. My hope is that the lessons of totalitarianism will help us avoid some of the potential pitfalls of liberal democracy.

The notion and practice of citizenship, in both liberal and non-liberal regimes, is one of my long-standing interests. My research integrates what I see as the new criticism of democratic citizenship that has emerged out of Eastern European dissident literature with existing contemporary political thought. My main interest is to critically analyze the political theory of Vaclav Havel, the Czech playwright, dissident and former President of the Czechoslovak Republic. I endeavor to show that Vaclav Havel’s essays, plays, speeches, and letters can be integrated into a coherent political theory, which contributes significantly to some of the central debates in modern political thought. With this research, I aspire to end “the strange silence of political theory” regarding the significance of contemporary Eastern European scholarship for contemporary political thought. Current project: analyzing the legacy of 45 years of anti-communist opposition in Eastern European documentaries and personal accounts.

Personally: I enjoy photography, I occasionally paint and I make jewelry. My guilty pleasure is reading Agatha Christie type novels and historical fiction series. I love to travel and I always look forward to visiting my parents in Romania.

Kelsey Ryan

Visiting Assistant Professor

My interest in politics began with my parents taking me to local town board meetings in my rural hometown. As I entered college, my Mom was running for town supervisor and I enjoyed the excitement and suspense of elections. My research focuses on social capital and personal connections that influence legal and political processes and participation. Currently, I’m interested in answering “what motivates individuals to participate in politics?” and “can personal connections within the U.S. legal system bias outcomes?”

Outside of political science, I enjoy running and competing in road races with my husband Pete, watching sports—especially football and college basketball, and spending time with my family and adopted lab/hound mix, Jimmy Boeheim.

Bruce Shefrin

Associate Professor
Director of the Internship Program
430 Reilly Hall
315-445-4496
Shefrin@Lemoyne.edu

B.A. City University of New York, City College
M.A. City University of New York, City College
Ph.D. University of Massachusetts at Amherst

Courses:
American National Politics
State and Local Government
Public Administration
Public Policy

Research Interests:
Non-decision-making: How issues are kept off the political agenda

Current Projects:
Creating two new courses: Business, Government and Society;
Science, Technology and Politics

Susan Behuniak - Emeritus

Ph.D. in Political Science, SUNY at Albany, 1985.
MA in Political Science, SUNY at Albany, 1980.
BA in Mass Communications, St. Bonaventure University, 1978.

COURSES TAUGHT
American National Politics
Law and Politics
The U.S. Supreme Court
Constitutional Law I (governmental powers and federalism)
Constituional Law II (civil rights and civil liberties)
Government and the Mass Media
Women and Politics
Women, Culture and Society (Introduction to Women’s Studies).

RESEARCH INTERESTS
Biomedical politics and law with a focus on reproduction and death and dying; Feminist jurisprudence.

Interest in Political Science:
The main question that fascinates me is the issue of what counts as knowledge and how this affects how much political power a person or group has. In my field of constitutional law, I focus on how this question affects the rights of people who are often marginalized: patients, students, dissenters, women, the poor, and people of color.

Personal Info:
I am a volunteer family caregiver with Hospice of CNY and have also taught new volunteers both locally and in Russia. I spend my free time (what free time!?!): traveling, reading, walking my dogs, gardening, and studying piano, yoga, and Russian.

J. Barron Boyd  Emeritus

My interest in international politics got started sitting on the floor of my aunt Dot and uncle Frank Barron’s bedroom. As a kid at the height of the Cold War, I would listen, subversively, to Radio Moscow and Radio Havana on their Zenith Trans-Oceanic shortwave radio. Besides marveling at the great distance traversed by the radio waves, I wondered why the news reported on these stations was so different from that on the BBC or the Voice of America.

In high school, this interest led me to take a sophomore 20th century history course as an elective in my senior year at John Marshall High. It changed my life. This was 1966 and the schools in Richmond, Virginia, my home town, had only been integrated for five years. Here I had my first African-American teacher, Leontine Kelly, and I was one of only a few white kids in the class. Mrs. Kelly saw that 90% of her class were of African descent and taught the class from what would now be called an Afro-centric perspective.

Here that I first learned about colonialism, the African struggle for independence, and apartheid. In September 1966, South African Prime Minister Verwoerd was assassinated, stabbed to death on the floor of Parliament in Cape Town. Mrs. Kelly used that as a springboard to talk about the violence of the apartheid system of state-sponsored racism. Never understanding the racism of the Jim-Crow south where I grew up, I found the parallel situation in South Africa fascinating.

This fascination with international politics and South Africa led me to major in International Studies at Rhodes College and ultimately to a PhD in Government and International Studies at the University of South Carolina.

I have visited South Africa a dozen times doing research, and I was a member of the Yale University Southern African Research Program (SARP). In 1994 I was part of the SARP delegation of international observers at the 1994 election of Nelson Mandela.

At Le Moyne College I teach international politics, international human rights, and South African politics and research methods. I am also the director of the Le Moyne Center for Peace and Global Studies.

In my spare time I love to cook, boat, bicycle, and make wine. I also have a collection of shortwave radios, including two Zenith Trans-Oceanic models.

John Freie - Emeritus

Ph.D., University of Missouri
M.A., Miami University (Ohio)
B.A., University of Northern Iowa

Current Projects:
College as a Public Good a book-length manuscript that explains how civic education can most effectively be taught at the college level

My primary interest in political science revolves around the issue of democracy, especially how we can teach civic education so that we can improve democracy by creating active citizens with democratic dispositions. I am interested in pedagogical approaches that can be used for citizenship education and the role that the university plays in a democracy.

Personally, I enjoy gardening, cultivating my Chardonnay grapes, making wine, traveling, and I am a practicing philatelist. I enjoy driving my 1990 Miata (Mimi) and working in local political campaigns.

Charles Pulver - Emeritus

Bio to be supplied at a later date