Faculty & Staff
Tenure-Track Faculty
Brandi Lynette Blessett
School of Public and International Affairs
Dr. Blessett earned a Bachelor of Science from the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor and holds a Masters in Educational Leadership from Wayne State University in Detroit. After teaching as a high school health and life skills teacher at Highland Park Community High School, she decided to purse her doctorate at Old Dominion University. Her dissertation was titled “Dispersion or Re-segregation: A Spatial and Temporal Analysis of Public Policies and their Impact on Urban African American Mobility.” This work serves as the foundation for her research interests which includes, but is not limited to: administrative responsibility, social equity, community development, and voter disenfranchisement.
Dr. Blessett’s research seeks to contribute to the iknowledge production in the field of urban policy and public administration through the lens of social justice. Her research seeks to offer insightful perspectives regarding the effects of systemic injustice through an examination of public policies and administrative actions, which perpetuate inequity for people of color and their respective communities. Ultimately, she hopes her research will help public administrators move toward more thoughtful consideration and engagement of all groups in society, particularly historically marginalized groups.
Dr. Blessett has published in peer-reviewed periodicals such as Public Integrity, Administration and Society, Administrative Theory & Praxis, Public Administration Quarterly, and the Journal of Health and Human Services Administration. She has also contributed book chapters to Prison Privatization: The Many Facets of a Controversial Industry and Contemporary Perspectives on Affirmative Action. Currently, she serves on the editorial boards for Public Integrity and the Administrative Theory & Praxis.
Brian Robert Calfano
Head, Department of Journalism; Faculty in School of International and Public Affairs , School of Public and International Affairs
5149 CLIFTCT
A working TV reporter with multiple EMMY nominations, Calfano is repped by CBK Media Management. His stories have appeared on Spectrum News 1 Ohio, WKRC Cincinnati (Local12), Fox 2 St. Louis, Fox 4 Kansas City, Ozarks Fox, KOLR, KNWA, and KLBK, among others. His work has received awards from the Broadcast Educator Asso., Missouri Broadcasters, Ohio AP, and SPJ. WABC-TV New York featured portions of his documentary work in its 75th anniversary celebration in August 2023. In 2022, Calfano established the Journomentary project at UC. In 2023, he created the first academic partnership with the broadcast video management platform Latakoo.
In total, Dr. Calfano has over 100 peer-reviewed publications across journalism, political science, urban politics, sociology, and criminology. These include the books God Talk: Experimenting with the Religious Causes of Public Opinion (Temple), A Matter of Discretion: The Political Behavior of Catholic Priests in the U.S. and Ireland (Rowman and Littlefield), Muslims, Identity, and American Politics (Routledge), Human Relations Commissions (Columbia), Exploring the Public Effects of Religious Communication on Politics (Michigan), and The American Professor Pundit (Palgrave).
Media coverage of his academic work includes The Washington Post/Monkey Cage, Nieman Lab (Harvard), Newsweek, and the London School of Economics Blog (among others). Research grantors include the National Science Foundation, American Political Science Association, Scripps Howard Foundation, and Society for the Scientific Study of Religion. Dr. Calfano is co-coordinator of the APSA Religion and Politics Section mentoring program and is an affiliate of The Cincinnati Project.
CV Google Scholar Muck Rack
Laura D. Dudley Jenkins
Professor of Political Science, Faculty Affiliate WGSS and Asian Studies , School of Public and International Affairs
CLIFTCT
Her book Religious Freedom and Mass Conversion in India (Penn Press 2019) won the Hubert Morken Best Book Prize from the Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association (APSA). A study of mass conversions to Christianity, Buddhism, and Judaism and ongoing efforts to prevent conversions, Jenkins reveals how "religious freedom" arguments and laws have actually undermined the religious freedom of women, lower castes, and religious minorities.
Jenkins' book Identity and Identification in India: Defining the Disadvantaged (Routledge, 2003, 2009) examines competing demands for affirmative action on the basis of caste, religion, class, and gender and the ways the government identifies recipients through the courts, census, and official certificates. Her research as a Fulbright New Century Scholar in South Africa and India resulted in Affirmative Action Matters: Creating Opportunities for Students Around the World, co-edited with Michele S. Moses (Routledge 2014).
In her articles, she analyzes religious freedom and conversion, competing minorities’ claims for affirmative action, colonial and contemporary government anthropology, the role of social science in anti-discrimination law, reserved legislative seats for women, and the role of culture and the arts in sustainable development.
Jenkins' book chapters examine anti-Muslim political communication in the US and India, religious family laws, mass religious conversion as protest, comparative affirmative action, minority rights, historically Dalit colleges, anxious secularism, women and development, regulation of religion, and methodological diversity in political science.
In addition to two Fulbrights, Dr. Jenkins has received fellowships from the Dartmouth Humanities Center and the United States Institute of Peace.
Religious Freedom and Mass Conversion in India. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2019.
Hubert Morken Best Book Award
APSA Religion and Politics Section
Affirmative action matters: Creating opportunities for students around the world. (with Michele S. Moses). New York: Routledge, 2014.
Identity and Identification in India: Defining the Disadvantaged. London and New York: RoutledgeCurzon 2003, reissued in paperback by Routledge 2009.
Nate Ela
Assistant Professor of Political Science and Law; Faculty Affiliate, Dept. of Sociology, School of Public and International Affairs
Tia Sheree Gaynor
Founding Director, Center for Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation & Associate Professor of Political Science, School of Public and International Affairs
Dr. Gaynor’s research examining the perceptions people of color who identify as lesbian, gay and transgender hold of the New Orleans Police Department is currently supported by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs. Under the W.E.B. DuBois Program of Research on Race and Crime, Dr. Gaynor (along with research colleague Brandi Blessett, Ph.D.) was awarded $150,000 for her project titled “Intersectional Subjection and Law Enforcement: Examining Perceptions Held by LGBTQ People of Color in New Orleans, LA”. This research project tests the theory of intersectional subjection and empirically evaluates how policing has been used to ostracize and subjugate individuals with intersecting identities in New Orleans.
As an inaugural recipient of the Social Equity Fellowship offered by the American Society for Public Administration’s Center for Accountability and Performance and the National Academy of Public Administration’s (NAPA) Standing Panel on Social Equity in Governance, Dr. Gaynor was charged with developing strategies to measure and advance the performance measurement of social equity. The CAP Fellowship was designed to provide a balance between academic and practitioner perspectives by drawing from academic literature and empirical operational experiences. Dr. Gaynor’s work, ultimately, offers the field of public administration strategies to meaningfully develop and implement social social equity performance measures.
Dr. Gaynor recognizes that the scholarship and practice of public administrators can either serve as promoters of equity and justice or facilitators of injustice for underrepresented and marginalized populations. Her work is committed to not only recognizing this juxtaposition but offering strategies to foster justice and equity in the field.
She holds a Ph.D. and MPA from the School of Public Affairs and Administration, at Rutgers University – Newark. She received her BA in Psychology from Rutgers University – New Brunswick. Additionally, Dr. Gaynor holds a Diversity Management Certification from the University of Houston’s International Institute for Diversity.
Brendan R Green
Associate Professor, School of Public and International Affairs
1103 Crosley Tower
- Subject of a New York Times Article, “There’s a Big Lie Your History Teacher Told Your About Nuclear Weapons,” The Interpreter, July 19, 2017.
- Winner, 2018 Outstanding Article in International History and Politics, American Political Science Association.
“Correspondence: The Limits of Damage Limitation,” International Security, Vol. 42, No. 1 (Summer 2017). With Austin Long.
- A response to Charles L. Glaser and Steve Fetter, “Should the U.S. Reject MAD? Damage Limitation and U.S. Strategy towards China,” International Security, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Summer 2016).
“Primacy and Proliferation: Why Security Commitments Don’t Prevent Nuclear Weapons’ Spread,” in Trevor Thrall and Benjamin Friedman, eds., The Case for Restraint in U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: Routledge). Forthcoming, 2018.
“Signaling with Secrets: Evidence on Soviet Perceptions of U.S. Counterforce Developments in the Late Cold War,” in Erik Garzke and Jon Lindsay, eds., Cross-Domain Deterrence (Oxford: Oxford University Press, forthcoming 2018). With Austin Long.
“Stalking the Secure Second Strike: Intelligence, Counterforce, and Nuclear Strategy,” Journal of Strategic Studies, No. 1-2 (February 2015), pp. 38-73. With Austin Long.
- Winner, 2014 Amos Perlmutter Prize for best article by untenured professors in the Journal of Strategic Studies.
- Review: Andrew L. Ross, H-Diplo/ISSF, October 9, 2015.
- Nominated for APSA’s 2015 Alexander L. George Article Award for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research.
- Nominated for APSA’s 2016 Outstanding Article Award in International History and Politics.
Correspondence: “Debating American Engagement: the Future of U.S. Grand Strategy,” International Security, Vol. 38, No. 2 (Fall 2013). With Benjamin Friedman and Justin Logan.
- Response to Brooks, Ikenberry, and Wohlforth, “Don’t Come Home America: The Case against Retrenchment,” International Security, Vol. 37, No. 3 (Winter 2012/2013).
“Two Concepts of Liberty: U.S. Cold War Grand Strategies and the Liberal Tradition,” International Security, Vol. 37, No. 2 (Fall 2012).
- Nominated for APSA’s 2013 Alexander L. George Article Award for Qualitative and Multi-Method Research.
- Review: Paul C. Avey, H-Diplo/ISSF, April 12, 2013.
- Colloquy with Douglas MacDonald, H-Diplo/ISSF, May 4 and May 15, 2013.
Editor, U.S. Military Innovation after the Cold War: Creation without Destruction (New York: Routledge, 2009). With Harvey Sapolsky and Benjamin Friedman.
- The Missing Transformation. With Harvey Sapolsky and Benjamin Friedman. In Creation Without Destruction.
- Technology and the RMA. With Benjamin Friedman and David Burbach. In Creation Without Destruction.
- The RMA and the Second Inter-war Period. With Harvey Sapolsky and Benjamin Friedman. In Creation Without Destruction.
Richard J Harknett
Director, SPIA, School of Public and International Affairs
5130 CLIFTCT
Andrew Lewis
Associate Professor, School of Public and International Affairs
1102 Crosley Tower
Professor Lewis's book The Rights Turn in Conservative Christian Politics: How Abortion Transformed the Culture Wars (Cambridge, 2017), was the winner of the 2018 Humbert Morken Award for the best book in Religion and Politics from the American Political Science Association. His research has also appeared in many social science journals. Professor Lewis has been a contributor to The New York Times, FiveThirtyEight, Vox, as well as other media outlets.
In addition to his research, is the director and creator of the Legal Studies Certificate at UC. He has also previously served as the Book Review Editor of the academic journal Politics & Religion.
Jack Michael Mewhirter
Assistant Professor, School of Public and International Affairs
Crosley Tower
His published and ongoing research focuses on two, distinct topics. His main area of research focuses on the study of complex governance systems (generally in the context of water governance): governance structures where decision making authority is delegated to multiple organizations that (often) collectively make policy decisions across a set of interdependent decision making venues (or “forums”). His research in this area generally attempts to answer two, related questions: 1) How do organizations build political influence across the system to better influence the forums in which they participate? 2) How does forum interdependence affect the policy decisions made in the related forums?
His second area of interest focuses on the evaluation of current policies of pressing public importance. Here, he utilizes a variety of quantitative techniques to assess the causal impact of public policies and tease out whether and to what extent they can be considered effective.
Dinshaw Mistry
Professor, International Affairs & Asian Studies
Head, Department of Asian, East European, and German Studies,
School of Public and International Affairs
4215 CLIFTCT
He specializes in international relations, security studies, Asian security, and technology and politics. Within these fields, his research covers two main areas: nuclear and missile proliferation, and South Asian security and US foreign policy in the region.
Dr. Mistry is author of two major books and co-author / editor of a third. The first, Containing Missile Proliferation, is a comprehensive study of the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) and its impact on 14 missile programs; it also analyzes the supply-side approach to nonproliferation. The second, The US-India Nuclear Agreement, offers the most detailed analysis of nuclear negotiations with India; it highlights the impact of domestic politics on nuclear diplomacy. The third is an edited volume, Enduring and Emerging Issues in South Asian Security, where he authored the leading chapters on US foreign policy interests in South Asia, ranging from strategic issues to democracy and development, and regional challenges in these areas.
His additional writings appear in journals such as International Security, Security Studies, Asian Survey, Political Science Quarterly, Asian Security, and Arms Control Today, and in the International Herald Tribune, New York Times, and Washington Post.
His current research projects examine regional nuclear issues and the global arms control regime; the new dimensions of missile proliferation and missile defense; and US foreign policy in South Asia and its implications for Asian security.
Stephen T Mockabee
Associate Professor, School of Public and International Affairs
5111 CLIFTCT
Thomas G. Moore
Assistant Director, School of Public and International Affairs, and Affiliated Faculty, Asian Studies Program, School of Public and International Affairs
5115 CLIFTCT
David Niven
Associate Professor, School of Public and International Affairs
1207 Crosley Tower
Anne Sisson Runyan
Professor, School of Public and International Affairs and Faculty Affiliate, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, School of Public and International Affairs
1204 Crosley Tower
Rebecca Sanders
School of Public & International Affairs , School of Public and International Affairs
5112 CLIFTCT
I am an Associate Professor of Political Science in the School of Public and International Affairs and an affiliate faculty member in the Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies at the University of Cincinnati. I previously completed my Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of Toronto and received my M.A. and B.A. from McGill University.
My research agenda addresses pressing global challenges at the intersection of international human rights, international security, and public health. I am especially interested in how societies grapple with rights tradeoffs in real and perceived emergencies and the dynamics of rights advancement and retrenchment.
My book, Plausible Legality: Legal Culture and Political Imperative in the Global War on Terror (Oxford University Press, 2018), and related journal articles examine the capacity of international human rights and humanitarian law to constrain controversial state security practices such as torture, indefinite detention, targeted killing, and mass surveillance. Further ongoing research examines the consequences of authoritarian populism for international legal norms as well as uneven state responses to the rapid proliferation of far-right political violence and terrorism.
My next major project is focused on backlash against international women's rights and sexual orientation and gender identity (SOGI) rights at the United Nations and across comparative national cases. Transnationally coordinated attacks on sexual and reproductive health and rights (SRHR) and conservative efforts to revive biologically deterministic understandings of gender roles and identities threaten to erode rights protections and reverse efforts to achieve gender equity. My concern for women’s rights also animates my participation in a community-engaged feminist research initiative with the Cities for CEDAW movement, which aims to promote international human rights norms through local politics.
Alongside this work, I have received National Science Foundation funding for a large study of public perceptions of civil rights and public health tradeoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. This project examines similarities and differences between tradeoffs in the post-9/11 counterterrorism context and the current pandemic crisis and analyzes the dynamics of threat construction and blame attribution. Additional research investigates the opportunistic securitization of health and implications for migration and asylum policy around the world.
Alexander John Thurston
Assoc Professor, School of Public and International Affairs
5133 CLIFTCT
Rina Williams
Professor of Political Science; Affiliate Faculty, Women's, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Asian Studies, School of Public and International Affairs
1118 Crosley Tower
Gregory H. Winger
Assistant Professor, School of Public and International Affairs
5113 CLIFTCT
He has authored several works on these subjects in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Armed Forces & Society. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship from the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Liefur Erikisson Scholarship. He has also held research fellowships with esteemed institutions including the Center for Small State Studies at the University of Iceland, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and as a Fulbright Fellow in the Philippines.
Educator Faculty
Kimberly Horn Conger
Assoc Professor - Educator, School of Public and International Affairs
5137 CLIFTCT
Ivan Dinev Ivanov
Associate Professor Educator, School of Public and International Affairs
5114 Crosley Tower
Dr. Ivanov served as Director of Undergraduate Studies (2015-2019) and works with students interested in research on international institutions, global governance and European affairs. He was awarded the 2012 Sarah Grant Barber Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award at the University of Cincinnati. Updated information about his course offerings and office hours is available here. Please visit the SPIA's advising webpage for list of other advisors and office hours. More information about academic programs and requirements is available on the Undergraduate Advising Portal.
Dr. Ivanov supervises the Internship for Academic Credit Program. If you are interested to complete academic credit for your internship, visit the Internship for Academic Credit page for more information. Note that students need to obtain permission to register for POL 4090 (offered in the Fall) and provide documentation related to their internship.
Dr. Ivanov leads a study abroad program on International Institutions and Global Governance (POL 2097) which takes students to Brussels and the Hague. The program will be offered again in Spring 2021 via the University Honors Program. For up-to-date information please visit the program's webpage (the application deadline for 2021 is early September 2020).
Please, visit his webpage if you need a letter of recommendation or click here for detailed instructions. Master students who need a thesis supervisor or reader for their MA theses or professional papers should click here for more information about my rules and expectations.
Dr. Ivanov won the May 2017 e-Learning Champion award for his use of Echo 360 lecture capture and engagement software in the POL 1080 Introduction to International Relations. He also published recently an article on the use of Echo 360 in large enrollment classes. The findings are described here and the article can be accessed here. Below is a link to his interview in McMicken Monthly (January 2012) featuring his earlier work on NATO -- Q&A: NATO Changed but Still Relevant.
Albert W Klein
Assistant Professor Educator
5117 CLIFTCT
William P Umphres
Assistant Professor-Educator, School of Public and International Affairs
1221 Crosley Tower
Professor Umphres earned his Ph.D from the University of Virginia, where his dissertation addressed the legitimacy of the use of religious and non-shared reasons and justifications in political discourse. He has published in prominent journals such as “Constellations” and “Political Theory.” His publications engage questions about how democratic processes of debate and deliberation can yield inclusive outcomes that uphold democratic norms of equality and self-government. His current research project builds on this work, deploying a systems-focused view of democratic deliberation to articulate a normative case for the importance of silence, listening, and the ceding of deliberative space amongst historically privileged groups.
In the classroom, Professor Umphres teaches courses in the History of Political Thought, Law and Society, Constitutional Law, and Courts and Judicial Politics. In these classes, he invites students to explore the theoretical and historical underpinnings of central aspects of the American Legal and Constitutional regime. Core ideas like human nature, the purpose of politics, freedom, equality and inequality, free speech, the nature and purpose of punishment, freedom of religion, freedom from religion, separation of powers, and executive privilege are examined in detail. Problems of racial and gender inequality, mass incarceration, access to goods such as healthcare, basic income, and courts are discussed and debated. Throughout, these theoretical concepts are tied back to specific manifestations in the American political context. Students are encouraged to apply these ideas to their lives as citizens.
Adjunct Faculty
Manisha Sinha
Adjunct Assistant Professor, A&S SPIA Adjuncts
5113A CLIFTCT
Affiliate Faculty
Jeffrey Layne Blevins
Professor of Journalism & Public and International Affairs, School of Public and International Affairs
5144 CLIFTCT
Jeffrey Blevins CV
Charles R Doarn
Professor, Environmental and Public Health Sciences; Director of Telemedicine; Director, Space Research Institute for Discovery and Exploration, Office of Research, School of Public and International Affairs
540 University Hall
He received his undergraduate degree in Biological Sciences (Microbiology) from The Ohio State University in 1980 and an MBA from the University of Dayton in 1988. Additional training includes the National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) Aircraft Mishap Investigation Course, Ashburn, VA; and Advanced Program Management at NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility, VA.
As the Editor-in-Chief of the Telemedicine and e-Health Journal (since 2005), Doarn is a recognized leader in telemedicine and telehealth as a scholar and teacher, having published 7 books, over 450 manuscripts, editorials, federal reports and 46 book chapters. Doarn is an editor of the 4th edition of Space Physiology and Medicine: Evidence to Practice (ISBN 978-1-4939-6650-9); an editor of A Multinational Telemedicine System for Disaster Response: Opportunities and Challenges. NATO Publication (ISBN 978-1-61499-727-6); an editor of Engineering, Life Sciences, and Health/Medicine Synergy in Aerospace Human Systems Integration. The Rosetta Stone Project. NASA SP-2017-633. (ISBN 978-1-62683-044-8); and Telemedicine, Telehealth, and Telepresence: Principles, Strategies, Applications and New Directions. Editors. R Latifi, CR Doarn, RC Merrell. Springer, New York. ISBN 978-3-030-56916-7. 2021.
Professor Doarn is a fellow of the ATA and the Aerospace Medical Association, a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), an Honorary NASA Flight Surgeon, and recipient of the Astronaut’s award, the Silver Snoopy for his work in Telemedicine for NASA worldwide. In May 2016, Professor Doarn was recognized by the ATA with the 2016 Individual Leadership Award for his efforts national and international in telemedicine. He and his co-authors were recognized with the IAA’s 2018 Luigi Napolitano Book Award in the Life Sciences.
Kimberly Downing
Administrative Official III, School of Public and International Affairs
260D USQUARE
Eric Rademacher
Administrative Official III, School of Public and International Affairs
260E USQUARE
Visiting Faculty
Gregory H. Winger
Assistant Professor, A&S School of Public and International A
5113 CLIFTCT
He has authored several works on these subjects in publications such as Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy Analysis, and Armed Forces & Society. He is the recipient of numerous prestigious awards including the World Politics and Statecraft Fellowship from the Smith Richardson Foundation and the Liefur Erikisson Scholarship. He has also held research fellowships with esteemed institutions including the Center for Small State Studies at the University of Iceland, the Institute for Human Sciences in Vienna, and as a Fulbright Fellow in the Philippines.
Emeriti Faculty
Jane Anderson
Adjunct Associate Professor, Political Science, School of Public and International Affairs
Barbara A Bardes
School of Public and International Affairs
Stephen E Bennett
Emeritus Faculty, School of Public and International Affairs
Abraham H Miller
Emeritus Faculty, School of Public and International Affairs
James A. Stever
Professor, School of Public and International Affairs
Howard B Tolley
Professor Emeritus of Political Science Adjunct Professor of Law, School of Public and International Affairs
Ohio State Employment Relations Board (SERB), Roster of Neutrals, Fact Finder, Conciliator
Staff
Evajean S O'Neal
Business Administrator, School of Public and International Affairs
1210B Crosley Tower