Faculty & Staff

Paul Sharp
Head and Professor of Political Science
Department of Political Science
Director, International Studies Program

Office: 302B Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-6221
E-mail:psharp@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: MWF, 11.00-11.50 a.m., or by appointment

Professor Sharp came to UMD from Saint Olaf College in 1987. He got his PhD from Queen's University in Canada and his BA and MA degrees from Lancaster University in England. He has written four books and numerous articles on aspects of foreign policy and diplomacy. He is the co-editor of The Hague Journal of Diplomacy and Palgrave's Diplomacy and International Relations series.

Geraldine Gomes Hughes
Executive Administrative and Office Specialist

Office: 304 Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-7534
E-mail: pol@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: M-F: 8:00 a.m.-4:30 p.m.

Geraldine joined the department as office administrator in June 2006. Prior to that, she worked in the Department of Women's Studies. She graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Superior. Her interests range from art (any kind of art), reading, writing, riding her motorcycle around Superior, music and world cultures. Born and raised in Malaysia, she has lived in the United States since 1994.

Mary Caprioli
Associate Professor of Political Science

Office: 302A Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-7612
E-mail:mcapriol@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: Wednesdays, 2-3:30 p.m.

Dr. Mary Caprioli came to UMD from the University of Tennessee in 2005. She earned her PhD and MA from the University of Connecticut and her BA from Marist College. Dr. Caprioli has come full circle after her first tenure track position at the “other” UMD -- the University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth. Dr. Caprioli is a native New Yorker, nine-year resident of New England, three-year resident of Tennessee, who is now proud to be considered a Midwesterner. Dr. Caprioli’s research focuses broadly on conflict and security studies, including interstate and intrastate violence. She is fundamentally interested in understanding why states, societies, and individuals engage in violent behavior and more specifically in assessing the role of gendered structural inequality in predicting violence. Her recent articles have appeared in International Studies Quarterly, Journal of Peace Research, and Journal of Conflict Resolution.

Cindy Christian
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: 109 Cina Hall (Alworth Institute)
Telephone: (218) 726-6711
E-mail: cmchrist@d.umn.edu

Office Hours:

Cindy M. Christian holds a PhD in Political Science from Binghamton University in Binghamton, New York. Her areas of interest include international relations, international political economy, Latin American politics, and women and politics. She has taught both political science and women's studies courses over the past fifteen years. She has traveled to Honduras and Mexico to study development programs and the impact of global economic policies. She is currently the Program Associate for UMD's Royal D. Alworth, Jr. Institute for International Studies. She enjoys reading fiction and spending time with her family which includes her partner, originally from Iran and a Professor of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin Superior; her five-year-old daughter, Isabel (named after Isabel Allende); and her West-Highland Terrier, Miss Jean Brodie.

Mary Currin- Percival
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: 309 Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-8629
E-mail: mcurrinp@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: TTh, 10:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m., or by appointment.

Mary Currin-Percival completed her Ph.D. in Political Science at the University of California, Riverside in 2006. Her dissertation, Distant Voices: Citizen Judgments About Polling Methods and Collective Public Opinion explores how citizens perceive public opinion polls and how they might use polls when making political decisions.  She earned her M.A. from San Diego State University and her B.A. from the University of California, San Diego. Her research focuses mainly on political behavior and she has a wide range of teaching interests including public opinion, voting behavior, interest groups, and quantitative methods. In her free time, she enjoys spending time with her family, attempting to complete New York Times crossword puzzles (she gave up on Sunday), watching political films, and walking by Lake Superior.

Runa Das
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: 303 Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-7484
E-mail: rdas@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: TTh, Noon-1:30 p.m, or by appointment.

Dr. Das has joined the UMD in Fall 2005 after teaching for a year at Wayne State University ( Michigan). She has completed her Ph.D (Political Science) from Northern Arizona University in 2004. Her research/teaching areas include South Asian security as well as issues of gender, identity, ideology, culture, and peace movements. Her recent publications have appeared in Minerva Journal of Women and War (2008); European Journal of Women?s Studies (2008); Asian Perspectives: An International Quarterly (2008); Journal of Commonwealth and Comparative Politics (2008); Journal of Development Alternatives and Area Studies (2007); Women?s Studies International Forum (2007); International Feminist Journal of Politics (2006); Identity, Culture, and Politics (2005); Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs (2005); Social Identities: Journal of Race, Nation, and Culture (2004); Third World Quarterly (2003); Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa, and the Middle East (2003); Indian Journal of Political Science(2001); and Administration, Communication, and Society (1999).

Mark Jennings
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: SBE 116 (Fall 08)
Telephone: (218) 726-7611
E-mail: mjenning@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: MWF, 1:30-2:30 p.m., and TTh, 9:15-10:30 a.m.; or by appointment.

Mark Jennings graduated magna cum laude from UMD in 1973 with a major in political science.  He earned his JD degree from William Mitchell College of Law in 1977. Jennings practiced law for more than 30 years in both the private and public sectors.  For over seven years he supervised major departments of a local unit of government providing housing and other services to low-income persons.  He previously taught classes in the UMD Accounting and Political Science Departments and the UWS Paralegal Program.

William Henderson
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: Cina 109A (Alworth Institute)
Telephone: (218) 726-7753
E-mail: whenders@d.umn.edu
Website: www.alworth.org

Office Hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays, 2-4 p.m.

Garrick Percival
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: 305 Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-7077
E-mail: percival@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: Mondays, 1-2 p.m., and Fridays, 10-11 a.m., or by appointment.

Garrick Percival completed his Ph.D. in political science from the University of California, Riverside in June 2005.  His research and teaching interests lie at the nexus of public policy, public administration, and politics, at the state and local levels of the American political system.  The theoretical rationale connected to his research centers on how contextual characteristics like public opinion, racial attitudes, and differing institutional arrangements impact the enactment, diffusion, and implementation of public policy.  Percival’s most recent research projects examine the politics behind the diffusion of criminal justice reform policies across the U.S. states and how local policy networks manage and implement drug policy at the county level.  His work has appeared or is forthcoming in The Policy Studies Journal, Political Research Quarterly, State and Local Government Review, and the Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory. In his spare time, Percival enjoys watching baseball (especially the Seattle Mariners), playing racquetball, and hiking along Lake Superior.

Amy L. Shuster
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: 307 Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-7146
E-mail: ashuster@d.umn.edu
Website: www.d.umn.edu/~ashuster

Office Hours: Mondays, 3-4 p.m., or by appointment.

Amy L. Shuster completed her Ph.D. in politics at Princeton University in 2008, and received a B.S. in foreign service from Georgetown University in 1997. Her research and teaching interests center on the history of social and political thought. Her dissertation, The Judgment of Generations, examines the connection between generational politics and political judgment in the work of Plato, Aristotle and Arendt. Born in Ohio, Amy grew up an Air Force brat and has lived all over the U.S. In her spare time, she practices yoga, reads The Oxford American, and generally enjoys life with her partner.

Joseph Staats
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: 304A Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-6641
E-mail: jstaats@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: MWF, 11:00 a.m.-Noon.

Jeremy Youde
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Office: 311 Cina Hall
Telephone: (218) 726-6908
E-mail: jyoude@d.umn.edu

Office Hours: MW, 2-4 p.m., or by appointment.

Jeremy Youde joined UMD's political science department in 2008 after teaching at San Diego State University and Grinnell College. He received his Ph.D. in political science from the University of Iowa in 2005. His research concentrates on the intersection of public health and international politics and Africa's role in international relations. His book, AIDS, South Africa, and the Politics of Knowledge, came out in 2007. His work has also appeared in Electoral Studies, International Relations, Africa Today, Journal of International Relations and Development, and Democracy and Security, among other journals. Outside of the classroom, you can often find him running, hiking, kayaking, skiing, messing around in the kitchen, and doting on his dogs. A native Midwesterner, he is anxious to experience a real Duluth winter.