International Studies Program Chair

Dr. Sean Kay is a full Professor in the Department of Politics and Government at Ohio Wesleyan University specializing in international politics, international security, international organizations, and U.S. foreign and defense policy.  He is also the Chair of the International Studies Program.  Sean Kay is a Mershon Associate at the Mershon Center for International Security Studies at Ohio State University and a Non-Resident Fellow at the Eisenhower Institute in Washington, D.C. specializing in international security.

Sean Kay has held positions as Visiting Assistant Professor of International Relations at Dartmouth College, Assistant Professor of International Studies at Rhodes College, Research Fellow at the Institute for National Strategic Studies (U.S. Department of Defense), instructor in the Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts at Amherst;  worked on the International Secretariat of the NATO Parliamentary Assembly in Brussels and been a Visiting Scholar at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London, Visiting Scholar at the Center for International Relations, University of British Columbia in Vancouver and Visiting Scholar at the Hoover Institution at Stanford University.  In the U.S. Department of Defense, Sean Kay worked on policy and analysis dealing with NATO enlargement, the Balkans, NATO’s internal transformation, and U.S.-Russia relations.  He was also an advisor to the Department of State on NATO enlargement.  He received his Ph.D., dissertation with honors, from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, specializing in international relations.  He has been a post-graduate student at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS);  and holds an M.A. degree in International/Strategic Studies from the Free University of Brussels, Belgium;  and M.A./B.A. degrees from Kent State University. 

Publications include the books Global Security in the 21^st Century:  The Quest for Power and the Search for Peace (Rowman and Littlefield, 2006), Limiting Institutions:  Security Governance in Eurasia (Manchester University Press, 2003);  NATO after 50 Years (Scholarly Resources, 2001) and  NATO and the Future of European Security (Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, 1998).  Sean Kay is the author of numerous book chapters and peer-review journal articles focusing on international relations including the journals Current History, International Politics, European Security, Mediterranean Quarterly, Security Dialogue, Contemporary Security Policy, Cambridge Review of International Affairs, and Problems of Post-Communism.  He has written op-ed pieces for The Wall Street Journal Europe, The International Herald Tribune, The Toronto Globe and Mail, The Washington Times, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, Akron Beacon Journal, and Defense News, is the author of several U.S. government studies, and has spoken at numerous scholarly, think-tank and government/international conferences.  He has been interviewed by and quoted in major media outlets including The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, The Boston Globe, The Dallas Morning News, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Voice of America, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, The Christian Science Monitor, Defense News, Stars and Stripes, The Commercial Appeal, The Cleveland Plain Dealer, The Akron Beacon Journal, Japan Today, Scripps-Howard, Gulf Times, The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Harpers, The Columbus Dispatch, Associated Press, Reuters, The Baltimore Sun, and The New York Times in addition to major European outlets, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Ohio News Network, WOSU Public Radio, local network affiliates and national networks and websites for CNN, ABC News, CBS News, and MSNBC.

Sean Kay is a Member of the International Institute for Strategic Studies and other professional organizations and is a member of the Editorial Board of Contemporary Security Policy.  He is featured in Who’s Who In America and Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers and in 2005 was awarded the Bishop Francis Kearns award for outstanding teaching at Ohio Wesleyan University and was the first recipient of the Libuse L. Reed Endowed Professorship.

Tel: (740) 368-3866

Fax: (740) 368-3644

Dr. Jeremy Baskes, B.A., Grinnell College; M.A., University of Wisconsin; Ph.D., University of Chicago. Dr. Professor Baskes is a specialist in the colonial economic history of Mexico and offers the department's courses on the history of Latin America from ancient times to the present. He is author of the book Indians, Merchants and Markets: A Reinterpretation of the Repartimiento and Spanish Indian Economic Relations in Late Colonial Oaxaca, Mexico, 1750-1821 (Stanford University Press, 2000) which examines the economic and social relations of Spaniards and indigenous Mexicans in the late eighteenth century. His articles have appeared in Journal of Latin American Studies, Journal of Economic History, and Colonial Latin American Review.  Baskes is currently working on a new book which is an examination of the strategies of Spanish and Mexican merchants to accommodate risk in transatlantic commerce. Dr. Baskes has been the recipient of numerous research fellowships including three Fulbright awards and a National Endowment for the Humanities.  He is currently serving as Director of Ohio Wesleyan’s new Latin American Studies Major.

Dr. David Walker, Assistant Professor of Geography, has research interests in urbanization and spaces of resistance, economic and political neoliberalization and the restructring of urban spaces, and race and identity within Latin America and African cities. He has extensive field work experience in Latin America, and will teach courses in cultural geography, urban geography, economic geography, Latin American geography, and the geography of Africa.  Dr. Walker has a PhD from the University of Kentucky.

Dr. James Franklin is the Assistant Professor of Politics and Government.  He teaches a wide variety of courses, such as Latin American Politics, European Politics, Asian Politics, and Comparative Political Topics: Democratization. Before this, he taught at Texas A&M University, where he won an "Excellence in Teaching Award" in 1998.

He received his Ph.D. in 1999 from Texas A&M University with a major in comparative politics. His dissertation entitled "Why Parties Resist" establishes that many political parties have engaged in active resistence to authoritarian regimes in developing countries and explores factors that explain why some parties resist while others do not. He received a BA in political science from Auburn University in 1993.

His primary research interests are political repression, political dissent, and democratization. He is also interested in the politics of developing countries, with emphasis on Latin America. He has published an article in Comparative Political Studies entitled "IMF Conditionality, Threat Perception and Political Repression: A Cross-National Analysis." This article examines whether restrictive agreements set up by the International Monetary Fund put governments in positions in which repression is more likely. He has had an article accepted for Party Politics examining whether party-led dissent influences the democratization process. Furthermore, he has presented numerous papers at conferences, with the most recent one focusing on the human rights record after democratization in Argentina, Brazil, and Chile.

His research interests stem from his interests in human rights and developing countries. His interests in human rights grew from participation in Amnesty International in college and then interning with the organization. His interest in developing countries was enhanced by service trips to Mexico to work with local community members to build houses.

Outside the classroom, he enjoys listening to and playing music.  He is a drummer and has played in a variety of bands. He also enjoys hiking and other outdoor activities.

Dr. Mark Gingerich, B.A. University of Massachusetts, M.A. and Ph.D. University of Wisconsin, Specialty: Modern Europe. Dr. Gingerich's research focuses on Nazi Germany, in particular the recruitment and deployment of foreign volunteers by the wartime Waffen SS. Recent scholarly publications include "Felix Steiner -- Himmlers 'ausgesprochenes Lieblingskind'" in Die SS: Elite unter dem Totenkopf, 30 Lebensl°ufe (Schõning, 2000); "Waffen SS Recruitment in the 'Germanic Lands,' 1940-1941," in The Historian (Summer, 1997); and "Paul Hausser: Der Senior der Waffen-SS," in Die Milit°relite des Dritten Reiches, (Ullstein, 1995). He has lived, traveled, and studied in Europe. Gingerich received the Shankland Outstanding Teaching Award in 1997 and was selected Faculty Member of the Year by OWU’s Greek Society in 1997.

Dr. Mary Howard, Professor of Anthropology, B.A., Ohio Dominican College 1967, M.A., Michigan State University 1970, Ph.D., Michigan State University 1980. Mary Howard’s special areas of interests include psychological and medical anthropology which stem from 16 years of work in mental and medical health care settings. This includes 5 years of research and work in East Africa which was the basis of her 1997 co-authored book, Hunger and Shame: Poverty and Child Malnutrition on Mt. Kilimanjaro. She is currently revising a manuscript for another book tentatively titled Home, which considers mental retardation in American culture. Dr. Howard has also lived for extended periods in China and Latin America which enhances her cross cultural comparisons in the class room and has inspired new interests for future research. Among her many other achievements, Dr. Howard is the recipient of the Sherwood Dodge Shankland Award for the Encouragement of Teachers. This is an award given annually to the outstanding teacher at Ohio Wesleyan.  Dr. Howard teaches courses such as Cultural Anthropology; Health and Illness; African Peoples and Cultures; Population Problems; Appalachian and Amish Cultures; Caribbean Seminar; Gender in Cross Cultural Perspective; Self and Society; Sociology of Feminism; and Senior Seminar.

Dr. Akbar Mahdi, Professor of Sociology; B.A., National University of Iran, 1975; M.A., Michigan State University, 1978; Ph.D., Michigan State University, 1983. Akbar Mahdi came to Ohio Wesleyan in 1993, having previously taught sociology at Michigan State University, Adrian College, and Central Sate University. Dr. Mahdi is recipient of Excellent-in-Teaching Citation from Michigan State University, The Sears-Roebuck Foundation Teaching Excellence and Campus Leadership Award from Adrian College, and Outstanding Teacher Award from Michigan Sociological Association.  His research interests include political economy of change, gender, race, and development. His regional focus is on the Middle East. Dr. Mahdi's books include Sociology in Iran (co-authored with Abdolali Lahsaizadeh), Sociology of the Iranian Family, Resources for Teaching Sociology of Development and Women in International Development and Iranian Culture, Civil Society, and Concern for Democracy.  He has also authored numerous articles and reviews on topics ranging from sociology of knowledge to the political economy of Iran and Islam in various sociological and Middle Eastern scholarly journals. He has served as the President of the Michigan Sociological Association (1987-1988), the editor of the Michigan sociological Review (1989-1994), and the Executive Director of the Center for Iranian Research and Analysis (1993-95). Dr. Mahdi's current research is focused on the concept of civil society in Iran and the attitudes of Iranian youth and women immigrants in the United States. He has conducted a national survey of the latter two groups in the United States and is studying patterns of social adjustment, cultural change, and national identity. Dr. Mahdi teaches courses such as Introduction to Sociology; Urban Society; Race and Ethnic Relations; Society, Politics, and Social Movements; People and Cultures of the Middle East; Social and Cultural Change; The Problem of Democracy in the Middle East; and Women in the Middle East. For more information,  you can visit: http://www.owu.edu/~aamahdi

Dr. James G. Peoples, Professor of Anthropology, Department Chairperson; B.A., University of California, Santa Cruz, 1970; Ph.D., University of California, 1977. James Peoples came to Ohio Wesleyan in 1988, having previously taught in the anthropology departments of the University of California, Davis, and the University of Tulsa. Dr. Peoples has conducted anthropological fieldwork on a small Micronesian island, where he studied the impact of American subsidies on the islands agricultural and cash economy. Dr. Peoples' first book, Island in Trust, published in 1985, summarized the results of this field research. He is also the co-author of Humanity: An Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, a textbook that is now in its fourth edition. Dr. Peoples' most recent book is titled Introduction to Cultural Anthropology, published in 1999. He is currently engaged in a large-scale, comparative analysis of political evolution on over twenty Pacific islands. Dr. Peoples teaches courses such as Cultural Anthropology; Human Ecology; Peoples and Cultures of the Pacific; Peoples and Cultures of Asia; Magic, Witchcraft, and Religion.