Post-Doctoral Fellowship

PENN PROGRAM ON DEMOCRACY, CITIZENSHIP, AND CONSTITUTIONALISM POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWSHIP

CALL FOR APPLICATIONS
2012-2013 Academic Year
Application Deadline: March 16, 2012

The Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism (DCC) invites applications for a one-year DCC Postdoctoral Fellow in any discipline whose research is pertinent to the Program’s 2012-2013 theme, “Constitution Making.” The Program welcomes both empirical and normative scholarship, focused comparatively or on particular nations, regions, or communities, that explores the various ways that political constitutions have been, are being, and should be constructed and contested, maintained or dissolved.

The Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism program is an interdisciplinary initiative, funded by the Mellon Foundation, which includes a faculty seminar series and annual conference on themes chosen by the Program’s Faculty Advisory Council; a graduate workshop series; and undergraduate research grants. The DCC Postdoctoral Fellow is expected to participate in the faculty seminar series, teach an Undergraduate Seminar on a related topic, and join monthly meetings to discuss the progress of undergraduates receiving research grants. The Fellow also has the opportunity to pursue the Fellow’s research and study and participate generally in the intellectual life of the Penn community. Stipend is $53,800, plus health insurance.

Eligibility is limited to applicants who will have received their Ph.D. within five years prior to the time they begin their fellowship at Penn (i.e. May 2006 or later). Application deadline: March 16, 2012

Guidelines and Application

For more information on the Penn Program on Democracy, Citizenship, and Constitutionalism, contact DCC Program Chair Rogers M. Smith, Christopher H. Browne Distinguished Professor of Political Science, rogerss@sas.upenn.edu.

The University of Pennsylvania is an equal opportunity/affirmative action employer.

DCC 2011-2012 Postdoctoral Fellow: Rosalie Genova

Rosalie Genova received her PhD in History in 2010 from the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill. Her research interests include the role of corporations in democratic society, narrative and perception in politics, contemporary business and capital markets, and financial crises in historical perspective. Genova’s dissertation, “Big Business, Democracy, and the American Way: Narratives of the Enron Scandal in 2000s Political Culture,” argued that political uses of narrative shaped the federal reforms intended to prevent “another Enron”—particularly relating to corporate financial statements and private money in election campaigns. The current book project more broadly considers business developments of the late twentieth century giving way to the “New Economy” and, following Enron, the financial crisis of 2008 and its own political ramifications. She has also written on the equities market “Flash Crash” of May 2010 and the Dodd-Frank financial reform law in comparison with New Deal regulatory initiatives. While at Penn she is teaching a course on corporations in US politics from the topic’s earliest history to the present.

DCC 2010-2011 Postdoctoral Fellow: Natalie Joy

Natalie Joy received her PhD in history from UCLA in September 2008. Her research interests include Native American history and the history of antislavery, two fields of inquiry rarely considered concurrently. She is currently working on a book manuscript, “‘The Wronged Red Man’: Indian Removal and the Problem of Slavery,” which examines the intersection of the antislavery and antiremoval movements in the antebellum United States. Antislavery support for the antiremoval cause was complicated by the fact that some Native Americans were slaveholders, and Natalie’s research considers how the alliance of antislavery and antiremoval interests persisted in light of this inconvenient fact. An article she wrote on this topic was recently published in the July 2010 issue of Common-place. Natalie is now a Visiting Assistant Professor of History and Humanities at Reed College. She can be reached at njoy@reed.edu.

DCC 2009-2010 Postdoctoral Fellow: Arjun Chowdhury

Arjun Chowdhury received his PhD in political science from the University of Minnesota in August 2009. His research interests lie in international security, political development, and contemporary political theory. His dissertation, Expectations of Order: State Failure in Historical Context, analyzes the phenomenon of weak and failed states – states that are unable to control their own borders and provide goods to their population – and asks why there are so many such states. He argues that changes at the level of the international system, specifically the reaction to European colonialism and the development of nuclear weapons, make state weakness more likely. At the same time, these changes paradoxically make states more important for international order, to control nuclear proliferation, for example. Arjun has authored and co-authored scholarly articles published or forthcoming in the journals Security Dialogue, Security Studies, and borderlands e-journal. At Penn, Arjun worked on two projects. The first examines how potentially violent democratic contestation in non-Western states can help to consolidate state power, despite creating short- and medium-term instability. The second examines how foreign intervention aiming at modernizing social practices and institutions often creates opposite effects – namely the strengthening of traditional, and sometimes regressive, institutions and practices. While at Penn, he taught a Freshman seminar titled “Political Violence and the Modern World.” Arjun now teaches in the Political Science department at the University of British Columbia.

2008-2009 DCC Postdoctoral Fellow: Georgia Kernell

Dr. Kernell successfully defended her PhD dissertation in political science at Columbia University in September 2008. Her research interests include political parties, methodology, behavior and comparative institutions. Her dissertation, "Political Party Organizations and Representation: Intraparty Institutions and Competition in Established Democracies," examines how a party's organization-- especially its decentralization with respect to candidate selection, resource allocation, and recruitment of delegates to the national party convention-- shapes its electoral appeal and constituent support. The thesis uses an original data set of party institutions, party statutes, and interviews for 66 partiesi n 20 mature parliamentary democracies. At Penn Georgia worked on several projects that examine the institutions that regulate party diversity; the normative implications of party organizations for representation; and the information strategies that affect consumers' economic forecasts. While at Penn she also taught a freshman seminar on "Comparative Political Parties and Party Systems." Georgia is now an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Northwestern University. She can be rearched at gkernell@northwestern.edu.

2007-2008 DCC Postdoctoral Fellow: Dr. Karolina Szmagalska-Follis

Dr. Szmaglaska-Follis received her doctorate in anthropology from New School University. Dr. Szmagalska-Follis is currently completing a book manuscript, Rebordering Europe, based on her dissertation, and she now teaches in the Anthropology Department at the National University of Ireland, Maynooth, in Dublin.  She may be reached at Karolina.Szmagalska@nuim.ie.