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Political Science Faculty and Staff |
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- DR. G. PEARSON CROSS
Assistant Professor and Chair of the Department of Political Science
Ph.D., Brandeis University, 1997
State and Local Politics, Southern and Louisiana Politics
Mouton Hall 119
(337)482-6162
gpc6003@louisiana.edu
Professional Curriculum Vitae
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| Pearson Cross currently serves as Head of the Political Science Department at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. His principal areas of teaching are State and Local politics, Southern Louisiana politics, and Religion and politics. He is a frequent political commentator on national, state, and local media. Dr. Cross received his B.A., from San Francisco State University in 1985 and his Ph.D. from Brandeis University in Massachusetts in 1997. He is currently working on a book on the Jindal administration and education reform with Mark Ballard. Recent and forthcoming publications include articles on white supremacy, southern politics, redistricting, and elections. Dr. Cross advises the College Democrats and serves as the Chair of the Council of Department Heads. His first avocation is jazz piano; his second is southern cooking. He is married to Lisa Orten Cross and has a son (Elias), and a daughter, (Lucy). | |
- DR. BRYAN-PAUL FROST
Associate Professor and Crocker Endowed Professor of Political Science
M.A., Ph.D., University of Toronto, 1991, 1996
B.A., St. John's College, Santa Fe, New Mexico, 1990
Political Philosophy, International Relations, Politics and Literature, Comparative Politics
Mouton Hall 230
(337) 482-5692
bfrost@louisiana.edu
Professional Curriculum Vitae
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Bryan-Paul Frost is the James A. and Kaye L. Crocker Endowed Professor of Political Science at the University of Louisiana at Lafayette. He is co-editor (with Jeremy Mhire) of The Political Theory of Aristophanes: Explorations in Poetic Wisdom (SUNY Press, 2013), contributor and co-editor (Daniel J. Mahoney) of Political Reason in the Age of Ideology: Essays in Honor of Raymond Aron (Transaction, 2007), contributor and co-editor (Jeffrey Sikkenga) of History of American Political Thought (Lexington Books, 2003), and editor and co-translator (Robert Howse) of Alexandre Kojeve’s Outline of a Phenomenology of Right (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000; paperback 2007). He also has an advance contract with the SUNY Series on the Life and Thought of Leo Strauss to co-edit a book (with Timothy Burns) entitled History, Philosophy, and Tyranny: A Re-examination of the Debate between Leo Strauss and Alexandre Kojeve, and is currently working with Paul Carrese (Air Force Academy) and Steve Knott (Naval War College) on a two-volume book, War, Justice, and Peace in American Political Thought. In addition to the above, Frost has also published articles on Aristotle, Cato the Younger, Cicero and Roman civic education, and Tocqueville and Emerson. |
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- DR. RICK A. SWANSON
Associate Professor, Pre-Law Advisor, and Anthony Moroux/BORSF Endowed Professor of Political Science
Ph.D., University of Kentucky, 2001
J.D., Southern Illinois University, 1994
Judicial Politics, Civil Rights and Liberties, Constitutional Law, Religion and Politics, American Government, Research Methods
Mouton Hall 231
(337) 482-6164
Professional Curriculum Vitae
Course Websites for Dr. Swanson
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Besides earning a J.D. and Ph.D., Rick worked from 1994-1996 as a law clerk to Justice James A. Knecht of the Illinois Appellate Court, Fourth District. Ever since obtaining his Ph.D. focusing on Public Law and Judicial Politics, he has been Pre-Law Advisor for UL-Lafayette and teaches pre-law courses in the Department of Political Science and advises the UL Law Club. His legal expertise is in the area of constitutional civil rights and civil liberties, particularly the areas of speech and religion. His articles analyzing judicial voting behavior on state supreme courts have been published in the peer-reviewed political science journals Judicature, Justice System Journal, Social Science Journal, and Journal of Political Science. His articles analyzing free speech and religious liberty have been published the the legal journals Journal of Law and Education, University of Memphis Law Review, and Southern Illinois Law Journal. In addition, his summaries of legal cases and concepts have been published in several legal encyclopedias: Encyclopedia of American Law, Encyclopedia of Civil Liberties in America, Encyclopedia of the Constitution, and Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court. Most importantly, whenever possible, Rick philosophizes with friends, communes with nature, composes and performs new age and electronic dance music, and contemplates the beauty and wonder of the universe. |
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- Dr. RYAN TETEN
Assistant Professor and Anthony Moroux/BORSF Endowed Professor of Political Science
Ph.D., Vanderbilt University, 2004
Campaigns and Elections, The Congress, The Presidency, American Politics, 9/11 and American Life, Careers in Political Science
Mouton Hall 119
(337) 482-6165
DrRyanTeten@louisiana.edu
Professional Curriculum Vitae
The Presidential Primary Lottery System (PPLS Plan)
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Ryan Lee Teten is an assistant professor in Political Science. In 1999, Ryan Graduated from Clemson University with a double major of Political Science and English. He then attended Vanderbilt University in Nashville Tennessee, where he earned his PhD in 2004 in the field of political science, with a specialization in American Politics and Political Institutions. His most recent work is a book that examines nearly 12000 presidential speeches to trace the evolution of presidential communication and policymaking. He has also had work published on the political learnings and socialization of children, negative and positive advertising, public opinion, popular culture, and the use of non-traditional texts in the teaching of political science. Ryan is also a proud husband and father of a 12-year-old boy and a 15-year-old girl. In his free time he does nerdy political science things, coaches the soccer teams for his children, and dreams of fighting in the UFC or playing in the English Premiership. |
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- Dr. ELIZABETH NYMAN
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Florida State University, 2010 International Relations and Comparative Politics
Mouton Hall 229
(337) 482-5693
Dr. Nyman's Website
enyman@louisiana.edu
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Elizabeth Nyman is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science, specializing in world politics and international relations. As befits a person who grew up on the water, her research interests revolve around international ocean issues, including maritime conflict and piracy. She has conducted dissertation research in Barbados and post-doctoral research in Canada, and can speak with equal confidence on ocean pollution issues and conflict potential in the Caribbean Sea and the Arctic Ocean. She has had articles published recently on international maritime piracy law, island maritime conflict, and maritime utopias, and is part of a coauthored book project on the Arctic Ocean called Contesting the Arctic: Rethinking Politics in the Circumpolar North (under contract with IB Tauris, to be published in 2013). When not at work, she likes to travel both within the United States and abroad. |
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- DR. SHARON RIDGEWAY
Assistant Professor
Ph.D., Northern Arizona University, 1996
Public Administration, Bureaucratic Politics, Environmental Policy and Ethics, Feminist Theory, Role of Media in Democracy
Mouton Hall 228
(337) 482-6548
sridgeway@louisiana.edu
Professional Curriculum Vitae
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Dr. Ridgeway took a rather circuitous route to her Ph.D. in political science from Northern Arizona University at Flagstaff, AZ. Her first twenty-year career was in film and theater in Los Angeles and New York. Her decision to enter the arts as a mechanism for political change was inspired by the Smothers Brothers who were willing to risk, and then lose, their very popular TV comedy show to challenge the rationality of the Vietnam War. These years in the arts continue to influence her view of how political change can come from the most unlikely of sources, but ultimately must rest in the people’s willingness to fight for it. Her current research and teaching focus on how to create a sustainable environment that can support life for all of Earth’s entities, and the role of media in shaping how we perceive issues swirling around the public square. She is currently finishing a book, The Talking Stick, which examines how corporate-led globalization is destroying the environmentally friendly indigenous and peasant cultures around the world. Her most recent peer-reviewed publication is in the international journal, Peace Review, "Globalization from the Subsistence Perspective." She continues to hold the dream of a planetary consciousness in which peace and joy are the highest values. |
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- MRS. HARRIET S. LAPORTE
Department Secretary
Mouton Hall 112
(337) 482-6171
pols@louisiana.edu
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Tel. 337-482-6171; E-mail: pols@louisiana.edu