Undergraduate Program

CONCENTRATION ADVISERS IN GOVERNMENT

2009-2010

ADAMS: Michael Nitsch is a sixth-year Ph.D. student in the Government Department. His dissertation uses the history of political thought to consider the role in democratic politics of judgments about the moral character of politicians. Michael is originally from just outside New York City, and he attended Harvard College, where he was a Government concentrator and a photographer for the Crimson. Having now been in the department for eight years as both an undergraduate and a graduate student, he'd love to talk with you about the department or about theory more generally. If he's not around CGIS, you have a good chance of finding him in Adams House, where he serves as a resident tutor.

Office Hours in Adams House: Thursdays 1:15-3:15pm, Adams Dining Hall

CABOT: Masha Hedberg is a PhD candidate studying the comparative political economy of post-communist countries. Her research explores the evolution of business collective action and its influence on policy reform in emerging markets. Her dissertation investigates the formation, organizational development and political strategies of business associations in Russia, Ukraine and Bulgaria. Related work looks at the rise and fall of guilds in nineteenth-century Tsarist Russia. In her spare time, she is learning to play squash, running about on the tennis court, watching football and tinkering with her cooking skills.

Office Hours in Cabot House: Mondays 7-9pm, Cabot Dining Hall

CURRIER: Daniel Nadler is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department. He studies both ancient political philosophy and contemporary American politics, particularly modern American constitutional law. Prior to beginning the Ph.D. program he was at the United Nations, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, in Geneva, Switzerland. There he worked on current civil conflicts in Africa and Asia. He is the Resident Government Tutor at Currier House, and would be glad to chat about your studies in government, or any other subject.

Office Hours in Currier House: Wednesdays 6-8pm, Currier Dining Hall

DUNSTER: Carlos Díaz is the Allston Burr Resident Dean of Dunster House and an Instructor in the Department of Government. His research focuses on the American presidency, public policy, inter-branch relations, political leadership, and comparative chief executive politics. Carlos has extensive teaching and advising experience in the Department of Government, where he has served as Concentration Adviser for the past few years. He will be teaching a seminar on chief executive politics in the Fall: GOV 98fg: Presidents, Governors, and Mayors: Chief Executive Power in Comparative Perspective. He holds undergraduate degrees summa cum laude in International Relations (BA) and Civil Engineering (BSCE), as well as graduate degrees in Public Policy (MPP) and Government (AM; Ph.D., expected). He is also a fellow at the Center for Public Leadership at Harvard.

Office Hours in Dunster House: Fridays 3-5pm, Resident Dean's Office, J-39

ELIOT: Suzanna Challen is a sixth-year graduate student in the Government Department. Her research interests lie in the overlapping fields of International Relations and Comparative Politics. Her dissertation focuses on immigration policymaking in the United States, Canada and Australia.  She also has worked for three years on the Immigration Policy Project with Professor Michael Hiscox.   This is her second year serving as the Government Concentration Advisor for Eliot House.  She was a Concentration Advisor at Leverett for two years prior to moving to Eliot, where she now resides with her husband Geoffrey and dog, Chuchu.

Office Hours in Eliot House: Wed 9/2 5-7:30pm, Thurs 9/3 9-11am, Shopping Week Only, Eliot Dining Hall

KIRKLAND: Brett Carter is a third year graduate student in the Department of Government and an associate of the Institute for Quantitative Social Science. His primary research interests concern the application of formal and quantitative methods to autocratic politics, political violence, and economic growth. Prior to graduate school, Brett was a Fulbright scholar in Senegal, taught at the University of Malawi, worked for a humanitarian NGO in northern Ethiopia, and consulted for USAID in Washington, Mali, and Congo (Kinshasa). When not in Cambridge or various African countries, Brett most enjoys long hikes with good friends.

Office Hours in Kirkland House: Fridays, 3-5pm, Kirkland Dining Hall

LEVERETT: Oliver Bevan is a third-year Ph.D student in the Department of Government. Having completed an undergraduate degree in the UK in philosophy and politics, his substantive research interests focus on questions pertaining to the period following the collapse of the Soviet Union and is a Graduate Student Associate of the Davis Center. He is especially interested in factors influencing decision-making in times of extreme uncertainty, and with improving the tools for making causal inferences in comparative politics. In his spare time, he plays soccer (badly), the guitar (worse), and speaks Russian. He lives with his girlfriend and their hamster in Leverett.

Office Hours in Leverett House: Wednesdays 3-5pm, Leverett Dining Hall

LOWELL: Brodi Kemp is a G6 in the Department. She is writing on the problem of accountability in international nongovernmental organizations, a problem that brings together her interests in political philosophy and the law. Brodi received a J.D. in 2004 from Yale Law School and has continued to work with law students as part of a program called Law Preview, a weeklong course for first-year law students. She has taught a number of courses in the Government Department including Gov 98r / 1057 Global Justice, Gov 97a sophomore tutorial and Gov 1183 European Integration, and she served as the Departmental Teaching Fellow from 2006-08.

Office Hours in Lowell House: Mondays & Wednesdays 7-8pm, Lowell Dining Hall

MATHER: Graham Clure is a second-year Ph.D. student in the Department.  He studies the history of political thought, particularly eighteenth-century French, British, and Swiss political economy.  He joins Mather as a non-resident tutor in 2009-10 and looks forward to meeting current and prospective concentrators there.

Office Hours in Mather House: Tuesdays from 4:30-6:30pm, Mather Dining Hall

PFORZHEIMER: Gabriel Katsh is a second-year graduate student in the Government Department and a resident tutor in Government and public service in Pforzheimer House. His primary research interests are in political theory, American politics, and law. He is a 2004 graduate of the Social Studies program at Harvard College and has worked on several political campaigns and for the federal government. Please stop by Gabe's office hours in the Pfoho Dining Hall!

Office Hours in Pforzheimer House: Thursdays, 6-8pm  in the Pforzheimer Dining Hall, and by appointment

QUINCY: Eric Lomazoff is a seventh-year graduate student in Government, with a focus in American Politics but a perennial soft spot for Political Theory. He studies institutional development in the Early American Republic, with a focus on fiscal and monetary institutions. Eric's dissertation tests existing theories of institutional development against the history of the Bank of the United States, an institution not unlike the modern Federal Reserve. This is his fifth year in Quincy House.

Office Hours in Quincy House: Mondays 7-9pm, Quincy Dining Hall

WINTHROP: Nathan Paxton is a fourth-year resident tutor in Winthrop House, where he is also the BGLTS tutor. His subfields are International Relations, Political Theory, and Research Methods (primarily qualitative). His research interests include International Institutions and Organizations, History of IR in Political Thought, and International Politics of HIV/AIDS. He also does a bit of work at Quad Bikes up in Cabot House and is an avid fan of the Simpsons, Lost, and U2. Stop by the dining hall to talk with him about government stuff or about pop culture or whatever else in on your mind.

Office Hours in Winthrop House: TBA