Fernando Bizzarro obtained his Ph.D. from Harvard University. He is currently a Postdoctoral Associate with the Leitner Program for Effective Democratic Governance at Yale University. Starting in Fall 2024, he will be an Assistant Professor of Political Science at Boston College. Dr. Bizzarro is a comparativist who explores the nature, causes, and consequences of political institutions. Some of his work deals specifically with different aspects of electoral and institutional politics in Brazil and Latin America, from where he comes. His research sheds light on the causes of major obstacles to the economic and political development of democracies worldwide. He is also interested in the few late-democratizing countries where democracy has deepened in the past decades. A significant part of Dr. Bizzarro’s work focuses on personalism as a phenomenon in politics. He theorizes that the emergence of personalist democracies depends on the interplay between politicians’ political strategies and the distribution of politically relevant resources. His research builds on both a series of publications on regime outcomes of third- and fourth-wave democracies and on his experience as the main US-based research assistant to the V-Democracy project between 2014 and 2016.
John F. Clark is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from University of Virginia. Dr. Clark specializes in the state-society relations of African polities and the international relations of sub-Saharan Africa. During the 1999-2000 academic year he was a Fulbright lecturer and research scholar at Makerere University in Kampala, Uganda. In the summer of 2014, Professor Clark was a Fulbright Specialist consultant at the Mbarara University of Science and Technology, where he was also Visiting Professor. He was awarded, with three collaborators, a grant by the American Political Science Association to organize a two-week workshop on Conflict and Political Violence in Nairobi, Kenya, in July 2015. Among Dr. Clark’s more recent books are The Failure of Democracy in the Republic of Congo (Lynne Rienner, 2008), Africa’s International Relations (Lynne Rienner, 2018, with Beth Whitaker), and Political Identities and African Foreign Policies (forthcoming). He has also published over fifty articles and book chapters, including articles in African Affairs, the Journal of Democracy, the Journal of Modern African Studies, Comparative Studies in Society and History, African Security, and the Africa Spectrum.
Tatiana Kostadinova is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University and Director of the European and Eurasian Studies Program. She received her M.S. and Ph.D. in Political Science from the Florida State University. Her research focuses on political institutions with a special emphasis on elections and political parties, personalist leadership, East European democratic transition, and political corruption. Dr. Kostadinova is the author of Bulgaria 1879-1946: The Challenge of Choice (East European Monographs, Columbia University Press, 1995), Political Corruption in Eastern Europe: Politics After Communism (Lynne Rienner, 2012), and numerous articles that appeared in peer-reviewed journals including American Journal of Political Science, Journal of Peace Research, European Political Science Review, Political Research Quarterly, Politics & Policy, East European Politics and Societies, Public Administration Review, and Governance.
Donald Moynihan is the inaugural McCourt Chair at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. He completed his B.A. degree in Public Administration at the University of Limerick, and his master’s and Ph.D. in Public Administration from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University. At the McCourt School, he co-directs the Better Government Lab. Prior to joining Georgetown University, Professor Moynihan served as the Director of the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He is a member of the National Academy of Public Administration and the President-elect of the Association of Public Policy and Management. Dr. Moynihan’s research interests focus on the administrative burdens people encounter in their interactions with government, with the goal of making those interactions simple, accessible and respectful. He has published many journal articles and two books, Behavioral Public Performance: How People Make Sense of Government Metrics (Cambridge University Press, 2020) and Administrative Burden: Policymaking by Other Means (Russell Sage Foundation 2018) which received several best book awards.
Milena I. Neshkova is Associate Professor of Public Policy Administration and Faculty Coordinator for the Master of Arts in Global Affairs program in the Steven J. Green School of International and Public Affairs at Florida International University. Dr. Neshkova earned her Ph.D. from the School of Public and Environmental Affairs (SPEA) at Indiana University. She also holds an M.P.A. from Indiana University and an M.A. in Journalism from Sofia University. Her research interests include citizen participation in government, the role of bureaucracy in democratic systems, managing public money, comparative public administration, and fighting corruption. She is a recipient of competitive grants from the National Science Foundation, the Kauffman Foundation, and the European Union Center of Excellence. Her work has appeared in top-tier peer-reviewed journals, including Public Administration Review, Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, Governance, American Review of Public Administration, Policy Studies Journal, and Journal of European Public Policy. Dr. Neshkova has taught courses in public management, policy analysis, budgeting, financial management, research design, and statistics at doctoral, master, and undergraduate levels.
Anthony W. Pereira is Professor of Politics and International Relations at Florida International University (FIU) and the Director of the Kimberly Green Latin American and Caribbean Center at FIU. He has held positions at King's College London, the New School for Social Research, the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, Tulane University, and the University of East Anglia. His Ph.D. dissertation at Harvard University focused on the role of rural trade unions in northeast Brazil in expanding democratic rights in two different periods, the early 1960s before the military coup of 1964 and the late 1970s and 1980s, when Brazil’s authoritarian regime was ending. This research led to the publication of the book The End of the Peasantry: The Rural Labor Movement in Northeast Brazil, 1961-1988 (University of Pittsburgh Press, 1997). His more recent books include (with Lauro Mattei) The Brazilian Economy Today: Towards a New Socio-Economic Model? (Palgrave Macmillan, 2015); (with Jeff Garmany) Understanding Contemporary Brazil (Routledge, 2018) and Modern Brazil: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford University Press, 2020). Dr. Pereira served as President of the Brazilian Studies Association (BRASA) from 2014 to 2016 and is an occasional commentator on Brazil in the media.
Gideon Rahat holds the Gersten Family Chair in Political Science at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. He has studied comparative politics and Israeli politics, focusing on the politics of reform, democratic institutions, political parties, candidate and leadership selection, and political personalization. Dr. Rahat is a co-editor of the book series The Elections in Israel since 2015. He has authored several books, the latest one, From Party Politics to Personalized Politics? Party Change and Political Personalization in Democracies (Oxford University Press, 2018) in co-authorship with Ofer Kenig. His most recent editorial project (with Reuven Hazan, Alan Dowty and Menachem Hofnung), The Oxford Handbook of Israeli Politics and Society came out in print in 2021. Other books and co-edited volumes include The Promise and Challenge of Party Primary Elections: A Comparative Perspective (with William Cross, Ofer Kenig, Scott Pruysers, 2016); Democracy Within Parties: Candidate Selection Methods and their Political Consequences (with Reuven Hazan, 2010); and The Politics of Regime Structure Reform in Democracies: Israel in Comparative and Theoretical Perspective (2008). In addition, he has published numerous articles in refereed academic journals, chapters in edited books, encyclopedia entries and more. Dr Rahat is a senior fellow at the leading nonpartisan political think tank, the Israel Democracy Institute.
William G. Resh earned his doctoral degree at the American University’s School of Public Affairs in 2011. He was an Assistant Professor in Public Management at Indiana University’s School of Public and Environmental Affairs from 2011 to 2014. Dr. Resh joined the University of Southern California’s Sol Price School of Public Policy in 2014. His research focuses on public management and executive politics. A common theme in his work is how administrative structure and political environments affect the behaviors, perceptions, and working relationships of civil servants. Dr. Resh has received several awards for his scholarship from the American Political Science Association, the American Society for Public Administration (ASPA), and the Academy of Management. His work has been published in respected peer reviewed journals and academic presses across the fields of public administration, political science, and public policy. His recent book, Rethinking the Administrative Presidency (Johns Hopkins University Press), was awarded the Best Book in Public Administration Research award by ASPA in 2017.
Allan Rosenbaum is Professor of Public Policy and Administration at Florida International University (FIU). He received an M.S. in Higher Education Administration from Southern Illinois University, an M.A. in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley and his Ph.D. in Political Science from the University of Chicago in 1976. Allan Rosenbaum is the founding Director of the Institute for Public Management and Community Service and Center for Democracy and Good Governance at FIU, and recently served as President of the 9,000-member American Society for Public Administration. He is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration and is the only American member of the 24-person United Nations Committee of Experts on Public Administration, of which he serves as Vice Chairperson. Prior to assuming his current position, Dr. Rosenbaum served for six years as Dean of the School of Public Affairs and Services at FIU. He has had extensive experience working with the Ukrainian Parliament and as director or co-director of large USAID projects with numerous Latin American legislative bodies and local governments and with the Parliament and President in Sierra Leone. He has authored, co-authored, or co-edited a number of publications for the United Nations, as well as prepared papers on issues of decentralization, democracy and civil society for major United Nations Conferences in Bucharest, Marrakech, New York, Windhoek and Rio de Janeiro.
Jessica L. P. Weeks is Professor of Political Science and H. Douglas Weaver Chair in Diplomacy and International Relations, University of Wisconsin-Madison. She received her M.A. degree in International History from the Graduate Institute of International and Development Studies (Geneva) in 2003, and a Ph.D. in Political Science from Stanford University in 2009. Prior to joining the Wisconsin faculty, Dr. Weeks was Assistant Professor of Government at Cornell University. Her areas of expertise include Foreign Policy, Non-democracy, Peace, Political Institutions, Public Opinion, Weapons of Mass Destruction, Domestic Politics of Foreign Policy, the Domestic and International Politics of Authoritarian Regimes, and Public Opinion about Foreign Policy. Dr. Weeks’ research has appeared in or is forthcoming in journals including the American Political Science Review, the American Journal of Political Science, the Journal of Politics, International Organization, and World Politics. Her book, Dictators at War and Peace (Cornell Studies in Security Affairs Series, Cornell University Press, 2014) explores the domestic politics of international conflict in dictatorships. Weeks is the 2018 recipient of the International Studies Association Karl Deutsch Award, recognizing the scholar under 40 who has made the most significant contribution to the study of international relations.
Joseph Wright is Professor of Political Science at Pennsylvania State University and currently serves as the co-Director of the Global and International Studies program. He previously held the Jeffrey L. and Sharon D. Hyde Early Career Professorship. Dr. Wright completed his Ph.D. at UCLA in 2007. Prior to arriving at Penn State, he was a post-doctoral research associate at Princeton University and a visiting faculty fellow at the University of Notre Dame. In 2016 Dr. Wright was on leave in Cape Town as a visiting scholar at Economic Research Southern Africa (ERSA). His research has been funded by the National Science Foundation, the Minerva Research Initiative, and private foundations. This scholarship has appeared in Foreign Affairs, Foreign Policy, the Journal of Democracy, the Washington Quarterly, and the Washington Post. His most recent books are Migration and Democracy (Princeton University Press, winner of the 2023 APSA Migration & Citizenship Section Best Book Award) and The Origins of Elected Strongmen (Oxford University Press, in press).