people

Steven Wilkinson - Interim Director, 2007-8
Pick Hall 103 | phone: 773.702.3013 | e-mail: swilkinson@uchicago.edu

Steven Wilkinson (Ph.D. MIT) is Associate Professor of Political Science. His main interests are in: 1) ethnicity and nationalism; 2) patronage politics and the politics of distribution; 3) the long term effects of colonization on governance and conflict. In the theoretical study of all these areas, he draws upon his continuing research interests in the society and politics of South Asia. His book Votes and Violence: Electoral Competition and EthnicRiots in India (2004), was co-winner of the American Political Science Association's 2005 Woodrow Wilson Foundation award for the "the best book on government, politics, or international affairs." His second book Patrons, Clients and Policies: Patterns of Democratic Accountability and Political Competition (2006) is co-edited with his former colleague at Duke, Herbert Kitschelt.

Kathleen D. Morrison - Director
Pick Hall 103 | phone: 773.702.3013 | e-mail: morrison@uchicago.edu

Kathleen Morrison earned her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley in 1992. She is Professor of Anthropology and of Social Sciences in the College and studies the archaeology and historical anthropology of South Asia with a focus on precolonial and early colonial South India. Her interests include state formation and power relations in South Asia, agricultural intensification as a general historical problem, colonialism and imperialism, landscape history, and the integration of archaeological, historical, and ecological analysis. She was appointed Director of the CIS in 2003.

Vera Beard - Administrative Assistant
Pick Hall 101 | phone: 773.702.7721 | e-mail: v-beard@uchicago.edu

Vera Beard joined the University of Chicago staff in October 1984. She was Program Secretary in the Center for Middle Eastern Studies for eleven years and has worked as Administrative Assistant in the Center for International Studies since December 1995.

Jamie Bender - Outreach Coordinator
Pick Hall 123 | phone: 773.834.3852 | e-mail: jbender@uchicago.edu

Jamie Bender received her B.S. in Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She earned a M.A. in Biology from Boston University, researching Neotropical mammals in the Ecuadorian rainforest, and an Ed.M. from the Harvard Graduate School of Education. Jamie taught Anthropology and Biology at Oak Park and River Forest High School for 5 years before joining CIS as the Outreach Coordinator.

Shayna Plaut - Internship Coordinator
Pick Hall 124 | phone: 773.834.4408 | e-mail: shayna@uchicago.edu

Shayna Plaut received her B.A. (Social and Global Studies * Political Science) from Antioch College and her M.A. (Humanities * Cultural Studies and Media Theory) from University of Chicago. In 2003 she received a University of Chicago Human Rights Program Internship and a Fulbright Scholarship to Macedonia where she focused on Romani media and social change. Shayna is an educator, researcher and activist and has worked with human rights issues domestically and internationally for over ten years. In addition to serving as the Internship Coordinator for the Center for International Studies (Human Rights Program and the environmental Studies program) she currently designs and teaches human rights and media courses at Columbia College, Chicago. Shayna is the Amnesty International (AI) USA Balkans Regional Action (RAN) Coordinator and on AIUSA's Committee on Mission, Research and Action and has published works on Romani civil society and Romani media and more general human rights concerns and activism in the south Balkans.

Thomas Gaulkin - Communications Coordinator
Pick Hall 122 | phone: 773.702.1743 | e-mail: tgaulkin@uchicago.edu

Thomas Gaulkin received his B.A. in Political Science from the University of Chicago. Before joining the Center for International Studies he produced Worldview, Chicago Public Radio's daily global affairs program.