US Studies Centre appoints leading academics
28 October 2007
The United States Studies Centre has appointed four leading social scientists with expertise in key areas of interest to the US and Australia.
Political scientists Margaret Levi and Brendon O'Connor join the Centre's permanent staff. Public health expert Lawrence Gostin and public opinion analyst Simon Jackman will lead research projects at the Centre in 2009.
Professor Don Nutbeam, a member of the Board of Directors of the US Studies Centre and Provost of The University of Sydney, said the appointments will strengthen Australia's links with prominent academic institutions in the United States.
"These appointments will help position the University as a world leader in US studies and provide valuable resources to business, government and other universities in Australia", Prof Nutbeam said.
Professor Margaret Levi, former President of the American Political Science Association and Bacharach Professor of International Studies at the University of Washington in Seattle, has been appointed to a chair in politics at the Centre.
Professor Levi is a world renowned author and editor of a dozen books and more than fifty articles on citizenship, conscription, taxation, trade unions and trust in the US, Australia and other developed countries. She serves as Chair of the Board of Directors of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioural Sciences at Stanford University, General Editor of the Annual Review of Political Science, and General Editor of Cambridge University Press's Studies in Comparative Politics series.
Associate Professor Brendon O'Connor, an expert on anti-Americanism, is a Fulbright Scholar and has held visiting appointments at the Woodrow Wilson Centre for Scholars and Georgetown University in Washington, DC. Editor of six books and author of thirty articles and chapters, Dr O'Connor is completing a four-book series on US foreign policy and anti-Americanism for SAGE publications London.
Simon Jackman, Professor of Political Science at Stanford University, will be a Visiting Professor at the US Studies Centre and will serve as principal investigator for the Centre's annual survey of Australian attitudes towards America. A frequent commentator in Australia on US politics, Jackman serves as Associate Editor of the Annual Review of Political Science and on the Editorial Board of the American Political Science Review.
Visiting Professor Lawrence Gostin, Associate Dean of Georgetown University Law Centre, Professor of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore and a member of the US National Academy of Sciences, will be at the US Studies Centre for the second half of 2009. He will assess America's global public health record this decade and identify opportunities for cooperation between Australia and the US in the Asia-Pacific.
US Studies Centre Chief Executive Professor Geoffrey Garrett said he was very excited to work with such high quality academics in furthering the Centre's mission of promoting understanding of the United States and collaboration across the Pacific.
Contact: Mandy Sacher
Phone: 02 911 40622
