Ph.D. Job Placement

During the 2018-19 market, four of four students (100%) on the academic market received a tenure-track job or postdoctoral position and one of one (100%) students on the non-academic market received a position. Three of these academic placements were tenure-track positions: (1) Tom Jamieson, International Relations, Assistant Professor, University of Nebraska Omaha; (2) Elli Menounou, Comparative Politics, Assistant Professor, Cal Poly Pomona; (3) Sara Sadhwani, American Politics, California Lutheran University. One of the four academic placements was a postdoctoral positions: (1) Ronan Fu, International Relations, Post-doctoral Fellow, Harvard/Columbia University, China and the World Program. One student on the non-academic market landed an executive position at Edison International (Hai-Vu Phan).

During the 2017-18 market, six of seven students (85%) on the academic market received a tenure-track job or postdoctoral position.  Five of these academic placements were tenure-track positions: (1) Jordan Carr Peterson, American politics, Assistant Professor, Texas Christian University; (2) Joey Huddleston, international relations, Assistant Professor, Seton Hall University; (3) Youssef Chouhoud, comparative politics, race/ethnicity/politics, Christopher Newport University; (4) Meredith Shaw, comparative politics, East Asia, University of Tokyo; (5) Mariana Rangel-Padilla, comparative politics, Tecnologico de Monterrey University. The sixth placement was a postdoctoral position (Scott Wilbur). Another student landed an executive position at a major tech firm (Guez Salinas).

Peterson’s CV is available here. Email is jordancarrpeterson@gmail.com.
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (expected spring 2018); J.D., University of Florida (2012), B.A., University of Southern California (2008)
Dissertation Title: “Private Interests in American Government Institutions”
Research Interests: American politics, political institutions, executive and legislative politics, judicial decision-making and law, elite political behavior, survey experiments, research methods, public policy
Website: https://www.jordancarrpeterson.com 
Dissertation Chair: Christian Grose (POIR)
Dissertation Committee Members: Jeb Barnes (POIR), Anthony Bertelli (NYU), Pamela Clouser McCann (USC Price)

Email is chouhoud@usc.edu.
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (expected 2018); M.A., Lehigh University (2010); B.A., Lehigh University (2005)
Dissertation Title: “The Changing State of Tolerance and Tolerance in Changing States”
Research Interests: Comparative democratization, religion and politics, Middle East Politics, Muslim-American politics, political tolerance, comparative politics, American politics, public opinion
Website: https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=J4rDIpUAAAAJ&hl=en
Dissertation Co-Chairs: Laurie Brand (POIR) and Gerry Munck (POIR)
Dissertation Committee Members: Dennis Chong (POIR), Sherman Jackson (USC Religion)

Huddleston’s CV is available here. Email is rhuddles@usc.edu.
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (expected spring 2018); B.A., Chapman University (2011)
Dissertation Title: “Legitimizing Self-determination: Advancing the Sovereignty of Separatist Movements”
Research Interests: International relations, peace & conflict processes, international sovereignty, military & diplomatic responses to civil conflicts, domestic constraints on foreign policy, survey experiments, North Africa
Website: https://dornsife.usc.edu/huddleston 
Dissertation Chair: Pat James (POIR)
Dissertation Committee Members: Wayne Sandholtz (POIR), Nicholas Weller (UC, Riverside), and Nicholas Cull (USC Annenberg)

Rangel-Padilla’s CV is available here. Email is rangelpa@usc.edu.
Education: Ph.D., 2017, University of Southern California; M.A., Carleton University (2004), B.A., ITESM (2001)
Dissertation Title: “Developing Countries in the Digital Era: The Role of States and Business in Industrial Upgrading.”
Research Interests: Comparative politics, Latin America, International Political Economy
Website: usc.academia.edu/MarianaRangel
Dissertation Chair: Gerry Munck (POIR)
Dissertation Committee Members: Carol Wise (POIR), Jeff Nugent (USC Economics)

Shaw’s CV is available here.  Email is meredirs@usc.edu.
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (expected spring 2018); M.A., Ritsumeikan University (2007), B.A., Brown University (2000)
Dissertation Title: “Saving the Nation from the State: How Opposition Movements Respond to State-Imposed Cultural Change.”
Research Interests: Comparative politics; international relations; comparative politics of East Asia; cultural policies; contentious politics; collective action and signaling problems; maritime disputes; inter-Korean relations; quantitative text analysis
Website: https://dornsife.usc.edu/meredith-shaw/
Dissertation Chair: David Kang (POIR)
Dissertation Committee Members: Patrick James (POIR), Lon Kurashige (USC History), David Leheny (Waseda U.)

Email is sawilbur@usc.edu.
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (expected fall 2017); M.A., National Taiwan University (2011), B.S., Georgetown University (2005)
Dissertation Title: “Creating Destruction: The Political Economy of Zombie Firms”
Research Interests: Comparative Politics, International Political Economy
Dissertation Chair: Saori Katada (co-chair, POIR); Wayne Sandholtz (co-chair, POIR)
Dissertation Committee Members: David Kang (POIR), Gerardo Munck (POIR), Pierrette Hondagneu-Sotelo (USC Sociology)

Three of four USC POIR students who were on the 2016-17 academic job market received tenure-track or postdoctoral positions in last year’s job market. Another student took a job in the private sector as a data scientist.

All USC political science and international relations Ph.D. student job placements from the 2016-17 academic year market are listed below:

Email: albuyeh@usc.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2016).
Dissertation Title: “Thawing Rivalries and Fading Friendships: A Multi-Method Approach to Rapprochement and Alienation.”
Research Interests: Political psychology, quantitative research methods
Dissertation Chair: Patrick James
Dissertation Committee Members: Brian Rathbun

Email: jiunbang@usc.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2016); B.A., Ewha Womans University (2005)
Dissertation Title: “The Business of Nationalism”
Research Interests: International relations, international security, geopolitics in East Asia
Dissertation Chair: David Kang
Dissertation Committee Members: Patrick James, Saori Katada, Rhacel Salazar Parreñas

Email: ahfeldma@usc.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (expected 2017); J.D., University of California, Berkeley; B.A., University of California, Los Angeles.
Research Interests: American politics, judicial politics and law, political institutions
Personal Website: https://sites.google.com/a/usc.edu/afresearch/
Dissertation Committee: Jeb Barnes, Daniel Klerman

Email: nicolas.dezamaroczy@usc.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2017); B.A., Dartmouth
Dissertation Title: “Taking Orders from Brussels? External Actors and Regional Organizations in the Developing World.”
Research Interests: International relations, international organizations, European Union
Dissertation Chair: Patrick James

Five of six students (83%) who completed their Ph.D.s in 2015 and were on the 2015-16 academic job market received tenure-track, permanent, or postdoctoral positions in the 2015-16 job market. The sixth received a postdoctoral teaching fellowship at USC.

All USC political science and international relations Ph.D. student job placements from the 2015-16 academic year market are listed below:

Email: juvenalc@usc.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2015); B.A., University of California, Berkeley (2009)
Dissertation Title: “Power to the Masses? The Rise of Direct Democracy in Latin America”
Research Interests: Direct democracy, Comparative Politics
Dissertation Chair: Gerry Munck
Dissertation Committee Members: Carol Wise and Manuel Pastor

Email: eric.hamilton@usc.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2015); M.A., Georgetown University (2006); B.A., Temple University (2004)
Dissertation Title: “International Politics and Domestic Institutional Change: The Rise of Executive War-Making Autonomy in the United States”
Research Interests: IR Theory, Security Studies, US Foreign and National Security Policy
Dissertation Chair: Patrick James and Brian Rathbun
Dissertation Committee Members: Norrin Ripsman

Email: knaack@usc.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2015); M.A., University of Southern California (2012); M.A., San Andres University (2007); M.A., Leipzig University (2003); B.A., Leipzig University (2003)
Dissertation Title: “Global financial regulatory reform in the G20 and the Financial Stability Board”
Research Interests: international political economy of finance, regulatory capture, transgovernmental networks, and the political economy of China and Latin America
Dissertation Chair: Saori Katada
Dissertation Committee Members: Manuel Castells and Joshua Aizenman

Email: jliao79@gmail.com
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2013)
Dissertation Title: “Trade and Legalization in East Asia: Government-Business Collaboration in Trade Dispute Settlement.”
Research Interests: international political economy, international relations, trade
Dissertation Chair: Saori Katada
Dissertation Committee Members: Carol Wise and Robert Dekle

Email: msmendez@usc.edu
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2015); B.A., San Jose State University (2009)
Dissertation Title: “In/Visible Constituents: The Representation of Undocumented Immigrants”
Research Interests: Representation, Latino politics, race and ethnicity, legislative politics, field experiments and social movements
Dissertation Chair: Ange-Marie Hancock
Dissertation Committee Members: Christian R. Grose and Veronica Terriquez

Email: seanonwo@usc.edu
Phone: (213) 740-1695 (US) or +852 9360-1932 (Hong Kong)
Education: Ph.D., University of Southern California (2015); M.A., University of Chicago (2004); B.A., University of Chicago (2004)
Dissertation Title: “When Passions Run High: Emotions and the Communication of Intentions in Face-to-face Diplomacy”
Research Interests: International relations theory; diplomacy; political psychology; nationalism, identity and intergroup conflicts; international relations of East Asia (particularly China); qualitative and experimental methods
Dissertation Chair: Patrick James
Dissertation Committee Members: David Kang, Brian Rathbun and Peter Carnevale