People

As an applied microeconomist, Sarah Adelman works with data rather than theory. Her research focus is health and nutrition in developing countries and she spent time in Uganda researching her thesis, and has also worked in Malawi and Liberia.

Jon Western, the vice president for academic affairs and dean of faculty, is the chief academic officer at Mount Holyoke College. He is responsible for providing strategic and operational leadership for the College’s academic mission and for supporting the 38 academic departments and programs; Library, Information, and Technology Services; the research and teaching centers; the athletics program; and the academic support offices, including the Office of the Registrar, the Office of Student Success and Advising, and the Teaching and Learning Initiative. Western, a scholar of international relations, has been a faculty member at Mount Holyoke College and with the Five College Consortium since 2000. 

Sohail Hashmi’s teaching and research focus on Middle East politics and on comparative international ethics, particularly concepts of just war in the West and Islam. He teaches a range of courses in both areas, including "The U.S., Israel, and the Arabs," "The U.S. and Iran," "Comparative Politics of the Middle East," "Ethics and International Relations," and "Just War and Jihad.”

Serin D. Houston’s research draws on qualitative methods and a geographic perspective to examine questions of equity and justice from the individual to the global scale. Her book, Imagining Seattle: Social Values in Urban Governance (2019), uses Seattle, Washington as a lens to analyze the translation of sustainability, creativity, and social justice from theory into praxis within Seattle’s urban governance. Additional research projects focus on U.S. sanctuary policies and social movements; climate change and human migration; and global/local community engagement. Houston teaches courses on world regions, cities, migration, research methods, and sense of place/planet.

Stephen Jones teaches courses in European, Russian, Central Asian and South Caucasian politics. Teaching in international relations and Russian studies, Jones focuses on energy, the environment, nationalism, democracy building and revolution. Stephen Jones is a Foreign Member of the Georgian Academy of Sciences. He has written many books on the South Caucasus and is currently participating in an oral history project recording the missing voices of people who lived through the collapse of the Soviet Union in the 1990s.

Girma Kebbede's research and teaching interests are the interrelations between politics and development, human dimensions of environmental change, and socio-economic and political causes and consequences of political conflicts in Africa. His books in these interests include The State and Development in Ethiopia (1992) and Sudan’s Predicaments: Civil War, Displacement and Ecological Degradation (1999), Urban Environmental Health Risks: the Case of Ethiopia (2004), and Environment and Society in Ethiopia (2017). 

Kavita Khory’s current research explores transnational political mobilization among South Asian diaspora populations in North America and Europe. Locating contemporary forms of migration from South Asia in broader historical and theoretical contexts, Khory’s work focuses on transnational forms of activism and political violence involving diaspora organizations with ties to India, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. Khory regularly teaches courses on world politics, international security, ethnic conflict, propaganda and war, South Asia, and migration.

Jeremy King studied Soviet history in college, but then fell prisoner to the tragedies and charms of Central Europe. Trained at Columbia University as a historian of Austria-Hungary and its successor states, he lived for several years in Prague, Budapest, Vienna, Berlin, and a few other cities in the region. King teaches courses on Central Europe since about 1800. Themes and nodal points include nationalism, the state (liberal, democratic, fascist, and communist), "race," law, the Holocaust, public policy, and post-communism.

Christopher Mitchell’s research explores the politics of finance and financial crises, especially in the European Union.  He has conducted research on how the differing forms of bank interdependence produced more generous bank bailouts in Germany than in the US and UK in the 2007-2009 crisis.  His current research is focused on financial reforms in the European Union.  He teaches courses on international political economy, the European Union, and the role of trade in US foreign policy. 

Bryan Nakayama's research focuses on the relationship between technology and ways of warfare, specifically in the United States military. Examining topics ranging from the development of space surveillance to the rise of cyberwarfare, he is interested in understanding how social beliefs about the future via-a-vis technology affects how the United States prepares for and wages war. Embracing the multidisciplinary spirit of the international relations major, his work sits at the intersection between political science, social theory, and science and technology studies.

Eva Paus has published widely on different aspects of globalization and development. She is the author or editor of seven books and dozens of articles and book chapters. Her current research focuses on technological change and the future of work and development, strategies for escaping from the Middle Income Trap, the implications of the rise of China for economic transformation in developing countries, and successful strategies in moving towards high-technology production linked to services.

Andrew G. Reiter’s teaching and research focus on conflict resolution, post-conflict peacebuilding, and transitional justice. Broadly, he aims to understand how societies can end political violence, maintain peace, and recover from past atrocities. He has published widely on these topics and is the author of Fighting Over Peace: Spoilers, Peace Agreements, and the Strategic Use of Violence (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and co-author of Transitional Justice in Balance: Comparing Processes, Weighing Efficacy (United States Institute of Peace Press, 2010).

Katherine Schmeiser analyzes the export decisions of firms, focusing on destination selection and how decisions change over time. Her approach uses firm level modeling and empirical methods to analyze the learning behaviors of firms, regional agglomeration effects, and liberalization policies - particularly in developing and emerging economies. Schmeiser teaches courses on microeconomics, international economics, industrial organization and international trade. She has published in journals such as The Journal of International Economics and The Annals of Regional Science.

Linda is a Francis Perkins graduate ('94) and has been working at the college since 1976. She currently serves as the Department Coordinator for both the International Relations and Politics Departments. She was the recipient of the President's Award for Outstanding Service in 2017.