News Archive : Academic Year 2014-2015

Trinity’s Provost met with Political Science PhD graduate, Kerry Healey, on a recent trip to the US. Dr Healey, who is internationally recognized for her service in academia and government, is President of Babson College and former Lieutenant Governor of Massachusetts.

From 4–7 June, Trinity’s Philosophy and Political Science departments will host the annual meetings of the Society for the Study of the History of Analytical Philosophy and the Bertrand Russell Society featuring talks by leading international scholars.

Professor Raj Chari places the current events surrounding the sale of Aer lingus within the broader history of 'Life After Privatisation'

Professor Raj Chari has just completed a new and very topical book analysing the fates that may befall privatised state companies. 'Life After Privatisation' is published by Oxford University Press.

Dr Will Phelan was an invited speaker at iCourts - the Danish National Research Foundation's Centre of Excellence for International Courts - on 29 April 2015. During his stay, he presented his new book "In Place of Inter-State Retaliation: The European Union's Rejection of WTO-style Trade Sanctions and Trade Remedies" (Oxford UP, 2015).

The Department congratulates the 5 undergraduate students of Political Science elected to Scholarship on 10 April 2015: Christopher Doughty (History and Political Science), Samuel Alexander Thomas Johnston (PPES), Patrick Lavelle (PPES), Ciara Molloy (History and Political Science), and Matt Murtagh-White (PPES).

Professor Gail McElroy, Head of the Department of Political Science, has secured funding from the Irish Research Council. Under Strand 3: Enhancing Knowledge Exchange of the New Foundations Programme her research will focus on 'Gender and legislative debate in Ireland: When and what female TDs talk about'.

Congratulations to PPES student Lynn Ruane who has just been elected President of the Students' Union. She spoke to Aine Lawlor about her aspirations on RTE Radio 1 on Saturday morning. Lynn begins her term as President on 1 July and we wish her well in her new role.

Dr Peter Stone from the Department of Political Science has been named the winner of the prestigious IPSA Committee on Concepts and Methods (C&M) Best Working Paper Award for his paper "The Concept of Picking." This award is given to the best paper published during the previous three calendar years, and was selected for not only contributing to the task of delineating the concept of rational action, but offering a rich assessment of picking as a distinctive enterprise.

Political Science MSc students Sam Spurlock, David Maher and Katie Perkowski are part of a team that has entered an idea into Trinity's Launchbox startup incubator program. The idea is called GigLocale, an app that would send alerts to phones about last-minute gig tickets in specific areas with the potential for discounts. You can read more about their idea at GigLocale's webpage by clicking the link above.

The recent elections in Greece have been of great interest across Europe, and indeed the world. Dr Constantine Boussalis and doctoral candidate David Barrett have written pieces on the results for the Greek Politics Specialist Group.

Dr Peter Stone argues that selecting a political system’s guardians by chance could prevent special interests from dominating and reassure everyone about the integrity of the system.

We are pleased to announce that Anja Schoen has been awarded the 2014 Patrick Keatinge Prize for achieving the best performance in Political Science alone in her Senior Sophister year. Anja is pictured with her dissertation supervisor, Dr Michelle D'Arcy.

Dr Peter Stone from the Department of Political Science has recently published a book chapter entitled “The Happy Memes of Hallelujah" in a new volume called Leonard Cohen and Philosophy, edited by Jason Holt.

The Department organised a lunchtime career planning session for Political Science PhD candidates last month. Professor Steve Smith, Director of APSA, was the guest speaker. He shared his insights on the academic job market, professional development and research methods.

Stefan Müller, one of our current MSc in Politics and Public Policy students, recently volunteered at ‘Discover Research Night Dublin’ and wrote this report of his experience.

The ECPR (European Consortium for Political Research) has awarded its prestigious 2014 Jean Blondel prize to Carolina Plescia’s thesis ‘Split-Ticket Voting in Mixed-Member Electoral Systems: A Theoretical and Methodological Investigation’. Dr Plescia’s thesis research was conducted in the Department of Political Science, Trinity College Dublin, under the supervision of Michael Marsh and Ken Benoit.

The Department of Political Science is pleased to welcome Assistant Professor in Political Science (Chinese Studies), Xin Sun. Dr Sun joins the Department from Northwestern University in Chicago, and his specialist research area is comparative politics, examining the political economy of authoritarian regimes and Chinese Politics.

The Department of Political Science is pleased to welcome Assistant Professor in International Relations, Constantine Boussalis. Dr Boussalis joins the Department from Harvard Law School, and his research examines how political and social institutions influence prosperity, public health and sustainable government.in how government capacity and social capital help societies mitigate the effects of economic and environmental threats.

The Department of Political Science is pleased to welcome Assistant Professor in International Relations, Thomas Chadefaux. Dr Chadefaux joins the Department from ETH Zurich, the Federal Institute in Technology in Switzerland, and his research examines the causes of interstate conflict and their prediction.

In the summer 2014, Dr Tim Hicks left Trinity College to take up a position as Lecturer in Public Policy at University College London. In his four years in Trinity College Tim was an excellent colleague, and we wish him well in his new role.