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Faculty and Staff

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Department Chair/Department Leadership

Photo of Brigid Callahan Harrison

Brigid Callahan Harrison

Dickson Hall 205
973-655-7923
harrisonb@montclair.edu

Brigid Callahan Harrison, professor and chair, received a PhD from Temple University. Her research interests include politics and technology, campaigns and elections; American public opinion; and the politics of the Millennial Generation. She teaches courses including American Government and Campaign Politics. Harrison is also author of American Democracy Now (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 5th ed. 2017), A More Perfect Union (McGraw-Hill Publishers, 2010), Power and Society (Cengage, 14th ed. 2016) and Women in American Politics (Wadsworth, 2003). She is frequently quoted by the press and serves as president of the New Jersey Political Science Association. In 2015 and 2016, she was named to PolitickerNJ’s Power List.

photo of professor Ian Drake with full bookcase in background

Ian J. Drake

Dickson Hall 208
973-655-7223
drakei@montclair.edu

Ian Drake, deputy chair and associate professor, received a PhD in American history from the University of Maryland at College Park. His research interests include the history of American constitutional law and private law, particularly tort and contract law. He is currently conducting research on animal protection laws, First Amendment rights, and the politics of the treatment of animals used in industrial agriculture and scientific research. He teaches courses in the American judiciary and legal system, the U.S. Supreme Court and constitutional history, the history and contemporary study of law and society, broadly construed, and political theory. Drake has also practiced law in the areas of insurance and tort law. He is the designated Montclair State University Pre-Law Advisor and serves as the coordinator of the Jurisprudence, Law and Society major as well as the Pre-Law minor.

Administrative Services

For general departmental assistance, please email politicalscience@montclair.edu
Location: Dickson 170
Phone: 973-655-7031

 

Full-Time Faculty

Ariel Alvarez

Ariel Alvarez

Dickson Hall 202
973-655-3157
alvareza@montclair.edu

Ariel Alvarez, associate professor, received a PhD in Public Policy and Administration from Rutgers University and received a JD from St. Thomas University School of Law. He is licensed to practice law. Alvarez’s research interests include constitutional law, litigation strategy and public sector reform, public organizational accountability in the context of child welfare, criminal law and criminal procedure. Alvarez teaches graduate and undergraduate courses including, but not limited too, American Government, Criminal Law, Research Methods and Introduction to Public Administration.

Jack Baldwin-LeClair

Jack Baldwin-LeClair

Dickson Hall 203
973-655-7953
leclairj@montclair.edu

Jack Baldwin-LeClair, associate professor, received an EdS from Rutgers University and a JD Quinnipiac School of Law. He specializes in Jurisprudence; Governance, Compliance, and Regulatory Theory in the Employment and Intellectual Property Arenas; Civil Rights; Human Rights Under International Law; Employment Law; Cyberlaw; Arbitration; and Conflict Management in the Workplace. He teaches courses including Legal Reasoning and Human Rights Law.

Photo of Fanny Lauby

Fanny Lauby

Dickson Hall 205
laubyf@montclair.edu

Fanny Lauby, Associate Professor, received a PhD in Political Science from the CUNY Graduate Center and a PhD in North American Studies from the Sorbonne Nouvelle (France). Her research focuses on the political incorporation of undocumented youths through state-level policies. She teaches courses in American politics and public policy, including American Government, the American Presidency, Congress, Political Parties, Public Policy Analysis, Research Methods, and US Immigration Policy. Prior to joining Montclair State University, Lauby was an Associate Professor of Political Science at William Paterson University, where she coordinated the political science internship program. Her recent publications include articles in Social Movement Studies, the Journal of Race, Ethnicity, and Politics, and the International Journal of Communication.

photo of benjamin nienass

Benjamin Nienass

Dickson Hall 209
973-655-7511
nienassb@montclair.edu

Benjamin Nienass, associate professor, received his PhD from the New School for Social Research. He was previously a Fellow at the Collège d’études mondiales in Paris and at the Humanities Center of the University of Rochester. His research focuses on the politics of memory and has appeared in numerous journals. He is the co-editor of Silence, Screen, and Spectacle: Rethinking Social Memory in the Age of Information, as well as the co-editor of several special journal issues, most recently “Myths of Innocence in German Public Memory” in German Politics and Society (2021). He teaches courses in political theory.

Zsolt Nyiri

Zsolt Nyiri

Dickson Hall 211
973-655-7088
nyiriz@montclair.edu

Zsolt Nyiri, associate professor, received a PhD from the University of Connecticut. His research interests include European politics, public opinion, transatlantic relations, public diplomacy, Muslims in the west and research methodology. He teaches courses including Introduction to Politics and Comparative Politics. Previously, he served as director of the Gallup World Poll in Europe and director of Transatlantic Trends at the German Marshall Fund of the United States. He is published widely in both academic and policy outlets.
Antoinette Pole

Antoinette Pole

Dickson Hall 206
973-655-7922
polea@montclair.edu

Antoinette Pole, associate professor, received a PhD from the CUNY Graduate Center. Her research interests focus on the intersection of information technology and politics, and food and politics. She explores theoretical questions related to political participation and community. Pole teaches courses including American Congress, Politics and Film, and Food and Politics. Her books include Blogging the Political: Politics and Participation in a Networked Society published by Routledge (2010), and New York Politics: A Tale of Two States coauthored, and published by M.E. Sharpe (2nd ed. 2009).

Photo of Roya Saqib

Roya Saqib

Dickson Hall 212
saqibr@montclair.edu

Roya Saqib received her MA in Political Science from Jawaharlal Nehru University (India), Master’s degree in Management from Simmons University through Fulbright scholarship, and BA in Political Science and Economics from Jamia Millia Islamia University (India) through the Indian government scholarship. Her research interests include international politics, peace and security, and international development. She was a non-resident senior research fellow with the Center for Global Affairs, New York University (2022). She teaches courses in international relations, government and politics of South Asian countries, and social change. Professor Saqib served in senior government positions in Afghanistan, including as Technical Assistant to the President of Afghanistan, Special Executive Assistant to the President of Afghanistan, General Director of Education and Training, and the Director of a National Program on Women’s Economic Empowerment. She also worked with various international organizations, such as the World Bank, USAID, and CARE International, in areas such as good governance, development, and women empowerment.

Photo of Tony Spanakos

Tony Spanakos

Dickson Hall 203
973-655-7575
spanakost@montclair.edu

Tony Spanakos, professor, received his PhD from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. His research interests are political economy and democracy in Latin America, foreign policy of rising powers, Sino-Latin American relations, and political theory and popular culture. He is the co-editor of Reforming Brazil (2004, Lexington) and Conceptualising Comparative Politics (2015, Routledge) and the book series Conceptualising Comparative Politics (Routledge). He is co-editor for an upcoming special issue of Latin American Perspectives on “The Legacy of Hugo Chavez.” His research has been published in a number of scholarly journals and books. He was a Fulbright Visiting Fellow in Brazil (2002) and Venezuela (2008) and a visiting research fellow at the National University of Singapore’s East Asia Institute (2009). He teaches courses in comparative politics, international relations, political theory, Latin American politics and political economy.

headshot photo of Alfredo Toro Carnevali

Alfredo Toro Carnevali

Dickson Hall 207
973-655-7576
torocarnevaa@montclair.edu

Alfredo Toro Carnevali, instructional specialist and Graduate Program Coordinator, received a BA in Political Science from Georgetown University and an MA in Public Policy and Administration from the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE). His research interests include US-Latin American relations, international governance, and the doctrine of the Responsibility to Protect. He has ten years of relevant experience in the fields of international security and diplomacy. Between January 2015 and December 2016, he was the Deputy Political Coordinator of Venezuela’s delegation to the United Nations Security Council. He has also held the positions of chairman of the Security Council’s Sub-committee on counter-terrorism and non-proliferation (1540) and vice-president of the General Assembly’s Committee on Disarmament and International Security. Prior to joining the Venezuelan diplomatic corps, he taught public policy at the Central University of Venezuela. He has published numerous articles in international academic journals and is a regular contributor to different newspapers and blogs in the Spanish language.

Photo of Elizabeth Wishnick

Elizabeth Wishnick

Dickson Hall 210
973-655-3170
wishnicke@montclair.edu

Elizabeth Wishnick, professor, received a PhD in Political Science from Columbia University, New York. Her research interests include U.S.-China-Russia relations and non-traditional security issues. She teaches courses in International Relations, Globalization and Security, Intelligence, Global Environmental Politics and Asian Studies. She is the author of Mending Fences: The Evolution of Moscow’s China Policy from Brezhnev to Yeltsin (University of Washington Press, 2001 and 2015). Her latest book, China’s Risk: Oil, Water, Food and Regional Security (forthcoming, Columbia University Press) addresses the security and foreign policy consequences for the Asia-Pacific region of oil, water and food risks in China. She is also the coordinator for the Asian Studies program.

Emeriti Faculty

photo of Professor Marilyn Tayler standing in her office. A wall of framed certificates and awards is behind her

Marilyn R. Tayler

Professor Tayler served the University for forty-two years. She received her Ph.D. in Latin American Literature from Rutgers University and her J.D. from Seton Hall University. She taught in the Departments of Spanish/Italian, Legal Studies, and Political Science and Law. She played an instrumental role in the development and successful implementation of law-related programs at Montclair State including the Jurisprudence Major, Pre-Law Minor and Paralegal Studies Program. She served as Pre-Law advisor for almost four decades and worked for the implementations of interdisciplinary education at Montclair State. Professor Tayler is the author or editor of more than 45 articles, books, and other writings in the fields of Law, Interdisciplinary Studies and Latin American Literature and has presented her research at more than 50 national, international, and regional conferences. She believes that her most enduring accomplishment is the success of her many former students in legal careers. The Tayler-Benfield scholarship recognizes her contributions to law at Montclair State.