Faculty
Edward G. DeClair, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Political Science
Director, Westover Honors Program
Dr. DeClair teaches a variety of courses in the sub-fields of international relations and comparative politics. His teaching focuses on both Europe and Africa with a special interest on the European Union. Dr. DeClair is the author of Politics on the Fringe: The People, Policies and Organization of the French National Front (Duke University Press, 1999) and many articles on European politics and international education. Currently he is working on an undergraduate text on the European Union.
(Languages: French, German)
Sabita Manian, Ph.D.
Professor of International Relations and Political Science
Dr. Manian teaches courses on domestic and international politics of Asia (South Asia, Southeast Asia, and East Asia), the Caribbean, and the United Nations. Her research interests include China, India, power politics, international security, international relations theory, South Asian terrorism, religious and right-wing extremist violence, ethnic politics, gender politics and regional integration. She has an active research agenda including a co-authored book (Global Sex Trafficking, Lexington/Rowman & Littlefield, 2010 with K. McCabe), chapters and publications in various edited volumes and journals, in addition to guest lectures and conference papers. She teaches in the Westover Honors program and has been active in leading student groups on study abroad and service learning programs to India, Saint Lucia, and Argentina and to the National Model United Nations simulations in New York. The countries she has travelled include: Argentina, Barbados, Belize, China, Costa Rica, the Czech Republic, the Dominican Republic, Guyana, Germany, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Nepal, Saint Lucia, and Trinidad and Tobago.
(Languages: Hindi, Bengali, Tamil, German).
Marek Payerhin, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of International Relations and Political Science
Dr. Payerhin’s research and teaching interests in international relations and comparative politics include social movements and grassroots activism, terrorism, globalization, political communication, and environmental policy, with regional specialization in Europe (both Western and Eastern) and the Americas. Dr. Payerhin has run a number of computer-assisted foreign policy simulations and has taken his students on trips from Southeast Asia to the Arctic Circle in Alaska. He is currently working on a book-length project on the globalization of radical environmental protest and on an article on social mobilization.
(Languages: Polish, Russian, Italian)
David Richards, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor of International Relations and Political Science
Dr. Richards teaches courses in international relations and comparative politics including international relations theory, U.S. foreign policy, and Latin America. His interests include U.S. policy in the Americas, nationalism in the Caribbean, and the politics of ethnic diversity in the Americas. He is currently working on several articles on U.S.-Caribbean policy and a Caribbean politics textbook.
(Languages: Spanish)
Associated Faculty
Daniel G. Lang, Ph.D.
Professor of Political Science
Dean, School of Communication and the Arts
Dr. Lang teaches courses in political theory, international relations, the presidency, and U.S. foreign policy. He is a scholar on the foreign policy of the early American republic; has published on the topic of presidential transitions; and edited the War, Peace, and Empire volume in the College's Lynchburg College Symposium Readings series. His recent research and conference presentations have focused on theme of greatness and tragedy in "Realist" interpretations of American foreign policy.
(Languages: German, French)
Daniel Messerschmidt, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
A former president of the Virginia Association of Economists and the Piedmont World Trade Committee, Dr. Messerschmidt has a special interest in Japanese politics and economics. He teaches courses in micro- and macro-economics as well as the IR-required course on International Economic Policy. His published work has appeared in a wide variety of peer-reviewed journals.
(Language: Spanish)
Nichole Sanders, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of History
Dr. Sanders specializes in Latin American history with an emphasis on Mexico and the role of women in Mexican society.
(Language: Spanish)
Charles Shull, M.A.
Associate Professor of Sociology
Mr. Shull’s interest in the International Relations Program reflects his sociology and anthropology background and is linked to his academic expertise in Japanese culture, society, and politics. Having traveled and studied in Japan on multiple occasions, Mr. Shull is able to introduce his students to Japan as it is and not only how it appears. His IR-related courses are Japan: Businessmen, Warriors, and Gods; Material Japan, a Special Topics course; and Contemporary Japan, a team taught course with Dr. Messerschmidt. (Language: Russian)
