OU-C faculty member Nicholas Kiersey featured as guest editor of academic journal

Ohio University-Chillicothe Assistant Professor of Political Science Nicholas Kiersey, PhD., has been published in a special issue of the British academic journal Global Society, in which he is featured as a guest editor. Global Society is a leading journal in the field of international relations. Volume 23, Issue 4 features papers from eight academics examining the impact of the French philosopher Michel Foucault on the discipline. The papers gathered in this special edition were all originally presented as working papers at the 50th annual convention of the International Studies Association in New York City in February 2009. Also, Kiersey completed a 10-week summer research trip to Bolivia this summer, where he studied the impact of globalization on the institution of citizenship in the new Bolivian Constitution. The trip, funded by a $4,300 grant from the OU-C Faculty Research Fund, produced helpful data that will be included in the final chapter of Kiersey’s ongoing book project entitled Empire’s Citizenship; Subjectivity and Democracy in Contemporary Global Capitalism. Kiersey was recently on OU-C Junior Faculty leave. While on leave, he spent time as a visiting researcher at the University of Bristol. He also made research trips and gave talks at the Norwegian Institute of International Affairs, and the Department of International Relations and European Studies at the Central European University in Hungary. During this time Kiersey conducted research under the project title “Consciousness of Crisis: Neoliberalism as a Theory of Security and Deterritorialization.” This time away is funded by a $4,700 grant from the OU Regional Higher Education Faculty Development Committee. Upon his return, Kiersey expressed his appreciation for the support he had received in making these trips, noting that it had helped him grow as a teacher. “One of my constant goals in the classroom is for students to grasp the importance of embedded culture in the policy-making process,” he said. “There has probably never been a more important time for us to study the connection between economics, politics, and culture” he added, noting the impact of the current global economic crisis on OU-C students and the wider region.