Faculty

aminig@ulv.edu

Gitty M. Amini
Assistant Professor of Political Science

Dr.Amini received her B.A. in 1991 from UCLA, her M.A. from Columbia University in 1998 and her Ph.D. in 2001 from UCLA. She was a Visiting Assistant Professor at UCLA and a Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the Monterey Institute of International Studies before coming to the University of La Verne.
She teaches courses in international relations, comparative politics and methods. Her main interests are international security studies, international relations theory, game theory, and Middle Eastern and East Asian politics. Amongst her publications are "North Korea and Vietnam," and "Iran: The Failure of Economic Incentives and Disincentives," in The New Great Power Coalition: Toward a World Concert of Nations (2001).
Professor Amini is the Model United Nations Advisor at the University of La Verne.

gelmr@ulv.edu

Richard J. Gelm
Professor of Political Science

Dr.Gelm received his Ph.D. and M.A. in political science from the University of California, Davis and B.A. in political science from the University of California, San Diego.
Professor Gelm teaches courses in American politics including Congress and the Presidency, Parties and Interest Groups and Political Behavior. He is the author of Politics and Religious Authority: American Catholics Since the Second Vatican Council (Greenwood, 1994) and is currently completing another book entitled How American Politics Work: Philosophy, Pragmatism, Personality and Profit.
Professor Gelm has served as department chair since 1997.

marcusk@ulv.edu

Kenneth Marcus
Associate Professor of History
Web site: http://faculty.ulv.edu/~marcusk

Dr. Marcus received his B.A. in History at UC Berkeley in 1984, his MBA at the Ecole Superieure de Commerce de Paris in 1987, and his Ph.D. in History at Cambridge University in 1992. He teaches European history, American history, Historiography, and World Civilizations, and is Director of the International Studies Institute.

His research is mainly in the field of cultural history. A Fellow at the Huntington Library in 2001 and 2002, he has written on late-nineteenth and early-twentieth century Los Angeles, and his monograph, Musical Metropolis: Los Angeles and the Creation of a Music Culture, 1880-1940 (Palgrave Macmillan, 2004), has been nominated for the Donald H. Pflueger Award in Local History. He has also written on early modern Germany and Switzerland. His first book dealt with the advisers to the dukes of sixteenth century Wurttemberg, The Politics of Power: Elites of an Early Modern State in Germany (Philipp von Zabern, 2000), and he has published articles on politics and music patronage in Reformation Germany and Switzerland. Professor Marcus has recorded several CDs, among them Some American Music, which he uses in the classroom.

neidlemj@ulv.edu

Jason Neidleman
Associate Professor of Political Science.

Dr. Neidleman received his B.A. in Political Science at UCLA in 1992, his M.A. in Government at Harvard University in 1995, and his Ph.D. in Government at Harvard University in 1999.
He teaches courses on political and legal theory, public law, state and local politics, and Middle Eastern politics and history. His research focuses on modern political theory in general and on the following topics in particular: nineteenth and twentieth-century European political theory, French political thought and culture, the philosophy of Jean-Jacques Rousseau, and the relationship between power and ideas. His first book, entitled The General Will is Citizenship, was published by Rowman & Littlefield in 2001, and he is currently developing a second project which examines the philosophical foundations of normative claims. Professor Neidleman is the pre-law advisor at the University of La Verne and the faculty advisor for the Pre-Law Society.

sayless@ulv.edu

Stephen P. Sayles
Professor of History

Dr. Sayles received his B.A. in history from California State University, Chico, in 1973, and his Ph.D. in History from the University of New Mexico in 1978. He teaches courses in United States, Mexican, and Latin American history. His major fields are United States since the Civil War, the American West, and Europe since Napoleon. He has an auxiliary field in late 19th/early20th century Mexican History. Dr. Sayles has published a monograph on California politics and a number of articles and book reviews. He is currently working on a book-length study of the Symbionese Liberation Army and revolutionary politics during the 1970s.

Kamol Somvichian
Professor of Political Science

Dr. Somvichian received his B.A. from Chulalongkorn University, his M.A. from New York University, and his Ph.D. in Politics and Economic Development from the University of London, England. A recipient of the Fulbright, Rockefeller, and Woodrow Wilson Scholarships, Dr. Somvichian was elected to the National Legislative Assembly and the Parliament of Thailand in the 1970s. He was a visiting Fulbright Professor at Swarthmore College and served as president of several multinational corporations including the Hyatt Hotel and Avis in Thailand. Dr. Somvichian's political experience includes serving as Deputy Secretary General of the Democratic Party, Advisor to the Governor in Bangkok, Advisor to the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and Chief Economic Advisor to the Deputy Prime Minister, Thailand. Professor Somvichian is the author of seven books: Modern Thai Politics, The Foreign Policy of Thailand, Introduction to the Science of Politics, Thai Political Development, Urbanization in Southeast Asia, Classical Political Thought (with Kramon Tongthamachart), and most recently, Political Reform for Thailand (2000). He is currently working on a book on Buddhism and the Problem of Modernization.