Faculty

Diane J. Heith, Ph.D is an Associate Professor and Chair of the Government and Politics Department at St. John’s University. She is the author of Polling to Govern: Public Opinion and Presidential Leadership, and The Presidential Road Show: Public Leadership in a Partisan Era (forthcoming ), co-author of American Presidents and the American Presidency (forthcoming) and co-editor of In the Public Domain: Presidents and the Challenges of Public Leadership. Her research interests and expertise focus on the Presidency, Media, Public Opinion, and American Politics generally. Her work has appeared in Public Opinion Quarterly, Presidential Studies Quarterly, Political Science Quarterly, The Journal of Health Politics, Policy and Law, The Journal of Women, Politics and Policy, White House Studies and Congress and the Presidency. She received a B.A. from Cornell University, and an MA and Ph.D from Brown University.

 William Byrne, Ph.D is an Associate Professor of Government and Politics on the Staten Island and Queens campuses of St. John’s University. He is the author of Edmund Burke for Our Time: Moral Imagination, Meaning, and Politics (2011) as well as numerous scholarly publications on modern political thought, on core problems of liberal democracy and late modernity, and on the role of cultural elements in society and politics. He is associate editor of the scholarly journal Humanitas, is active in professional societies, and assists with campus student groups and activities. A former Congressional staff member, he earned a B.A. in History from the University of Pennsylvania, an MBA from George Mason University, and holds a Ph.D. in Politics from The Catholic University of America. 

Fred P. Cocozzelli, Ph.D is an Assistant Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University. He researches and writes on multilateral interventions, post-conflict reconstruction, social policy, minority rights, and the politics of Kosovo and the greater Balkans. He is the author of War and Social Welfare: Reconstruction after Conflict, a number of academic articles, and a contributor to Social Policy and International Interventions in Southeastern Europe. From July 1999 to August 2000 he worked as a senior field officer for humanitarian assistance and a consultant in Kosovo. He holds a Masters of International Affairs from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs, and a PhD in political science from the New School for Social Research. 

William Gangi, PhD. is a Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University.He holds a BA and MA from St. John’s University and a PhD from the University of Notre Dame. Dr. Gangi’s primary field of research is in American Constitutional law; he has secondary interests in American Government, American Theory, Comparative Law, and Public Administration. He serves also as the Internship Coordinator for the Government and Politics Department. Dr. Gangi is author of Saving the Constitution from the Courts, numerous articles and book reviews. He has testified as an expert witness before the Senate Judiciary Committee and has delivered dozens of lectures at various law schools as a lecturer for The Federalist Society. 

David W. Kearn, Jr., Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor of Government and Politics. During the 2010-2011 Academic Year, Dr. Kearn conducted research at the RAND Corporation in Washington, DC as an inaugural Stanton Nuclear Security Fellow. He is the author of Facing the Missile Challenge: U.S. Strategy and the Future of the INF Treaty, (RAND 2011). His research and teaching interests include international relations theory, U.S. Foreign policy, military innovation, comparative grand strategy, arms control and nonproliferation, and the causes of major war. Dr. Kearn is a graduate of Amherst College, holds a Master of Public Policy degree from the John F. Kennedy School of Government, Harvard University, and received his Ph.D. in Foreign Affairs from the University of Virginia.   

Barbara Koziak, Ph.D is an Associate Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University, and director of the Women’s and Gender Studies Minor.  She is the author of the book Retrieving Political Emotion: Aristotle, Thumos and Gender among others works.   Her expertise lies in ancient political philosophy particularly Aristotle and contemporary political theory, especially feminist political theory. Her research interests include theories of emotion and politics, democratic theory and truth commissions, politics of marriage and family benefits, and the role of film narratives in political socialization, and activism and advocacy training.  She holds a BA from the University of Texas at Austin and an MA and PhD from Yale University.

Azzedine Layachi, PhD. is Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University. His research interests include economic development, political change, political Islam, Middle East politics, African politics, and politics of ethnicity. He is the author of several books, journal articles and book chapters. His books include The United States and North Africa: A Cognitive Approach to Foreign Policy; Economic Crisis and Political Change in North Africa; State, Society and Liberalization in Morocco: The Limits of Associative Life; and Global Studies: The Middle East. He contributed a number of articles to Arab Studies Quarterly, Middle East Quarterly, the Journal of North African Studies, The Middle East Report and Information Project, Mediterranean Politics, Middle East Insight and Foreign Affairs. He is member of the Executive Board of the American Institute of Maghribi Studies (AIMS) and of the Advisory Boardof the Maghreb Center (Washington, D.C.). He is former President of the Northeastern Political Science Association and of the New York State Political Science Association.  He holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the Institut des Etudes Politiques of the University of Algiers, Algeria, and a Master's Degree and a Ph.D. in International Affairs from New York University.  

Frank Le Veness, PhD. is a Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University. He received a BS, MA and PhD from St. John’s University. His research interests include Caribbean and Latin American Politics and Integration, comparative systems; Puerto Rico; Methodology, development politics, and international political economy.  He has received numerous honors including: Pietas, Outstanding Achievement for Faculty, Outstanding Alumni Achievement, International; Eisenhower Award, ROTC; Distinguished Service Award, Caribbean Studies Assoc. (San Juan); Certificate of Merit, Governor of New York;  Global Achievement Award, Global Business and Technology Assoc. (Moscow); Andrew J. Bartilucci excellence award. He is the author of numerous presentations and publications, including, coeditor, Women Leaders in Contemporary U.S. Politics. 

William Nester, PhD is a Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University. He is the author of twenty-five books that explore varying dimensions and subjects of international relations and power. He taught at the School of Oriental and African Studies at the University of London from 1987 to 1989, and since then at St. John's University.He received a BA in international studies and history from Miami University of Ohio, and a MA and PhD in Political Science from the University of California at Santa Barbara. 

Robert F. Pecorella, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor with the Department of Government and Politics and currently serves as Director of the Institute for Core Studies at St. John’s University. His primary fields of interest are public administration, urban governance, state and local politics, and research methods. He is the author of Community Power in the Postreform City, the coauthor of Politics and Structure, and the co-editor of Governing New York State. His articles have appeared in Polity, Public Administration Review, the Journal of Urban Affairs, and the Journal of Catholic Social Thought. He was a Professor-in-Residence with the New York State Assembly Intern Program between 1986 and 2005. He received a BA from St. John’s, an MA from Brooklyn College and a PhD from Pennsylvania State University.

Luba Racanska, PhD. is an Associate Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University. She received a B.A. from Yale University, and an MA and Ph.D from University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Uma Tripathi, PhD. is an Associate Professor of Government and Politics at St. John’s University. She received a B.A. and MA from the University of Bombay, and a Ph.D from Notre Dame University.