Faculty

Dr. Marat Akopian |
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Title | Assistant Professor of Political Science and Director of Global Studies |
makopian@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
Office | White Hall 319 |
Dr. Marat Akopian holds a PhD in Political Science from Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ). He has taught previously at several universities in Canada, Georgia, and the United States, including the University of Calgary, the Institute for European Studies at Tbilisi State University (Tbilisi, Georgia), and Rutgers University. His research interests include electoral reform in new and established democracies, theory of “democratic peace,” and links between language policy and civic and ethnic forms of national identity. He has regularly presented his research at international conferences and conventions including the APSA, CPSA, and the ASN. |

Dr. Samuel Greene |
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Title | Department Chair, Associate Professor of Political Science, and Director of Study Abroad |
sgreene@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
Office | White Hall 322 |
Dr. Samuel Greene is an Associate Professor of Political Science and Global Studies at Shepherd University. He also serves as the chair of the department. Prior to coming to Shepherd, he worked at the National Defense College in the United Arab Emirates, the Near East South Asia Center for Strategic Studies in Washington, DC, and Howard Payne University in Texas. Dr. Greene holds a doctorate in Politics from the Catholic University of America, a master’s degree in International Relations from the University of Cambridge, and a bachelor’s degree in History and Political Science from George Fox University. His research interests include insurgency and counterinsurgency, democratization, and internal conflict, with an emphasis on Latin America and the Middle East. His first book, Pathological Counterinsurgency, a critique of U.S. counterinsurgency strategy, was published by Lexington Books in 2018. His articles and policy research have appeared in venues such as Democratization, Defence Studies, Third World Quarterly, Comparative Strategy, the International Journal on World Peace, Electoral Studies, the online version of the Journal of Democracy and the Defense and Technology Papers series at the National Defense University. |

Dr. Max Guirguis |
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Title | Professor of Political Science |
mguirgui@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
Phone | 304-876-5266 |
Office | White Hall 312C |
Dr. Max Guirguis is Professor of Political Science. His primary teaching responsibilities are in the areas of U.S. Constitutional law and American Politics. He also teaches specialized international courses focusing on the Middle East and International Political Economy |

Dr. Aart Holtslag |
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Title | Associate Professor of Political Science |
aholtsla@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
Phone | 304-876-5437 |
Office | White Hall 332 |
Dr. Aart Holtslag previously taught at the University of Massachusetts, Lowell. His specialization is in International Relations, specifically International Organization, International Law and Human Rights. His research focuses around the role of the individual in global politics as related to international organization, international law, and human rights. He is the advisor for Model UN. |

Dr. Ann Marie Legreid |
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Title | Professor of Geography and Associate Dean |
alegreid@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
Phone | 304-876-5332 |
Office | White Hall 102 |
Dr. Legreid’s areas of concentration are cultural and urban geography, migration and population studies, and European and North American geography. She earned her PhD and MS degrees from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in geography and has been a Fulbright Scholar to Norway. |

Dr. Stephanie Slocum-Schaffer |
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Title | Professor of Political Science |
sslocums@shepherd.edu ( Email ) | |
Office | White Hall 333B |
Dr. Stephanie A. Slocum-Schaffer is Professor of Political Science and Co-Coordinator of the Gender and Women’s Studies Program at Shepherd University, where she teaches a variety of courses in American politics, women in politics, research methods, and public policy. Dr. Slocum-Schaffer earned a Ph.D. in Political Science from The American University and received a B.A., Magna Cum Laude, in International Affairs and Spanish from Bucknell University. In 2003, she published a book, America in the Seventies: A Lesson In Limits, with Syracuse University Press. She also has published several articles and has made numerous presentations at conferences. Her current research focus is shared between two major areas of study: the impact of perceptions of incivility on American civic engagement, as well as the different pedagogical techniques, approaches, and structures that enhance student learning at the undergraduate level. |