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Julie Novkov, State University of New York at Albany

Career and Accomplishments

Julie Novkov is a professor of political science and women's studies at the University at Albany, SUNY. She holds an A.B. from Harvard-Radcliffe (1989), a J.D. from NYU (1992), and a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Michigan (1998).  Julie's work addresses law, political development, and subordinated identities in the United States. Her publications include books Racial Union (Michigan 2008, co-winner of the APSA Ralphe Bunche Award in 2009), Constituting Workers, Protecting Women (Michigan, 2001), two co-edited volumes, and numerous articles, book chapters, and book reviews. Julie’s service record in APSA includes organizing panels for Constitutional Law and Jurisprudence, serving as president of the Sexuality and Politics Section, and chairing the LGBT Status Committee.  In the WPSA, she organized panels for two sections and serves on the Executive Council. In the MPSA she organized panels for two sections.  She directed Women's and Gender Studies at the University of Oregon, and was on the editorial advisory board of the Law and Society Review.

Statement of Views

I pledge my support for the following:

• methodological and epistemological diversity, interdisciplinary scholarship, and problem-driven research;
• responsiveness to APSA members in liberal arts colleges, comprehensive universities, community colleges, and institutions of higher education outside the United States;
• academic freedom for all political scientists;
• competitive elections;
• support for APSA's status committees as well as for political scientists with disabilities, those who work outside the academy, and those who work contingently in the academy; and
• a unified response by APSA to the financial crisis that currently besets higher education.

Our best scholarly contributions come when we frame vital substantive questions about politics from different epistemological standpoints and use diverse approaches to answer those questions. My engagement with a diverse set  of scholars has led me to appreciate the strength that pluralism brings to our collective efforts to understand politics. Dialogue and engagement across all scholarly boundaries are vital to our mission.

As a professional association, APSA must proactively address the current economic crisis and its acceleration of the structural changes in the academy. More of us are non-tenure-stream workers. Many of us face retrenchments at our institutions, resulting in higher workloads and lower pay. Internal and external research funds are shrinking. Our graduate student members face an uncertain future. How can APSA ensure that institutions invest in the kinds of education that we as a profession deem worthwhile? How might these changes affect efforts to diversify the academy? How can we respond collectively to the problems we face individually as faculty members, graduate students, and administrators? If elected, I would press the association to address these questions.