After Katrina: Disaster Management and Reconstruction

The American Political Science Assocation has developed this page to assist journalists in finding political scientists doing research related to disaster management and reconstruction.  For questions about this page or related issues, contact Bahram Rajaee, APSA Director of International and External Relations.

APSA will continue to add resources to this page.  To find additional social scientists working in these areas, visit the Social Science Research Council's Understanding Katrina forum:  http://understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/


EXPERTS

Larry M. Bartels is professor of politics and public affairs and the Donald E. Stokes Professor of Public and International Affairs in Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School.  His research focuses on electoral politics, public opinion, the mass media, the political economy of inequality, the American electoral process, and democratic theory.  One of his most recent published articles addresses the electoral consequences of disasters.  He can be reached by phone at (609) 258-4794) or by email at bartels@princeton.edu.

Donald F. Kettl is professor of Political Science and Stanley I. Sheerr Endowed Term Chair in the Social Sciences at the University of Pennsylvania.  With a focus on public policy and public administration, Dr. Kettl's most recent books are entitled System Under Stress: Homeland Security and American Politics and The Transformation of Governance (winner of the National Academy of Public Administration's 2003 Louis Brownlow Book Award).  He can be reached by phone at (215) 746-4600 or by email at dkettl@sas.upenn.edu.

Peter J. May is professor of political science at the University of Washington.  He has published widely concerning  May's extensive research on United States disaster and risk reduction policy, beginning with the eruption of Mount St. Helens,  has resulted in a variety of articles and four books. May has served on a National Research Council panels addressing management of earthquake risks, on the board of directors of the Earthquake Engineering Research Institute, as a Fulbright scholar in Australia, and as a visiting scholar in Denmark and in New Zealand.  He holds a PhD in Public Policy from the University of California, Berkeley.  He can be reached by phone at (253) 692-4469 or by email at pmay@u.washington.edu.

Saundra K. Schneider is a professor in the Department of Political Science at Michigan State University, where she is also the associate chair and director of graduate studies.  She is the author of Flirting with Disaster: Public Management in Crisis Situations (1995).  Her current research focuses on the role of administrative forces in public policy making, particularly in the areas of crisis management, health care, and welfare policy.  She is conducting a study of the governmental response to natural disasters before and after September 11, 2001.  She can be reached by phone at (517) 355-7682 or by email at sks@msu.edu.

Richard T. Sylves teaches graduate and undergraduate courses at the University of Delaware in Environmental, Energy and Disaster Policy; Public Policy; and Public Budgeting.  His extensive writing and research interests cover disaster policy, environmental and energy policy. His most recent book is Disaster Management in the United States and Canada: Politics, Policy, Administration, Study and Instruction of Emergency Management and his forthcoming article "An Introduction to Trends in Extreme Weather and Climate Events," will appear in the Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. He can be reached by phone at (302) 831-1943/6057 or by email at sylves@udel.edu.

William L. Waugh Jr. is a professor of Public Administration and Urban Studies and Political Science at the University of Mississippi.  Dr. Waugh has been a consultant to public, private, and nonprofit organizations and the media on dealing with terrorist threats, responding to disasters, and building governmental and nongovernmental capacities for managing hazards and disasters. He is the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Emergency Management and the author of Living with Hazards, Dealing with Disasters. He can be reached by phone at (404) 651-4592 or by email at wwaugh@gsu.edu.