Contact
Professor Polly Diven
Director, International Relations Program
Department of Political Science
1107 AuSable Hall
Grand Valley State University
1 Campus Drive
Allendale, MI 49401
(616) 331-3282
[email protected]

Education
Ph.D., Political Science, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1995.
M.A.L.D., International Relations, Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy, Tufts University, 1985.
B.A., Political Science, Magna cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, Hamilton College, 1982.

Fields: International relations, U.S. foreign policy, U.S. politics

Courses
International Relations
U.S. Foreign Policy
Great Decisions
Capstone in International Relations
Capstone in Political Science

Recent Honors and Awards

Student Award for Faculty Excellence, GVSU, awarded February 2012

Pew Teaching Award, 2004

Netherlands Initiative Travel Grant, 2004

Padnos International Center Partnership Grant (Travel to France), 2006

Padnos International Center Partnership Grant (Travel to Japan), 2014

GVSU Visitor to Partner Institution, University of Perugia, Italy, 2010

Selected Publications

“Why Study International Relations?” In International Relations and Diplomacy for the Curious, Kishor Vaidya, ed. Curious Academic Publishing (Canberra), 2014.

“The Roots of Confidence in the European Union,” (co-authored with John Constantelos), Horizons of Politics 2014, 4(8), 51-74.

“The Domestic Foundations of Confidence in the United Nations,” (co-authored with John Constantelos), Peace Studies Journal 2011 4(2), 1-23.

“U.S. AIDS Policy in Africa: Balancing Competing Interests in PEPFAR Policy-Making.” In Africa and the New World Era, Jacques Mangala, ed. Palgrave MacMillan, 2010.

“Explaining Generosity: Comparing Public Opinion on Foreign Aid among Donor Countries,” (co-authored with John Constantelos), accepted for publication in the Journal of Transatlantic Studies, (Summer 2009) Issue 7(ii).

“Disaggregating Anti-Americanism: Personalities, Policies, Popular Culture, and Paradigms,” book chapter in U.S. Foreign Policy: Theory, Mechanisms, and Practice, (2008) edited by Pawel Laidler, Jagiellonian University Press.

"An Analytical Look at Anti-Americanism (review of Anti-Americanisms in World Politics, Peter J. Katzenstein and Robert O. Keohane, eds.)" International Studies Review (2007) 8(3):494-497.

"The Hyperpluralism of U.S. Food Aid," Foreign Policy Analysis 2 (4): 361-384 (2006).

“Interest Groups in International and Transnational Politics,” in Research Guide to U.S. and International Interest Groups, (2004) edited by Clive S. Thomas. Praeger Press.

“Minority Influence and Political Interest Groups,” in Social Psychological Applications to Social Issues: Developments in Political Psychology, vol. V (2002), edited by Vincent Ottati. Plenum Press, co-authored with Christine M. Smith.

"The Domestic Determinants of U.S. Food Aid Policy," Food Policy, 26 (Fall 2001):455-474.

Recent Presentations

“Linking Gender Equality and Good Governance: The Importance of Political Representation,” presented at the European Conference on Politics and Gender in Uppsala, Sweden, June 2015.

“Crawling Out of “the Ghetto”: Explaining Continued Underrepresentation of Women in Power,” presented at the Midwest International Studies Association Conference in St. Louis, November 2013.

“The Roots of Confidence in the European Union,” presented at the Midwest International Studies Association Conference in St. Louis in November 2012 (with John Constantelos).

“Hegemony, History or Him?  Evaluating Theories of Anti-Americanism under New U.S. Leadership,” presented at the Midwest International Studies Association in St. Louis, November 2011.

“Assessing the Impact of the Obama Administration on Anti-Americanism in Europe,” presented at the European Consortium for Political Research conference in Reykjavik, Iceland, in August 2011.

“A Midterm Assessment of the Obama Administration and its Impact on Transatlantic Anti-Americanism,” presented at the Transatlantic Studies Conference in Dundee, Scotland in July 2011.

“Public Confidence in the EU: A Multivariate Analysis of the World Values Survey’s Fifth Wave,” presented at the Pan-European Conference on EU Politics, Porto, Portugal, June 2010.

“U.S. Foreign Policy in the Obama Administration: Change and Continuity,” presented at the University of Muenster (Germany), American College of Thessaloniki (Greece) and Middle Eastern Technical University (Turkey) in February, March and April 2009.

“The Multiple Objectives of U.S. Development Policy: Managing the Multiple Objectives of PEPFAR,” presented at the International Studies Association, New York, February 2009.

“U.S. Foreign Policy after G.W. Bush,” presented at the Midwest International Studies Association meeting in St. Louis, November 2008.

“The Domestic Politics of US AIDS Policy: The Hyperpluralism of PEPFAR,” presented at the Midwest International Studies Association meeting in St. Louis, November 2008.

“What Keeps Us Apart When We're Working Together: Understanding Divergent Public Opinion on International Cooperation,” presented at the Global International Studies Conference in Ljubljana, Slovenia, July 2008.

“The Determinants of International Support for the United Nations,” (with John Constantelos), presented at the International Studies Association meeting in San Francisco, March 2008.

Biography
I joined the faculty in Political Science at GVSU in 1994. That means I've been in this department longer than anyone else, though Professors King and Constantelos came soon after. I became the International Relations Coordinator in 2005 and I enjoy coordinating this interdisciplinary major and getting to know the IR students. I was the Faculty Advisor to the International House in Murray Living Center from 2010-2014, and I continue to enjoy fostering connections between international students and U.S. students. My area of greatest expertise is U.S. foreign policy, and my research focuses on the intersection of U.S. domestic politics and U.S. foreign policy.  I am particularly interested in how domestic interest groups influence foreign policy. I have published research into the impact of agribusiness and "big pharma" on U.S. foreign policy. More recently my research has focused on the determinants of public opinion on U.S. foreign policy, comparative public opinion, and anti-Americanism. I am also interested in the phenomenon of hyperpluralism and its contribution to undermining U.S. trust in government.  I am currently working on research that examines the relationship between trust in government and the number of women in national legislatures across countries.