Alexander P. Lamis Memorial Endowed Chair in U.S. Politics

The Alexander P. Lamis Memorial Endowed Professorship in US Politics has been established with a gift from a generous anonymous donor, to honor our colleague Alec Lamis, who died in 2012.  Professor Lamis (PhD Vanderbilt, JD University of Maryland) was a popular undergraduate teacher, with interests in US politics, political parties and elections, judicial politics, and the politics of the US South.

Founded in 1826, Case Western Reserve University is a highly ranked private R1 research university, comprised of 8 college and schools with over 11,000 undergraduate, graduate and professional students from around the world, representing 94 countries.  Students enjoy a 11:1 student:faculty ratio, and all students work with faculty to complete a one-semester senior capstone project.  

The CWRU Department of Political Science offers BA, BA/MA, MA, MA/JD, and PhD degrees.  Our undergraduate program includes some 80 majors and 20 minors, as well as 10 Public Policy minors.  Faculty have a 2/2 teaching load, on the semester system, and offer an introductory course in comparative politics, international relations, or US politics, and a range of upper-division courses.  Introductory course enrollments are capped at 35; seminars are capped at 25; and faculty supervise no more than 5 capstone projects per semester.  Information about the major is available here.  Faculty are involved with a range of interdisciplinary programs, including the Center for Policy Studies, Environmental Studies, International Studies, Social Justice, and Women’s and Gender Studies.  The Department provides generous travel and conference funding, and supports an Undergraduate Research and Mentoring Assistantship (URMAP) program that funds students working with faculty on research projects.

CWRU benefits from its location in Cleveland’s University Circle, that includes at our doorstep major cultural and scientific institutions such as the Cleveland Orchestra, the Cleveland Museum of Art, the Cleveland Botanical Gardens, the Natural History Museum, and the Western Reserve Historical Society, among others. Two world-class health institutions, the Cleveland Clinic and University Hospitals of Cleveland, are located close to campus and offer collaborative research opportunities.  Playhouse Square, in downtown Cleveland, is the largest performing arts center in the nation outside of New York, home to the Cleveland Ballet, the Cleveland International Film Festival, the Cleveland Play House, DANCECleveland, the Great Lakes Theater, and the Tri-C JazzFest; Karamu House, the nation’s oldest African America theater, is located nearby in the historic Fairfax neighborhood; and the Maltz Performing Arts Center is part of the CWRU campus.  CWRU benefits from Cleveland’s commitments to intellectual debate and discussion, through the work of the City Club of Cleveland, “one of the nation’s oldest continuous independent free speech forums” and the Cleveland Council for World Affairs.

The City of Cleveland is marked by the diversity and rich history embedded within its many neighborhoods, evidenced by the Cleveland Cultural Gardens, the League Park, and Little Italy, among others.  This diversity is reflected in its news publications and in its range of excellent public and private K-12 schools; the Cleveland School of the Arts and the Music Settlement School are only two of the many diverse schools in the CWRU neighborhood.  Cleveland is also highly ranked as a city committed to charitable giving, through organizations such as the Cleveland Foundation and the Jewish Federation of Cleveland.

Cleveland supports three professional sports teams (the Browns, the Cavaliers, and the Guardians).  Cleveland and its environs also boast a vibrant restaurant and food scene, and a range of local breweries.  In addition to the myriad of recreation opportunities provided by Lake Erie, the Cuyahoga Valley National Park and the Cleveland Metro Park System offer a broad array of hiking, biking, kayaking, cross-country skiing, and other outdoor activities.