Poli Sci hires middle East scholar

The Political Science Department hired another new faculty member last spring, marking the third new appointment this semester for the understaffed department, School of Arts and Sciences Dean Samuel Preston said. Robert Vitalis, a former professor at Clark University and the University of Texas at Austin, started his tenured position as associate professor of Political Science on July 1, joining Princeton University's John DiIulio and Stanford University's Jerome Maddox as new hires in the department. This fall, Vitalis will teach a freshman seminar and will offer spring courses in both American foreign policy and contemporary politics in the Middle East. He will teach a range of both graduate and undergraduate courses in international and comparative politics, according to Political Science Department Chairperson Ian Lustick, who is also a comparative politics professor. Lustick said Wednesday that he hopes Vitalis -- author of the 1995 book When Capitalists Collide: Business Conflict and the End of Empire in Egypt -- will reinvigorate Middle Eastern studies with his energetic teaching style and simultaneously link scholars from cultural studies, race relations and comparative history. "[Vitalis] has proven administrative skills and a record as an outstanding and caring teacher," he added. Vitalis said he is contemplating how to increase student interest in Middle East studies, and is considering teaching through film or music. "There are better places to figure that out than in Stiteler [Hall], which is a bit too 1960s institutional for me, so I will be at Xando as much as possible," he noted. According to Preston, Vitalis' hiring represents a concerted SAS effort to invigorate the Middle East Studies Department, which "wasn't as strong as we wanted it to be." He said he expects Vitalis' position, along with the History Department's spring hiring of Professor Firoozeh Kashani-Sabat, to bolster the program. In the spring, Preston released a new SAS strategic plan, which highlighted the Political Science Department as one deserving of increased faculty appointments. The plan calls for more funding for the department over the next several years. Preston said on Wednesday that the Political Science Department will continue to recruit new faculty this year, though there have been no more official hirings as of yet. Vitalis received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He earned his master's and doctorate degrees at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.