Bruce Magnusson

Associate Professor of Politics

Office: 131 Maxey Hall
Telephone: (509)527-4939
Fax: (509)527-5026
Email: magnusba@whitman.edu

Politics Department

Global Studies Program

Race and Ethnic Studies Program

Office Hours (Fall 2012):

     Wednesdays 9:00-11:00; Fridays 10:00-12:00

          or by appointment

Education: Ph.D., Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1997;
M.A., Political Science, University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1991;
B.A., French, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1979

Courses 2012-13:

Fall 2012:

Politics 147: International Politics

Politics 258: Politics in Africa

Politics 367: African Political Thought

Spring 2013: Sabbatical Leave

Courses 2011-12:

Fall 2011:

Politics 147: International Politics

Spring 2012:

Politics 400A/World Lit 387A (with Prof. Zalloua): Violent Subjects

Courses 2010-11:

Fall 2010:
Politics 490 (with Profs. Bobrow-Strain, King, Morefield): Senior Seminar

Spring 2011:
Politics 147: International Politics
Politics 497/98: Senior Thesis/Honors Thesis

Courses I teach with some regularity:
Politics 147: International Politics
Politics 258: Politics in Africa
Politics 259: Politics of Race, Ethnicity, and Religion
Politics 338: North-South Relations
Politics 348: International Politics of Ethnic Conflict
Politics 367: African Political Thought
Politics 378: Transnationalism
Politics 497/98: Senior Thesis

Publications

Contagion: Health, Fear, Sovereignty. Bruce Magnusson and Zahi Zalloua, editors. Global Re-Visions Series (Seattle: University of Washington Press in association with Whitman College, 2012).

“Understanding Democratic Survival and Democratic Failure in Africa: Insights from the Divergent Democratic Experiments in Benin and Congo (Brazzaville). John F. Clark, co-author. Comparative Studies in Society and History, Vol. 47, No. 3 (July 2005).

“Democratic Legitimacy in Benin: Institutions and Identity in a Regional Context,” in The Fate of Africa’s Democratic Experiments: Elites and Institutions in Comparative Perspective. Leonardo Villalon and Peter VonDoepp, editors. (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2005).

"Transnational Flows, Legitimacy, and Syncretic Democracy in Benin," in Constructivist Comparative Politics: Theoretical Issues and Case Studies. Daniel Green, editor. (New York: M.E. Sharpe Publications, 2002).

"Democratization and Domestic Insecurity: Navigating the Transition in Benin," in Comparative Politics, Vol. 33, No. 2 (January 2001).

"Testing Democracy in Benin: Experiments in Institutional Reform," in State, Conflict, and Democracy in Africa.  Richard Joseph, editor. (Boulder: Lynne Rienner, 1999).

"Legitimating Democracy in Benin: New Institutions and the Historical Problem of Economic Crisis" in L'Afrique Politique 1996 (Paris: Karthala, 1996).

Current Research

My research agenda addresses questions at the intersections of ethnicity, security, violence, and justice in Africa. The threads I am currently pursuing include, 1) the intellectual and institutional history of ethnic and religious ascription in population censuses in colonial and postcolonial Africa; 2) the relationship of census categories to territorial administration and electoral competition along ethnic and religious lines; and, 3) the vectors of violence characterizing censuses and elections.

I am also currently working on two co-edited volumes for the Global Re-Visions series of the University of Washington Press in association with Whitman College, one on global spectacles and media, and one on the global and local intersections of places/peripheries.

Other areas of research interest include: U.S. - Africa security policy; Globalization and the child soldier.

Faculty-Student Research Awards

2012 Abshire Research Scholar Award (with Prof. Zalloua and Genevieve Venable, '12); 2011 Abshire Research Scholar Award (with Prof. Zalloua and Gabriella Friedman, '13). 2010 Fluno Faculty-Student Research Award (with Sara Rasmussen, '12). 2009-10 (with Claire Lueneberg, '10) Adam Dublin Award for the Study of Global Multiculturalism. 2005 Lewis B. Perry Research Award with Laura Hanson (‘07): “Census Categories, Ethnicity, and Electoral Institutions in Africa.” 2001 Lewis B. Perry Research Award with Anamarie Turlea (‘02): “African Legal Institutions and Ethnic Diversity.” 1998 Lewis B. Perry Research Award with Sashka Koleva (‘99): “Democratization and Inter-Ethnic Accommodation in Bulgaria (Eastern Europe) and Benin (West Africa).” We presented a paper by the same name at the International Studies Association meetings in Washington, DC (February 1999).

2005 Fluno Award for Excellence in Teaching in the Social Sciences