Some background on my interests . . .

I am a faculty member in the Political Science Department at the University of Notre Dame, where I am the William M. Scholl Professor of International Affairs. I am Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies.  My primary fields of research and teaching are in comparative and international politics, political history, and law and technology.  I also have a long-standing interest in political philosophy.  I am a fellow of the Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies and the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies.

A. James McAdams

I specialize in modern German politics. I have used this focus to investigate a variety of political, historical, and legal themes: authoritarianism, the domestic roots of foreign-policymaking, the challenges of democratic transition, the politics of retrospective justice, and the comparative politics of internet surveillance in Germany, Great Britain, and the United States. I am currently writing a book entitled, The Rise and Fall of World Communism: A Political History. The book is based upon perspectives I have developed over nearly three decades of research and teaching about the communist world and travelling to nearly every communist state. Last year, I visited North Korea for the first time. I plan to coduct some interviews in Hanoi, Vietnam in the near future.

I have always enjoyed teaching.  Wherever I have taught--at Hamilton College, Princeton University, or the University of Notre Dame--I have tried to offer courses in a wide range of disciplines, from the social sciences to the humanities.  I have taught at every level of university education, from first-year seminars to large lecture courses, and from senior seminars to graduate courses.  For example, in spring 2004, I offered "Public / Private / Internet" to students in Notre Dame's computer applications major and the Department of Political Science. In fall 2004, 2005, 2006, and 2008, I developed a largely Web-based course, "An Introduction to Comparative Politics," for students in the First-year of Studies. In spring 2008, I introduced a new graduate course, "Philosophy and Dictatorship," in which I sought to synthesize the fields of comparative politics and political theory. In recent years, I have enjoyed teaching an inerdisciplinary seminar entitled Ten Images of Hell in the Twentieth Century. Now, I am back to a new iteration of "An Introduction to Comparative Politics."

I have been involved in various aspects of university administration for more than a decade.  Between 1997 and 2002, I was Chair of a large political science department at Notre Dame.  I enjoy the creative challenges of academic leadership:  daily administration, recruiting and hiring, budgeting, and fundraising. I am now Director of the Nanovic Institute for European Studies, a campus-wide institute for European scholarship and teaching in the humanities and social sciences. Over the past two years, we have created a wide array of innovative programs for students and faculty. We are currently engaged in developing Notre Dame's relations with the Catholic universities of East-Central Europe, including the Ukrainian Catholic University of Lviv, the Catholic University of Lublin, the Catholic University of Ružomberok, and the Péter Pázmány Catholic University of Budapest. I am also exploring opportunities to develop Notre Dame's relationship with the Vatican.