Faculty Profiles
Dr. S. Mohsin Hashim Professor, Political Science |  |
Education
- Ph.D., Pennsylvania State University
- M.S., Moscow State University
Teaching Interests
Politics, according to Max Weber, is the struggle for power. My interest in political science stems from the fact that the discipline essentially studies power relationships. These relationships are asymmetric in nature, in that they manifest themselves in dominance-dependence patterns of societal interaction. Indeed, the issue of power lies at the core of political relationships and these relationships are supported through various institutional arrangements across time and context.
Political institutions are incentive structures that regulate socioeconomic and political behavior. They prescribe and proscribe types of group behavior. Thus, institutions have distributional consequences that create winners and losers. The winners and losers are citizens of societies and members of the international community.
Since democracies ideally presuppose an empowered citizenry that is aware of its social, economic and political surroundings, political science has a crucial pedagogic role. The discipline offers students a better understanding of power and patterns of political authority. My courses invite students to analyze how power is constructed, projected and reified within and across societies. This in turn can contribute to effective citizenship in democratic polities.
Research, Scholarship or Creative/Artistic Interests
My research and scholarship lie in the areas of post-Soviet politics, with a specific focus on Russia, as well as on Islamic political mobilization in Bangladesh and Turkey. I lived and studied in Russia for about seven years over a period that witnessed Gorbachev’s rise to power, the collapse of the Soviet Union and the chaotic post-Soviet beginning of Russian political history. My research interests have, in part, been shaped by my witnessing history. My intimate knowledge of the region and my fluency of the language have no doubt helped me maintain an active research agenda.
The area of post-Soviet transition occupies a central place in the body of theoretical and empirical literature on regime change and democratization. My research directly contributes to this body of knowledge. My scholarship delivers a better understanding of Russia’s post-Soviet landscape, which is also valuable to policy makers dealing with the continued geo-strategic significance of post-Soviet Russia.
The area of post-Soviet transition occupies a central place in the body of theoretical and empirical literature on regime change and democratization. My research directly contributes to this body of knowledge. My scholarship delivers a better understanding of Russia’s post-Soviet landscape, which is also valuable to policy makers dealing with the continued geo-strategic significance of post-Soviet Russia.
Related to this research project, I have also been working on a case study of Bangladesh Jamaat-i-Islami as a “semi-loyal” opposition. Along with my colleague Dr. Jack Gambino, I have also contributed to the scholarly discussion on global citizenship and pedagogy. We have published on how our MILA-class contributes to global cosmopolitan citizenship.
