Vanessa Anne Baird
EDUCATION
| 1988 - 1993 | University of Houston: Bachelor of Arts with Honors in German |
| 1991 - 1992 | University of Siegen: (Germany) |
| 1995 - present | University of Houston, PhD candidate |
DISSERTATION
Issue Expansion in the United States Supreme Court Agenda
Chair: James L. Gibson
This dissertation explores the role of judges' attitudes in the agenda setting process. Generally, the agenda setting process has been explained with extra-institutional factors. This dissertation will take a neo-institutional approach to the interaction between Congress, interest groups and the judges on the Supreme Court to explain the agenda process.
PUBLICATIONS
"On the Legitimacy of National High Courts," American Political Science Review, 92 (September 1998), forthcoming. (Co-authored with James L. Gibson and Gregory A. Caldeira).
"Why Privatization: The Case of German Telecommunications," Social Science Quarterly, 79 (March 1998): 193 - 211. (Co-authored with Alan Stone).
"Legitimacy of the United States Supreme Court." In Perspectives on American and Texas Politics: A Collection of Essays. Kent L. Tedin, and Edward P. Fuchs, eds. 1997. (Co-authored with James L. Gibson).
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Individualism, Democracy, and Conceptions of Social Justice: A Cross-National, Cross-Level Analysis. (Co-authored with James L. Gibson and Joseph Sanders), Journal of Politics, submitted.
On the Legitimacy of National High Courts: The Role of Legal Culture. (Co-authored with James L. Gibson and Gregory A. Caldeira).
Compliance, Procedural Justice and Diffuse Support: The Role of Institutional Exposure.
The Judicialization of Politics in the European Union: The Case of Liberalization Policy.
Energy Deregulation in the European Union.
CONFERENCE PARTICIPATION
Paper-giver, "Economic Rationality and Pathways to Electoral Change," Annual American Political Science Association Meeting, August 27 - 29, 1997.
Paper-giver, "The Judicialization of Politics in the European Union: The Case of Industry Liberalization." Annual American Political Science Association Meeting, August 27 - 29, 1997.
Paper-giver, "On the Legitimacy of National High Courts: The Role of Legal Culture," Annual American Political Science Association Meeting, August 27 - 29, 1997. (Co-authored with James L. Gibson, and Gregory Caldeira).
Paper-giver, "On the Legitimacy of National High Courts," Annual Midwest Political Science Association Meeting, April 9-10, 1997. (Co-authored with James L. Gibson, and Gregory Caldeira).
Paper-giver, "Diffuse Support, Procedural Justice and Compliance for the German Federal Constitutional Court," Law and Society Association, May 27 - 30, 1997.
WORK EXPERIENCE
| 1996 - present | Research Assistant Energy Institute, University of Houston College of Business Administration (summers only) |
| 1996 - present | Research Assistant University of Houston Political Science Department, National Science Foundation Grant |
| 1997- present | Teaching Assistant University of Houston Political Science Department |
| 1993 - 1994 | Language Instructor Inlingua, (Spanish, English and German) |
HONORS, GRANTS AND SCHOLARSHIPS
| 1988 - 1993 | University of Houston Honors College |
| 1988 - 1993 | University of Houston Alumni Scholarship |
| 1991 - 1992 | Deutsche Akademische Austauschdienst Scholarship |
| 1993 | Fulbright Award Alternate |
PRIMARY TEACHING INTERESTS
| American | |
| Judicial Behavior and Process | |
| Constitutional Law | |
| American Political Behavior | |
| Comparative | |
| Democratization | |
| Parties and Elections | |
| International Political Economy | |
| Comparative Judicial Politics | |
| Theory | |
| Modern Political Thought | |
| American Political Thought | |
| Ancient and Medieval Political Thought | |
| Philosophy of Social Science | |
| Methods | |
| Foundations of Quantitative Methods - Bivariate and Multivariate | |
| Structural Equations and Measurement Issues | |
| Time Series | |
| Survey Methodology | |
SPECIAL ABILITIES
German and Spanish spoken fluently.
Expertise with the following statistical packages: SPSS (mainframe and PC), Stata, EQS, and RATS.