{"id":11062,"date":"2014-10-30T08:39:19","date_gmt":"2014-10-30T12:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.cos.ucf.edu\/?p=11062"},"modified":"2016-12-20T13:55:46","modified_gmt":"2016-12-20T18:55:46","slug":"dr-jonathan-powell-welcome-knightlife","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/dr-jonathan-powell-welcome-knightlife\/","title":{"rendered":"Welcome to the Land of Opportunity, Dr. Powell"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Jonathan-Powell\"<\/a>What do \u201clawyers\u201d, \u201cguns\u201d, \u201cmoney\u201d, and a new UCF professor have in common? We\u2019re not entirely sure but when asked what song he would choose to represent his life, Dr. Jonathan Powell<\/a> elected the late 70\u2019s hit \u201cLawyers, Guns and Money<\/a>\u201d by Warren Zevon. \u00a0This song selection sparks interest as new UCF faculty member Dr. Powell joins the University of Central Florida as an Assistant Professor in the Political Science department.<\/p>\n

Having obtained a Bachelor\u2019s degree from Western Kentucky University and Ph.D. from the University of Kentucky, Dr. Powell\u2019s primary research and teaching interests lie in the fields of international relations and comparative politics. He is intrigued in the dynamics of conflict and democratization with a special emphasis on the role civil-military relations play in these processes.\u00a0His research has been published in academic journals, such as the Journal of Conflict Resolution<\/a>, the Journal of Peace Research<\/a>, and others. <\/em>During his first semester at UCF, Dr. Powell is teaching a course on African politics. Next semester, he will be teaching a graduate seminar in comparative politics and an undergraduate research methods class.<\/p>\n

With such experience and interest in the field of political science, it might seem surprising that Dr. Powell did not start off in this area. \u201cI was briefly an archaeologist and easily would have kept doing that had stable job prospects been a little better.\u00a0I worked at Mammoth Cave National Park, in the Daniel Boone National Forest, and even high altitude sites in Colorado and absolutely loved it.\u201d<\/p>\n

So what made Jonathan Powell take a \u201cdig\u201d into the political science field? He explains that his career turn towards becoming a political science professor was based on two misconceptions about the occupation:<\/p>\n

\u201cLike many undergraduates, I had this incredibly na\u00efve belief that professors had awesome work schedules: holidays, weekends, summers, and a sizable chunk of the winter ‘off’. \u00a0Little did I know that the vast majority of work comes with duties that are never seen by students, and that you rarely, if ever really, truly, have a day off.\u201d<\/p>\n

His second misconception was that as a professor of international relations, he would be required to travel a lot. \u201cThis was way, way, way off the mark.\u00a0I got lucky as both a graduate student and as a faculty member that I did get some of the types of opportunities I expected.\u00a0University of Kentucky\u2019s graduate school and political science department were very generous with funding. This allowed me to go to conferences in the U.S. and abroad.\u00a0\u00a0A think tank flew me to Ethiopia.\u00a0It somehow worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite these initial misconceptions about the profession, Dr. Powell was fortunate to get some of the perks he desired in his career. Now, he has found his way to the UCF campus. What he likes most about the university is its performance of following its motto: UCF stands for Opportunity.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have been surprised at the opportunities that are available.\u00a0Resources, usually research and travel money, are absolutely crucial for faculty members to succeed.\u00a0I was originally surprised at how good a deal UCF offered at the time of hire.\u00a0When I arrived on campus I was shocked to learn there were actually more resources than advertised and every few weeks I learn of more opportunities for either the faculty or students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Upholding UCF\u2019s motto, Dr. Powell is offering an opportunity for students to help him with an ongoing project he is doing on military coups. \u201cMost previous work has looked at why coups happen.\u00a0A huge push Clayton Thyne (University of Kentucky) and I are making is to assess the consequences of coups.\u00a0In other words, what happens after the coup?\u00a0We have found some interesting trends, including the wildly unpopular finding that democratization happens a lot more often following coups than people realize.\u201d The project\u2019s current focus is exploring how the international community can influence post-coup political trajectories in places like Egypt, Thailand, and elsewhere.\u00a0\u201cWe are always looking for students to help with data gathering so any UCF folks that have a strong interest in the subject should feel free to contact me.\u201d<\/p>\n

When questioned on what was the last non-academic book he read, Dr. Powell divulged that it was Cloud Atlas<\/em> by David Mitchell. The book, in a way, crosses paths with his archaeology background because it tells a story about reincarnation through different characters\u2019 life cycles and notes the changes in human development.<\/p>\n

Seeing how Dr. Powell has begun a new \u201clife cycle\u201d here as a Political Science faculty member, it will be engaging to see how he \u201creincarnates\u201d himself into the Knight world as he makes it his new home.<\/p>\n

Welcome, Dr. Jonathan Powell!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

What do \u201clawyers\u201d, \u201cguns\u201d, \u201cmoney\u201d, and a new UCF professor have in common? We\u2019re not entirely sure but when asked what song he would choose to represent his life, Dr. Jonathan Powell elected the late 70\u2019s hit \u201cLawyers, Guns and Money\u201d by Warren Zevon. \u00a0This song selection sparks interest as new UCF faculty member Dr. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":11096,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[13,16],"tags":[1842],"class_list":["post-11062","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","category-political-science-departments","tag-jonathan-powell"],"yoast_head":"\nWelcome to the Land of Opportunity, Dr. Powell - College of Sciences News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/dr-jonathan-powell-welcome-knightlife\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Welcome to the Land of Opportunity, Dr. Powell - College of Sciences News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"What do \u201clawyers\u201d, \u201cguns\u201d, \u201cmoney\u201d, and a new UCF professor have in common? 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