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Dr. Caleb Stewart Rossiter ­ Curriculum Vitae

contact: rossiter@american.edu


Areas of professional interest

Policy positions

Director of the American Exceptionalism Media Project, 2012-present. We create and broadcast web-based material to counter exceptionalist propaganda directed at the younger generation, and coordinate anti-exceptionalist messaging with arms control and human rights groups.

Executive director, CO2 Coalition, 2019-2020. This alliance of 50 unalarmed climate scientists and energy economists provides accurate research to the public and Congress about the impact on the atmosphere, land, and oceans of industrial emissions of carbon dioxide.

Counselor to the Chairman (Bill Delahunt), Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Rights, and Oversight, Committee on Foreign Affairs, U.S. Congress, 2007-2009. I organized hearings and wrote legislation designed to end the Iraq war, reduce U.S. support for African dictators, and increase opportunities for students from developing countries to study at American universities.

Consultant to a number of non-governmental organizations and educational institutions, 2000-2002. Clients included: the Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation and its Campaign for a Landmine Free World (where my duties included oversight of international treaties relating to "explosive remnants of war," and research and dialogue with U.S. military and civilian officials on alternatives to landmines), Peace Action Education Fund (a citizens' lobby for whom I prepared a fund-raising proposal for minority fellowships), Jacksonville University (for whom I developed a plan for a program in Latin American studies), and the One Song, Many Voices Foundation (a pro-diversity think-tank, which I assisted in its incorporation and initial fundraising).

Director, Demilitarization for Democracy, 1992-1999. This Washington, DC, advocacy center issued reports on U.S. foreign policy based on my research in developing countries, publicized them through the media, and formed coalitions with citizensí groups to implement their recommendations. I drafted and promoted legislation with Representatives Joe Kennedy, Cynthia McKinney, Patrick Kennedy, and Jim Leach, and Senators Russ Feingold, Patrick Leahy, and John Kerry that sought to ban landmines, bar arms transfers to non-democratic regimes, and audit and reduce world military spending. DFD was merged with the Center for International Policy, a research center that promotes the resolution of civil wars and other international conflicts, in 1999.

Deputy director, bipartisan Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, U.S. Congress, 1987-1990 (staff analyst, 1984-1987). I wrote policy papers based on my research in developing countries and collaborated with Representatives George Miller, Tom Foley, Howard Berman, and Matt McHugh, and Senators Mark Hatfield and Ted Kennedy on legislation that helped end conflicts in Central America and Southern Africa.

Research fellow, Center for International Policy, Washington, DC, 1983-1984. I co-authored a Ford Foundation-supported study of the U.S. human rights bureaucracy.

Foreign policy analyst, Congressional Research Service, Library of Congress, 1983 (foreign policy intern, 1982). I conducted research on political considerations in the decision-making of the World Bank and other international financial institutions.

Academic positions

Adjunct professor, Department of Mathematics and Statistics and the School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, 2010-2018. I taught courses on statistics, mathematics and U.S. policy toward Africa.

Mathematics teacher, DC-area public, charter, and private schools, 2010-2018.

Assistant professor, School of International Service, American University, Washington, DC, 2002-2004, 2005-2007, 2009-2010. I taught Quantitative Analysis in International Affairs at the graduate level and International Relations Research Methods (with modules on models purporting to explain the causes of climate change and economic development), World Politics, Contemporary Africa, U.S. Policy toward Africa, and African Civilizations at the undergraduate level. In addition to guiding hundreds of graduate-level projects in regression analysis, I supervised a number of undergraduate honors and "capstone" theses. My own research and writing focused on U.S. policies that affect the political role of armed forces and other aspects of democracy in developing countries.

Director, American University - Southern Africa Program, AU Abroad, 2004-2005. During the fall semester of 2004 I directed an "enclave" program in Cape Town for 38 American University undergraduates. The students received a full semester of credit for taking two courses with me (Public Policy Actors in South Africa, and the Semester Project -- a thesis on a policy problem in South Africa) and two with local professors (Culture and Society in South Africa, and Causes of Conflict in Southern Africa), and serving in a social service or policy "externship" (an internship in which the student also studies the organization as an external observer). The students went on numerous field trips, had a week long "home-stay" with a family, and then took a two-week study trip through South Africa, Mozambique, and Swaziland. Working with AU Abroad and my deputy director, I arranged all accommodations, travel, and educational activities, and planned and managed the $150,000 budget. During the fall semester of 2004 and the spring semester of 2005 I also traveled throughout South Africa, meeting with university administrators to establish "direct enrollment" programs for American University undergraduates at four South African universities. During the spring semester I also assisted in teaching and supervision for the AU Abroad program in Nairobi, Kenya, and traveled to Morocco to explore other possible semester study programs for American University students.

Visiting professor, Department of Political Studies, University of the Western Cape, Cape Town, South Africa. During the spring semester of 2005 I taught an upper-level course on research methods for the Department of Political Studies.

Adjunct assistant professor of statistics, American University, 2001. I taught the introductory undergraduate course in statistics for social science.

Guest lecturer at various universities, including the United States Military Academy, Cornell University, George Washington University, University of California, and the University of Puget Sound, 1993-1999. I lectured on a variety of topics in the areas of national security, international development, and congressional politics.

Adjunct assistant professor of public policy, Cornell University, Cornell in Washington program, 1984-1986. I taught the core course in policy analysis as well as specialized courses in congressional decision-making and U.S. military policy.

Graduate instructor and thesis tutor, Cornell University, Cornell in Washington Program, 1981-1983. I assisted in teaching the core course in policy analysis and supervised 10 student theses in policy analysis each semester.

Graduate assistant and research assistant, Cornell University, Department of Human Service Studies, 1979-1981. I assisted in teaching statistics and research methods for social sciences, and assisted in a multivariate regression analysis of longitudinal data on the impact of early childhood programs.

Teacher, Home Start, Head Start, and pre-kindergarten programs in Tompkins and Tioga Counties, NY, 1973-1979. I worked under three types of management: private (St. Paul's Church), federal government (Appalachian Regional Commission), and local government (Ithaca City School District).

Publications

(Novel) Arms Deals: A Mar'Shae McGurk Thriller about "Shopping" to Get Yours, Amazon, 2020.

(Novel) The Weathermen on Trial: A Bombshell Story about Bringing the War Home, Algora Press, New York, 2019.

Ain't Nobody Be Learnin' Nothin': The Fraud and the Fix for High-Poverty Schools, Algora Press, New York, 2015.

The Turkey and the Eagle: The Struggle for America's Global Role, Algora Press, New York, 2010.

The Chimes of Freedom Flashing: A Personal History of the Vietnam Anti-War Movement and the 1960's, TCA Press, Washington, DC, 1996

The Bureaucratic Struggle for Control of U.S. Foreign Aid: Diplomacy Versus Development in Southern Africa, Westview Press, Boulder, Col., 1985

In addition to dozens of articles in newspapers such as the Washington Post and journals such as the SAIS Review, I have authored or co-authored a number of major reports on foreign policy, including: The Carter Record, the Reagan Reaction: The Human Rights Bureaucracy (Center for International Policy, 1984), Barriers to Reform: A Profile of El Salvador's Military Leaders (Arms Control and Foreign Policy Caucus, 1990), Financing Repression: The Clinton Administration, the World Bank, and Indonesia (Demilitarization for Democracy, 1994), Fighting Retreat: Military Political Power and Other Barriers to Africa's Democratic Transition (Demilitarization for Democracy, 1997), and Winning in Korea without Landmines (Vietnam Veterans of America Foundation, 2000).

Education

M.A. in Mathematics, American University, 2004. My thesis demonstrated the derivation of Einstein's theories of special and general relativity, using mathematical tools learned in such courses as Riemannian geometry, partial differential equations, linear algebra, and multivariate calculus.

Ph.D. in Human Service Studies (now Policy Analysis and Management), with a major field of Policy Analysis and minor fields of Africana Studies and International Development, Cornell University, 1983. My dissertation analyzed the decision-making process of the U.S. foreign aid bureaucracy in Southern Africa during efforts to settle the civil war in Rhodesia.

M.S. in Education, Cortland State (N.Y.) University, 1976. My thesis project was a series of articles in the Ithaca Journal on Home Start programs. I received a permanent New York State teaching certificate for pre-kindergarten through sixth grade.

B.S. in Human Development and Family Studies, Cornell University, 1973. I received a temporary New York State teaching certificate for pre-kindergarten and kindergarten.

Administrative experience

Development of programs: I founded and directed Demilitarization for Democracy, a Washington, DC, research and advocacy group, and helped build and maintain three coalitions of non-profit groups to promote its primary initiatives. This required extensive travel and public speaking, both in the United States and abroad.

Fundraising: At Demilitarization for Democracy I managed a fund-raising effort that generated between $200,000 and $300,000 each year for seven years from foundations and individual donors. As a congressional candidate in New York State in 1998, I managed a fund-raising effort that brought in $250,000 from individual donors in six months.

Management: At Demilitarization for Democracy I prepared an annual budget and program proposal for the approval of a six-person board and supervised up to seven staff at a time. I also created and directed the Birmingham Minority Fellowship, which each year for seven years brought a member of an underrepresented ethnic group into the largely white arms control community.

Additional relevant experience

Democratic candidate for Congress, New York, 31st district, 1998. Traveling for six months throughout a rural area the size of Connecticut, I built a political network and developed and published a plan for public-private partnership to meet local needs in education, health, and employment.

Fundraiser and coach for a national-class blind marathon runner, 1995-6. I directed a group of supporters who helped William Covington qualify for the U.S. team and compete in the 1996 Paralympics in Atlanta.

Member, Ithaca, N.Y., School Board, 1973-1976. Elected as a 21-year old college student, I helped establish the Alternative Community School, which has become a national model for alternative secondary schools.

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