A Novel Approach to Politics: Introducing Political Science through Books, Movies, and Popular Culture

Douglas A. Van Belle is a senior lecturer in Media Studies at Victoria University of Wellington. His most recent research focuses on the role of the media in the adoption of disaster risk reduction policies, but his publications range from dynamic models of rational choice in revolutionary collective actions to the critical comparison of the concept of science as applied in political science and paleontology. Other areas of research include media freedom, foreign aid, popular culture and politics, and the social dynamics of science as applied to the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence.

Spurred on by the blatant discrimination inherent in the statement "Trix are for Kids," at age 4 Ken Mash attempted to file a class-action lawsuit on behalf of the rabbit and other animals similarly situated. After three errors in one inning squashed his dreams of playing for the Mets, his overactive justice complex led him to pursue a career as a lawyer and politician. While earning his B.A. in political science he discovered what those jobs were really like. Thus, Ken′s next degree was in mixology. Eighteen months later, his fiancée informed him that she was leaving town to do graduate work and that she would go either with him or without him. A couple of degrees later, he is currently a political science professor at East Stroudsburg University of Pennsylvania, where he is co-director of the honors program and the pre-law advisor. He has delivered numerous papers and talks on American politics, constitutional law, and civil liberties, and he is very active in the faculty association. He currently resides in Nanticoke, PA, with his wife and four children where he is now content in knowing that his parents were mistaken when, as a child, they told him that he was wasting his time watching T.V. and movies.