New Appointments
Druckman Becomes Lynch Chair
Daniel Druckman has been awarded the Vernon M. and Minnie I. Lynch Chair of Conflict Resolution. He is the third occupant of the chair. In 1987, ICAR faculty member James Laue became the first to hold the position, and ICAR faculty member Kevin Clements became the second Lynch Chair in 1994. Edwin Lynch donated the chair in memory of his parents, Vernon and Minnie.
As Lynch Chair, Druckman plans to implement a set of projects guided by the generation and utilization of theory and research findings in the field. The projects are conceived in terms of three baskets. The first is a platform for ICAR research. This basket of projects includes a much-needed textbook for research methods courses and a set of collaborative studies. Titled Doing Research: Methods of Inquiry for Conflict Analysis, this textbook covers the range of qualitative and quantitative approaches taught in the full-year ICAR doctoral course. The studies, conducted with ICAR students, include further work on turning points or critical moments in ongoing negotiating interactions, comparative case analyses of process-outcome relationships, and field experiments on the situational levers of negotiating and mediating flexibility.
This basket of projects also addresses several analytical puzzles that present challenges to researchers. One puzzle relates to process. An example is the way the small changes that occur during the course of an interaction connect to the more dramatic punctuated departures in process that signal transitions: Does this process occur in different ways in different kinds of groups, for example negotiation and problem-solving groups? Another set of puzzles concerns group identities. An example is how to de-couple expressions of in-group amity from feelings of out-group enmity: What are the developmental, situational, and structural sources for these patriotic or nationalistic sentiments? A third puzzle relates to situations as influences on conflict behavior. An example is how to unravel the role of external influences on behavior from the role of the actor in shaping those very influences: Can we distinguish empirically the actor as learner from the actor as agent in social interactions such as problem-solving workshops? These and other puzzles will be presented to the community by Druckman at a late fall reception that initiates his term of the chair.
The second basket contains projects that provide a platform for ICAR in the university. Work on decision aids for impasse resolution with the International Center for Applied Studies in Information Technology and applications of conflict resolution research in conjunction with George Mason University’s Project Jerusalem are included in this basket. A third basket contains projects intended to provide a platform for ICAR in the world. These projects include curricula development and research training for new conflict resolution programs in Turkey, Georgia, and the Ukraine, as well as training workshops in several Latin American countries organized by local universities, in-country nongovernmental organizations, and the Organization of American States. Included also in this basket is collaborative work on evaluation research with the Leonard Davis Institute at Hebrew University and utilizing research in training programs with French colleagues led by Christophe Dupont and consisting of other members of the processes on negotiation group in Paris.
Druckman has been the coordinator of ICAR’s doctoral program since 1997 and has taught a variety of courses, including courses on research methods, negotiation, “-isms” and conflict, doctoral integration, philosophy of social science, introduction to conflict analysis, and several intercession courses. He received a teaching excellence award from George Mason in 1998. He has been a prolific scholar. His first article appeared in a 1967 issue of the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology. His articles in 2001 appear in the Journal of Conflict Resolution, Group Decision and Negotiation, and International Negotiation.
Between the earliest and most recent papers, he has covered a wide range of topics, including negotiation, group identity and nationalism, nonverbal communication, political stability, coalition behavior, peacekeeping, enhancing human performance, ancient diplomacy, and a variety of methodological topics, such as formal modeling, evaluating interventions, and simulation. He has written, co-written, or edited 11 books. He has won national awards for his dissertation and his work on nationalism. He sits on the boards of six journals. He is a founding member of International Negotiation and is an associate editor of Simulation and Gaming and Negotiation Journal. He is a coeditor, with Sandra Cheldelin and Larissa Fast, of the forthcoming ICAR textbook titled Conflict: From Analysis to Intervention, to be published by Continuum in 2002.
Before coming to ICAR, he held senior positions at the National Research Council/National Academy of Sciences, Booz Allen Hamilton, Mathtech, and at a research institute in Chicago where he conducted one of the earliest problem solving workshops. He received a Ph.D. from Northwestern University in social psychology.
Druckman looks forward to his term as the Lynch chair and hopes that his projects demonstrate the values of flexibility in scholarship and inclusiveness in implementation, through collaborations in addressing issues at the heart of integrating theory, research, and practice in conflict analysis and resolution.