VITA
Dr. PETER A. PETRAKIS
2032 Elissalde.Associate Professor
Baton Rouge, LA 70808Department of History and Political Science
(225) 387-9771Southeastern Louisiana University
Hammond, LA 70402
(985) 549-3465
EDUCATION
1991 to May 1998 Ph D. in Political Science, Louisiana State University-Baton Rouge.
Examination Fields: Political Theory, American Politics/Public Law, Philosophy.
Dissertation Title: Albert Camus: Reconstruction of Symbolic Reality: Exile, Judgment, and Kingdom.
1989 to 1991M.S. in Political Science from University of Southern Mississippi-Hattiesburg.
1982 to 1986B.A. in Political Science from the University of Tennessee-Knoxville.
WORK EXPERIENCE
2003 to presentAssociate Professor of Political Science, Department of History and Political Science, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA.
1997 to 2003Assistant Professor of Political Science, Department of History and Political Science, Southeastern Louisiana University, Hammond, LA.
1996 to 1997Teaching Instructor in Political Science, Southeastern Louisiana University and Louisiana State University.
1992 to 1996 Graduate and Teaching Assistant in Political Science, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge, LA.
1989 to 1991Graduate Assistant in Political Science, University of Southern Mississippi, Hattiesburg, MS.
1986-1989Employed as a Private Investigator, Petrakis & Associates, Memphis, TN.
RESEARCH AND TEACHING INTERESTS
Political TheoryConstitutional Law
American PoliticsCivil Rights and Liberties
Southern PoliticsIntroduction to Law
State and Local PoliticsAmerican Presidency
PUBLICATIONS AND GRANTS
Searching for Foundations: Eric Voegelin:s Dialogue with the Postmoderns, co-editor with Cecil L. Eubanks and author of the chapter entitled AVoegelin and Ricoeur: Recovering Science and Subjectivity Through Representation.” The manuscript is forthcoming at University of Missouri Press and is advertised in the Fall/Winter 2004 catalogue.
ALegal Services in the United States: A Model for Evaluating Legal System Performance,” (co-author Dr. Bonnie Lewis). Published in Journal of Applied Sociology, February, 2000.
Received a grant from Southeastern Louisiana University, Research and Development Foundation for $2,000 to conduct a series of polls and surveys concerning Legal Services Corporation, 1999.
AReconstructing the World: Albert Camus and the Symbolization of Experience,”(co-author Dr. Cecil Eubanks). Published in The Journal of Politics, May,1999.
"Populism Left and Right: Politics of the Rural South," (co-author Dr. T. Wayne Parent), in TheRural South Since World War II, edited by R. Douglas Hurt, Louisiana State University Press, 1999.
AContemporary Populism and Southern Republicanism,” (co-author Dr. T. Wayne Parent), in The American Review of Politics, vol. 19, Spring 1998.
Book review of AWe Ain’t What We Was”: Civil Rights in the New South, (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1997), in Political Science Quarterly, vol. 113, Spring 1998.
WORKS IN PROGRESS
Symbols, Stories, and Exile and Kingdom: A Re-examination of Albert Camus: Political Theory, a manuscript in preparation for submission to SUNY press.
AMeursault as Gadfly: The Platonic Influences in Albert Camus: The Stranger, to be submitted to Review of Politics, by Summer 2004.
“Exile, Judgment, and Suffering: Political Theology in Albert Camus and Karl Marx?” co-author Cecil L. Eubanks, in preparation for submission.
Researching a manuscript exploring the aesthetic, philosophic, and political similarities and differences between Albert Camus and Ralph Ellison. The working title is All Too Visible: Aesthetics and Politics in Albert Camus and Ralph Ellision.
CONFERENCE PRESENTATIONS AND ACTIVITIES
“All too Visible: Politics and Art in Albert Camus and Ralph Ellison,”presented at Association for Political Theory, Grand Rapids, MI, October 17-19, 2003.
“Meursault as Gadfly: The Platonic Influences in Albert Camus’ The Stranger,” presented at the 2003 Midwest Political Science Association, Chicago, IL, April 3-6.
Discussant on Panel 5: "The Consciousness of the Storyteller:" Eric Voegelin and Literary Criticism," APSA Annual Conference, Boston, MA, Fall 2002.
Presented “Does the Internet Enhance or Impede Democracy? The Views of Left, Right, and Mainstream Media,” co-authored with Wayne Parent and Michael Henderson, at the 2000 Southern Political Science Association annual meeting held in Atlanta, Georgia, November 8-11, 2000.
Presented “The Search for A More Suitable Science: Phenomenology, Representation, and Symbols in the thought of Husserl, Voegelin, and Ricoeur,” at the 2000 American Political Science Association annual meeting held in Washington, D.C., August 31-September 3, 2000.
Co-authored “Evaluating Legal Service Agency Performance.” A paper presented by Dr. Bonnie Lewis (co-author), at the 17th Annual Meeting of the Society for Applied Sociology, Dallas, TX, Oct. 28-31, 1999.
Served as Chair for session 19, Aspersions, Accusations, and the Politics of Race, of the 17th Annual Gulf South History and Humanities Conference, October 8-10, 1998.
Served as a discussant on panel J-7, Politics and Ethics, at the 1998 Southern Political Science Association Annual Meeting, October 29-31, Atlanta, Georgia.
Presented “The Politics of Resistance: the Recovery of Symbols by Albert Camus and Eric Voegelin,” at the 14th Annual Eric Voegelin Meeting, in conjunction with the 1998 American Political Science Association annual meeting in Boston, Massachusetts, September 4-5, 1998.
Co-author, “Southern Conservative Populism: An Examination of the Attitudes of Whites in Louisiana,” (co-authors Dr. T. Wayne Parent and Dr. Kurt Corbello), which was presented at the Annual Meeting of the Southwest Social Science Association, Corpus Christi, March 18-21, 1998.
Presented AContinuity in Southern Populism? The Deep South’s New Republican Governors,” (co-author Dr. T. Wayne Parent), at the Citadel Symposium on Southern Politics, Charleston, South Carolina, March 5-6, 1998.
“Access to Legal Services,” with Dr. Bonnie Lewis. A paper presented by Dr. Lewis at the Society for Applied Sociology’s annual meetings, in Oak Brook, Illinois, October,1997.
Presented “Albert Camus and the Malaise of Twentieth Century Exile,” at the 1997 Southwest Social Science Association meeting in New Orleans, LA.
Served as a discussant on the Voegelin Contra Heidegger: Where Do the Differences Lie? panel at The Eric Voegelin Society's 12th Annual Meeting, in conjunction with the 1996 American Political Science Association Meeting, San Francisco, California.
Presented "Symbols, Narrative, and Regeneration: Camus and the Judeo-Christian Tradition," (co-author Dr. Cecil L. Eubanks), at the 1996 Southwest Social Science Association meeting in Houston, Texas.
Served as a discussant for the panel on American and French Revolutions, at the 1993 South Central Society on Eighteenth Century Studies, Baton Rouge, LA.
Presented "The Effects of Localism and Regionalism on Presidential Elections: An Individual Level Analysis," at paper presented at the 1992 Southern Political Science Association, Atlanta, Georgia.
Presented "Extraordinary Election, Ordinary Explanation: The 1991 Louisiana Vote," (co-authors: Dr. T. Wayne Parent, Stephan Caldas, and John Kilburn), at the 1992 American Political Science Association, Chicago, Illinois.
UNIVERSITY SERVICE
Director of the Social Studies Fair, Region VIII, 1999 to 2002.
A member of the Courses and Curriculum Committee, August 1998 to present.
A member of the Honors College Committee, August 1999 to 2001.
OTHER PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Spring of 1995 Provided research and speech writing services for James Carville.
Summer of 1992 Independent consultant to the Louisiana Systemic Initiative Plan. Researched and wrote the systemic plan for the implementation of a National Research Foundation Educational grant for primary and secondary educational reform.
Spring 1990 to 1996Worked for Voter New Service (formerly National Election Service) during major statewide and national elections reporting electoral results. Have served variously as parish/county reporter, assistant state manager, and clerk to Louisiana and Mississippi state managers, Dr. T. Wayne Parent and Dr. James Lea respectively.
1996 to 1997Worked as a part-time instructor at Southeastern Louisiana University.
PROFESSIONAL AFFILIATIONS
American Political Science Association
Southern Political Science Association
REFERENCES
Dr. Cecil L. Eubanks, Alumni ProfessorDr. T. Wayne Parent, Professor
Department of Political ScienceAssociate Dean, College of Arts and Sciences
Louisiana State UniversityDepartment of Political Science
Baton Rouge, LALouisiana State University
Baton Rouge, LA
Dr. G. Ellis Sandoz, Alumni Professor
Director of Voegelin InstituteDr. Jeffrey Bell
Department of Political Science Associate Professor, Philosophy
Louisiana State UniversityDepartment of History and Political Science
Baton Rouge, LASoutheastern Louisiana University
Hammond, LA