Hagan named to Barnette Professorship

Morgantown, WV, June 6, 2006:  Dr. Joe D. Hagan was recently named the first Barnette Professor of Political Science in the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences at West Virginia University.

Hagan serves as Chair of the Department of Political Science and as Director of the International Studies Program. He was recommended to Eberly College Dean Mary Ellen Mazey and WVU President David Hardesty for the position by a special screening committee in the Eberly College.

"Dr. Hagan is a nationally and internationally recognized expert in international studies and foreign policy. I am so pleased he has been selected to serve as the first Barnette Professor and am confident he will bring his wealth of expertise and experience to the position," said Dean Mazey.

Hagan's research and teaching focuses on international relations and, in particular, U.S. and comparative foreign policy analysis. He has authored and edited several books on how leadership and domestic politics influence foreign policy, and his writing has been featured in numerous academic journals and edited volumes. Hagan has received both the WVU Foundation Outstanding Teaching Award and the Benedum Distinguished Scholar Award, the two top teaching and research awards at the University. Dr. Hagan was a recipient of a Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs at Harvard University, and he served as program chair of the 1999 annual conference of the International Studies Association, Washington, DC.

The endowment for this professorship was provided by Curtis H. "Hank " Barnette. Barnette completed his undergraduate degree in political science at WVU in 1956, and then became a Fulbright Scholar at the University of Manchester in England, where he studied international law. He attended Yale Law School and received his JD in 1962.

Barnette was hired as an attorney by Bethlehem Steel in 1967, where he held the positions of general counsel and secretary and senior vice president and director before being elected the company's chairman and CEO from 1992 to 2000. In 2000, he joined the Washington, D.C. office of Skadden Arps as an attorney whose practice focuses on corporate law, corporate governance, arbitration, international trade and public policy. His government service includes work with the Counter Intelligence Corps, the U.S. Army Intelligence Corps Reserve, the President's Trade Advisory Committee, and the Council of the Administrative Conference of the United States. He has also served as a member of the West Virginia University Board of Governors.

"I am greatly honored to receive a named professorship, especially one that carries the name of a person with not only such a distinguished career and history of service to WVU, but also one with such wide-ranging experience in various areas of international affairs," Hagan said.

For more information, please contact Dr. Joe Hagan at jhagan@wvu.edu, or at 304-293-3811, ext. 5283.

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