Faculty & Staff

Dr. Harry Basehart, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Political Science, has a B.A. from Kent State University, M.A. and Ph.D. from The Ohio State University. He joined the faculty of Salisbury State College in 1971 and was the second political scientist in what was then the Department of History and Political Science. The political science major was approved in 1982, followed quickly by the creation of a Department of Political Science. He was the first chair of the department and during his career served as chair for a total of 13 years. His teaching interests were American politics (Contemporary Issues, State and Local Government, Political Parties, Congress) and research methods (Methods of Empirical Political Analysis, where he frequently said, “That’s a table not a chart.”). Supervising interns at the state, local, and national levels of government is at the top of his list of things missed in retirement. He received several teaching and service awards including Outstanding Faculty Award from the Student Government Association in 1997. Developing more opportunities for college students to learn the values and skills of citizenship in a democracy, inspired Dr. Fran Kane of SU’s Philosophy Department and Dr. Basehart to establish the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement in 1999. PACE recently celebrated its 20th anniversary. Dr. Basehart coauthored with David C. Saffell, State and Local Government: Politics and Public Policies. The last edition was published in 2009. Several articles on legislative redistricting appeared in National Civic Review, American Politics Quarterly, and Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Since retiring in 2008, Dr. Basehart has been active in Salisbury/Wicomico politics as a member and treasurer of the Wicomico County Democratic Central Committee for eight years; he is currently a member of the Salisbury Election Board. He occasionally gives presentations to local groups and SU students on voting, elections, and history of the Vietnam War.

Contact Harry Basehart at hhbasehart@salisbury.edu.

Dr. Greg Cashman is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Political Science. He has an BS (History Education) and MA (International Relations) from Ohio University and a Ph.D. from the University of Denver (International Studies). He taught 4 years of middle school before making the jump to higher ed. He was one of the founding members of SU’s Political Science Department and served as its chair from 1988-91. He was the main architect and “founding father” of SU’s interdisciplinary International Studies Major and served as its program director from 2002-2013. He taught a wide variety of courses in international and comparative politics at SU. (He was also the Assistant Track and Cross-County Coach for several years.) Dr. Cashman was given the SU Distinguished Faculty Award in 1994 and the SGA’s Faculty Appreciation Award in 2007. His primary interest has been in international conflict. He has written several college texts on this topic: What Causes War? An Introduction to Theories of International Conflict (Lexington Books, 1993); An Introduction to the Causes of War: Patterns in Interstate Conflict from World War I to Iraq, with Dr. Leonard Robinson (Rowman & Littlefield, 2007; What Causes War, 2nd edition, completely revised (Rowman & Littlefield, 2013; and An Introduction to the Causes of War, 2nd edition, with Dr. Leonard Robinson (expected publication, December 2020, Rowman & Littlefield). Cashman capped off his academic career as the primary consultant for the “Why War? The Causes of Conflict” exhibition for Paul Allen’s Flying Heritage and Combat Armor Museum in Everett, Washington – which includes, among other things, 7 enormous interactive screens through which visitors may access contextual information, photos, and data about U.S. involvement in 9 selected wars. Cashman helped devise the central conceptual approach for the exhibit and developed commentary for the section on the causes of war and the individual sections on the 9 U.S. wars.

Dr. Cashman lives in Fort Collins, CO and may be reached at gecashman@salisbury.edu. 

Dr. Michael O’Loughlin, Professor Emeritus of the Department of Political Science, taught with the Department for over 40 years.

Contact Michael O’Loughlin at mgoloughlin@salisbury.edu

Dr. Len Robinson, Professor Emeritus of the Political Science Department, has a B.A. in political science from the University of Maryland, College Park, an M.A. in International Relations from the University of South Carolina, and a Ph.D. in Political Science with a minor in Middle East Studies from the University of Utah. While a Ph.D. candidate, he was awarded a fellowship by the United States Information Agency to fund field interviews in the Middle East with political leaders involved in negotiating the peace treaty between Jordan and Israel.

After his arrival at Salisbury University in 1998, Dr. Robinson crafted and added to the permanent curriculum two courses on Middle East Politics (Comparative Politics of the Middle East and War in Peace in the Middle East), as well as an upper-level course on International Political Economy. In addition, he co-created (with Dr. Greg Cashman) a permanent course on Political Violence and Terrorism. Over his career, Dr. Robinson served two terms as director of the International Studies Program and six years as chair of the Political Science Department. He taught twelve different courses, spanning the fields of international relations, comparative politics, American politics, and political theory.

His publications include two editions of the book An Introduction to the Causes of War (co-written with Dr. Greg Cashman), and two editions of Introduction to Politics (co-written with Dr. Taehyun Nam). He also published several articles, including “Just Terror: The Islamic State’s Use of Strategic Framing to Recruit and Motivate,” which was published in the foreign policy journal Orbis (Spring 2017).

Dr. Robinson has retired to Northern Maine and may be reached at lcrobinson@salisbury.edu.

Dr. Sarah Surak, Professor Emerita of the Political Science and Environmental Studies Departments, has a B.A. in political science and a Master of Public Administration (MPA) from The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and a Ph.D. in Planning, Governance, and Globalization from Virginia Tech. Before completing her Ph.D. and joining Salisbury University, she worked for five years in the Facilities Services Department at The University of Tennessee, Knoxville as Recycling Coordinator, and later as Sustainability Manager, and finally as a Sustainability and Public Relations Manager. This background inspires her research focus on the politics of waste, and the economic, political, and social structures that create barriers and opportunities for sustainable waste management practices.

Dr. Surak joined SU’s faculty in 2012 in a split position, holding an appointment in both the Political Science and Environmental Studies Departments. She taught, and continues to teach, classes in environmental policy, public administration, political theory, democratic theory, discard studies, and environmental studies. Dr. Surak regularly embedded civic engagement activities in her courses, and over the years, her classes supported community environmental efforts across the Delmarva Peninsula. She won several awards from the Fulton School of Liberal Arts, including the Award for Teaching Excellence, the Award for Excellence in Supporting Study Abroad Programming, and the Award for Outstanding Faculty Contribution.

From 2015 to 2020, Dr. Surak co-directed the Institute for Public Affairs and Civic Engagement, where she currently serves as a Senior Fellow. She has published widely on the topic of civic education and co-developed the faculty professional development seminar Civic Engagement Across the Curriculum, which is now available across the University of Maryland System (USM), supported by her receipt (with co-collaborator Dr. Sandy Pope) of USM’s Wilson H. Elkins Professorship (2018).

Dr. Surak visits Salisbury University frequently and currently lives in Hamburg, Germany. She can be reached at smsurak@salisbury.edu.