Greetings from the Outgoing Department Chair!
Dear Alumni, students, staff, and current and retired faculty -
On behalf of the Political Science Department, I would like to congratulate the Class of 2025 on your enormous achievement of reaching graduation. You have worked very hard, and as you celebrate in the coming weeks, I hope you will also take time to reflect and thank all those people who have loved and supported you in this tremendous journey. Graduation is not only an individual achievement; it is a celebration of a whole village, so to speak.
Graduation is also called commencement, for it really is the beginning of a long journey in your work lives. I often tell students that college is like being on a track, where you have a host of coaches and teammates, all rooting for you, and supporting you as you train and train and learn for the life after running on the track. So you can be unafraid to make mistakes, as the stakes are far lower than later.
As a graduate of a Jesuit institution, you need no reminder that we in the Department and the University have tried to instill more than intellectual excellence in you. We have sought to cultivate a cura personalis approach so that you might go on to see others not as means to your ends, but as valuable in their own right, as persons. We also have striven to inspire you to be a person “for others,” seeking to serve others in your chosen field. How will you do so?
“Why are you here?” I asked your classmates at the late April senior celebration. In a cosmic sense, I was asking, “why are you on this planet, in this country, in this season, of all times in world history?” As a PS major, more than ever, our country needs analytically trained, socially engaged, and ethically oriented people who have integrity. That is, at a minimum, that your actions truly match your words.
In this issue, you can read an interview with Professor Emeritus Dr. Michael Franz, who retired in May 2024 after a distinguished career of more than 35 years at Loyola; learn about the PS Department’s youngest elected official and Class of 2025 graduate Jake Taylor; catch up on news about the Spring 2025 alumni panel and the Political Science Honor Society Induction; and read about our Department Medalist, Annabella Ritter-Pleitez. If you wish to read about all the goings-on in the Pre-Law society, please check out their April 2025 newsletter.
On a personal note, I am thankful to have served as Department Chair since 2017 and to have the opportunity to take up a position as Loyola’s Leuven, Belgium residential director. Dr. Janine Holc will take up the baton and begin serving as department chair in July 2025. Congratulations to Dr. Joan Ricart-Huguet, who earned tenure and promotion to Associate Professor. Dr. Ricart-Huguet is a specialist in African Politics and has been with us since 2017. Finally, in the Fall of 2025, join me in welcoming the political theorist Dr. Nathan Davis, who completed his Ph.D. at Boston College, to join the department.
Please reach out with feedback and suggestions for future articles you would like to read.
Best wishes,
Carsten Vala
We are delighted to honor Annabella Ritter-Pleitez as the Departmental Medalist, signifying her as the Outstanding PS Graduating Major this year.
This year, the competition was particularly fierce, as Annabella was one of five students with a perfect grade point average in Political Science courses. Among the group, she stood out as someone who had taken courses in every subfield in the Department, a 400-level seminar, and presented her research in two different Undergraduate Student Research and Scholarship Colloquia, garnering first place twice.
In addition to this superlative academic record, Annabella served as a co-president of the Model United Nations student group, where she engaged in discussions and simulations that enhanced her own classroom experience but also stimulated those of her classmates. Further, Annabella and co-president Yamil Hernandez led the team to win top honors at the Spring 2025 Princeton Model United Nations gathering.
Congratulations to Annabella!
by Maeve Martineau
Dr. Franz is Professor Emeritus of Political Science at Loyola University Maryland. His primary research focused on political violence, with an emphasis in disordered spirituality and ideological belief systems. He holds a Ph.D. and M.A. in Political Science from Loyola University of Chicago. He began his teaching career at Loyola Maryland in 1987 and retired in May 2024.
What brought you to teach political philosophy?
When I was growing up, I was convinced I was going to be a lawyer. Everyone who knew me thought that was the perfect plan, [as] people saw me as the argumentative headstrong type. Coming from a family of first-generation parents with two older accomplished sisters who graduated high school as valedictorians, the bar was set high.
During my first semester of sophomore year at Illinois State University I was enrolled in both Constitutional Law and Political Theory courses. At that point, a light bulb went off. I thought lawyers spent their days grappling with questions about justice, but I realized that lawyers are operating under a confined system. My natural inclination was for the big, open-ended questions asked in political philosophy courses. To be employed in political theory meant I had to earn a Ph.D. and then start on a ten-year track as a professor. I decided to move forward on the Ph.D. path, but being trained and employed in pipeline construction, I always had a backup option.
Is there any story from your teaching years that stays with you?
I began my career at the same time as Dr. Boothby in the Philosophy department, and we quickly became close friends. Around six years into our careers, Loyola opened the Center for the Humanities, which offered professors the opportunity to co-teach a class. Dr. Boothby and I would use the first twenty minutes of class to present material and devote the remaining time to student debate. From the outset, we took opposing philosophical positions to ensure that students could not try to cater their opinions to the professors. Now that they had an unbiased perspective, students had to decipher for themselves where they stood on subjects ranging from Marx to Socrates. Mine and Dr. Boothby’s friendship allowed us to work in tandem in a way that would have otherwise been stressful.
What is the most interesting aspect of doing research in your field?
Right from the start, I was very interested in the sort of fanatical political violence perpetrated by people who believed they were acting in a moral way or were perfecting the world. I started with historical cases including Nazism, revolutionary Marxism, and the Soviet Union. Right in the middle of my career came 9/11. Both the general public and intelligence community had no understanding of why this act was committed, why we were targeted, and how terrorists could conceive of themselves as martyrs. Because of my earlier research, I had the background to tackle those questions.
How would you describe your teaching style?
It greatly evolved over the years; I was twenty-four when I taught my first solo course without any experience as a teaching assistant. My mentor at Loyola Chicago thought I could do it and just threw me in. For the first few years of teaching, I was prepared with pages and pages of notes. I had a feeling that something was missing, and the part of class I looked forward to most was hearing from students after I finished my lecture.
My strategy changed when a faculty member in the Sellinger Business School audited my course on Socrates's political philosophy. I asked her at the end of the course what she thought could be done more effectively, and she expressed that while she found the material engaging, she had stopped reading after a month, knowing I would break down everything she needed to know. I remember thinking to myself: “this is crazy, Aristotle is Aristotle, they need to read Aristotle.” So I slowly cut down on lecturing and put the ball in the student’s court. I introduced unannounced reading quizzes worth twenty percent of the grade to ensure students were completing the reading. The best way to use our class time was to argue through the implications of the text. Teaching became even more exciting. I had no idea what would happen from class to class, and the students also shared in that experience.
Would you like to offer any advice to students?
My advice stems from my experience going into college with a predetermined career plan, one that received the parental stamp of approval. The best way for Loyola students to take advantage of what Loyola does best – small classes with amazing access to professors – is to approach all their courses with a mindset that one of them could be a portal into a future interest. This change in perspective can enable students to avoid being locked into a career too early on.
Since leaving Loyola what have you been up to?
I have recently finished a scholarly work on the writings of Eric Voegelin. Beyond that I have done mainly wine related activities. I am the editor and managing partner of an online wine magazine called Wine Review Online. Additionally, I am the lead wine reviewer for a wine trade magazine called The Tasting Panel and a consultant for wine programs for fourteen restaurants in D.C. – one of which is the number two restaurant in the U.S. in gross revenue, the Old Ebbitt Grill, and the number sixteen in the U.S., The Hamilton. I also teach wine classes at Capital Wine School and serve as a judge for wine competitions in and out of the U.S.
How did you become a wine expert?
Until the age of 29, I never paid much attention to a glass of wine. I came from a working-class family that did not have a wine cellar. But suddenly at 29, I went nuts! I started reading everything I could read and tasting every wine I could taste. My background in research helped me to absorb a lot of knowledge quickly. I also made friends with the people I was buying wine from, and they would set me up with appointments with winemakers. I made the most of traveling to present research papers in my early teaching career, where I would aim to visit a winery with each trip. I have been teaching wine classes for thirty years but have never taken one myself. I wrote a wine column for The Washington Times and as a result of that publication, The Washington Post reached out to me in 1994 to write their wine column. The rest is history!
As a well-traveled Political Science professor, what is your favorite place you have visited?
South Africa – when invited, it's a quick yes. Not only is the physical beauty of the Cape region stunning, but the wine industry is also 350 years old, and the history of apartheid makes it a politically fascinating place to visit. During my visits, I have conducted interviews inside the townships that experience the most extreme poverty. There is a tension that exists between the beauty and promise of the place and the tragedy and horrors of the past. As a wine reviewer, I love to write about things that are also newsworthy. I am marking my 10th visit this coming September for a wine competition!
Reminder: my Loyola email is still active, and I am happy to hear from students! mfranz@loyola.edu
