Andrew Kear, Ph.D

Assistant Professor

Office Location: 119 Williams Hall

419-372-8194

akear@bgsu.edu

Curriculum Vitae

View Andrew R. Kear's CV

Affiliations

• American Political Science Association
• Midwestern Political Science Association
• Western Political Science Association

Biography

Dr. Andrew Kear earned his Ph.D. in Political Science from Colorado State University and started as an Assistant Professor at BGSU in the fall of 2011.  His research focuses on energy politics and policy and the role that competing interest groups play in state and federal policymaking.  Dr. Kear’s dissertation, titled “Unconventional Politics of Unconventional Gas: Environmental Reframing and Policy Change,” examines the contentious politics surrounding the present natural gas boom in the Rocky Mountain West.  Insights gained from this western U.S. natural gas political conflict are increasingly relevant as the mid-western and eastern states begin to experience their own respective booms.  Currently, Dr. Kear is co-authoring several papers on state and federal politics and policies surrounding natural gas hydraulic fracturing and development.  Additionally, he continues to research and write about the complex relationships between competing interest group and state legislative framing as it relates to the narrative policy framework and policy change theory.

As a dual appointment between the Department of Political Science and the Department of the Environment and Sustainability, Dr. Kear combines his educational and professional experience as a geologist with his knowledge of environmental and energy policy to teach a variety of graduate and undergraduate classes ranging from public policy and administration to energy, the environment, and sustainability.

Fields of Study

• Environmental Politics and Policy (Energy, natural gas, public lands, water)
• Environmental Studies
• Public Policy and Administration (Theories of the policy process)
• American Government  (Interest Groups, State and Local Government, Elections)

Education

• Ph.D. Colorado State University, Political Science, 2011
• M.S. Ohio University, Geology, 1995
• B.A. The College of Wooster, Geology, 1992

Selected Publications

• Robert J. Duffy, Kyle L. Saunders and Andrew R. Kear. 2010. “Colorado Senate Race (Udall v. Schaffer): A Campaign of Ideological Differences and a Changed Political Landscape” in The Roads to Congress 2008, Eds. Robert P. Watson and Robert Dewhirst. Lexington Books: Lanham, MD.

Awards

• Phi Beta Kappa, College of Wooster, 1992

Grants

• Colorado State University’s Gardner Brock Miller Dissertation Research Grant, 2009
• American Association of Petroleum Geologists Grants-in-Aid Master’s Research Grant, 1995
• Ohio University John Houk Grant and Baker Grant, 1995
• Howard Hughes Undergraduate Biological Research Foundation Grant, 1991  

Presentations

• “Unconventional Politics of Unconventional Gas: Environmental Reframing and Policy Change.” Western Political Science Association, May 2012, Portland, OR and Midwestern Political Science Association, April 2012, Chicago, IL.
• “Fracking Across the USA: Disparate Political Responses to Unconventional Energy Development.” Co-authored with Dr. Robert E. Forbis Jr., Midwestern Political Science Association, April 2011, Chicago, IL and Western Political Science Association, May 2011, San Antonio, TX.
• “Wyoming Natural Gas Politics and Policy: Interest Group Framing and Agenda Setting.” Western Political Science Association, April 2010, San Francisco, CA.
• “Western U.S. Natural Gas Narrative Strategies and Conflict (Im)Maturity.” Southwestern Political Science Association, April 2009, Denver, CO.
• “The Changing and Contested Discourse of Coalbed Methane Policy in the Western U.S.” Western Political Science Association, March 2008, San Diego, CA.
• “Environmental Attitudes.” Panel Discussant. Western Political Science Association, March 2008, San Diego, CA.
• “Western Pubic Lands Coalbed Methane Development from Clinton through the G.W. Bush Administrations.” Western Political Science Association, March 2007, Las Vegas, NV.
• “Split-Estate Coalbed Methane Policy Dynamics in Colorado.” Western Political Science Association, March 2006, Albuquerque, NM.

Invited Talks

• Energy Geopolitics Lecture – Great Decisions Lecture Series
  Bowling Green Senior Center
  February 18, 2012
  
• Panel Discussant
  Natural Gas and Fracking Community Event Series
  Denison University
  February 27, 2012
  
• Invited Lecture – “The Unconventional Politics of Unconventional Gas: Environmental Reframing and Policy Change”
  The College of Wooster
  Department of Geology – The Geology of Oil and Gas Class
  April 20, 2012

Projects

• “Energy Policy in the Western States,” Sandra K. Davis, Colorado State University and       Andrew R. Kear.  Submitted to Social Sciences Journal in Fall 2012
• “Fractured Politics: Disparate Political Responses to Marcellus Shale Energy Development in Pennsylvania and New York.” Co-author Dr. Robert E. Forbis, Jr., Texas Tech University.  Submitted to Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences in Fall 2012
• “Framing the Foundation of Policy Narratives: Connecting the Meso and Macro Levels.” Submitted to the Policy Studies Journal Fall 2012.
• “Fracking Across the USA: Disparate Political Responses to Unconventional Energy Development.” Co-author Dr. Robert E. Forbis, Jr., Texas Tech University.
• Contributing author, The Narrative Policy Framework: Applications in the Study of Public Policy, Eds. Michael D. Jones, Elizabeth A. Shanahan, and Mark K. McBeth.  Chapter 10: “Reframing Natural Gas Policy in Wyoming: Interest Group and State Legislative Policy Narratives,” book is still in progress.

Courses Taught

• Public Policy and Administration (graduate)
• M.P.A. Capstone Seminar
• Introduction to Public Administration
• U.S. Environmental Politics and Policy
• Energy and Sustainability
• Environmental Problems
• Politics of Organized Interests
• American Government