Political Science Professor Dorian Warren Assesses Midterm Election Results

In the wake of last week’s midterm elections, political science professor Dorian T. Warren answered questions about how a new balance of power will impact Congress and the Obama administration.

Professor Dorian Warren talks about the Nov. 2 elections and what the results mean for the current administration. (4:52)

“Voters did not vote necessarily for the Republican candidates. This was a vote against the party in power,” said Warren. Republicans took control of the House of Representatives and made major gains in the Senate, he said, largely due to concern over a sluggish economy.

President Obama now finds himself in the position of previous presidents, such as Bill Clinton and Dwight Eisenhower, who had to recover from major midterm election losses in order to win a second term in the White House.

“[Obama] and his party have to reposition themselves with a laser-like focus on the economy, and they have to convey that they’re focused on the economy to the voters by 2012,” Warren said.

Warren is an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science and the School of International and Public Affairs , as well as a faculty affiliate at the Institute for Research in African-American Studies. He specializes in the study of inequality and American politics, focusing on the political organization of marginalized groups.

In a paper published in October 2010, Warren examines the first two years of the Obama administration and its attempts at labor law reform. The paper was presented as part of the Russell Sage Foundation’s series, Reaching for a New Deal: President Obama’s Agenda and the Dynamics of U.S. Politics.

Warren’s work has been published in several journals and edited volumes, including the University of Pennsylvania Journal of Labor and Employment Law, New Labor Forum, Du Bois Review, National Political Science Review and Social Service Review.

Warren received his B.A. from the University of Illinois and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Yale University. He has been a post-doctoral scholar and visiting faculty member at the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, and has received research fellowships from the Ford Foundation, the Joseph S. Murphy Institute for Worker Education and Labor Studies and the University of Notre Dame. Most recently, Warren was a 2008-2009 Russell Sage Scholar.

On a crisp autumn Saturday, Oct. 2, Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory opened its doors to the community for a day of free lectures, demonstrations and workshops for adults and children.

Louis Henkin , a renowned Columbia Law School professor credited with founding the study of human rights law, died Oct. 14 at the age of 92. He helped launch the Law School’s Human Rights Institute.

Computer science professor Simha Sethumadhavan and three other Columbia Engineering professors received a federal grant for more than $6 million from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to investigate new approaches for designing secure computer systems. The grant also includes a team from Princeton University.

Ronald Breslow, University Professor and S. L. Mitchill Professor of Chemistry, has received the Society of Chemical Industry’s Perkin Medal. The medal recognizes his role in the invention of an anticancer compound with a novel mode of action that is an approved drug in human use.

Read the November 2010 Columbia Alumni Association Newsletter

This month’s edition includes information about an online chat with President Bollinger, IvyLife networking events and upcoming Cafés Columbia.