Professor

Political Science, Russian & Eurasian Studies

John A. Gould is a Professor of Political Science at Colorado College. He is a graduate of Williams College with a major in Political Science and a minor in Studio Art. He did graduate work at the Fletcher School (Tufts University) and Columbia University, where he earned his Ph.D. in February 2001. He speaks French and some Slovak.

Prior to graduate school, Gould taught high school history at the Chapin School in New York and at the American School of Paris. As a graduate student, he taught politics at Palacky University (Czech Republic), Comenius University (Slovakia), Tufts University, and The Fletcher School. He has held several of fellowships including a Robert Schuman Fellowship at the European University Institute in Florence, Italy, and a post-doctoral fellowship at the Korbel School of International Studies, Denver University. John accepted a tenure track position at Colorado College in 2002 where he has held the John D. and Catherine T. Mac Arthur Fellowship from 2003-05 and the Lloyd E. Worner Distinguished Service Professorship from 2017-20.

Colorado College students selected Gould as Lloyd E. Worner Professor of the Year in 2008. He also won the Ray O. Werner award for Exemplary Teaching in the Liberal Arts in 2009. He was a Fulbright Research Fellow in Slovakia in 2016.

Gould maintains an active research program in the fields of comparative politics and political economy with a particular focus on Central Europe and the Western Balkans. He has (co)published refereed journal articles in Comparative European Politics, Europe-Asia Studies, Business and Politics, Global Governance, Review of International Political Economy, Slovakia, Problems of Post-Communism, Journal of Homosexuality, and Research in Social Movements, Conflict, and Change. His book Fragile Dreams: Tales of Liberalism and Power in Central Europe, was published in by University of Michigan Press in 2021 and examines Central European communism, why it failed, and what has come since. Another book, The Politics of Privatization: Wealth and Power in Postcommunist Europe was published by Lynne Rienner Publishers in April 2011.

In 2009, Gould and his co-authors won the Slovak Studies Association's Best Article Award for "Slovakia's Neoliberal Turn."

He has been a member of the American Association for Advancement of Slavic Studies, the British Association of Slavic and Eastern European Studies, the Slovak Studies Association, the American Political Science Association, and the International Studies Association. He lives in Colorado with his wife and two sons.

 

Regular Classes

PS237: Art of Insurgence
PS306: Democracy and Markets
PS310: Comparative Politics – Central and Eastern Europe
PS312: Comparative Politics – The Western Balkans
PS330: Waging Nonviolent Struggle
PS375: Introduction to International Political Economy
PS470: Tutorial in International Political Economy