Executive Director

The Executive Director is the chief administrative office of the Association and responsible for its day-to-day operation.

Mark A. Boyer, ISA Executive Director

View Curriculum Vitae

Dr. Boyer is a Board of Trustees Distinguished Professor at the University of Connecticut. Throughout his career as a scholar-teacher, he has actively sought the integration of teaching, research and service in all his professional activities. His research agenda has recurrently allowed him to follow his own curiosity about interesting global problems and he takes great joy in his ability to reinvent himself periodically (from alliance relationships to negotiation and bargaining to environmental issues and climate change, most recently). That academic luxury keeps him fresh, energetic and continually learning new things. It has also helped him to continue to engage and challenge students in creative ways. He currently holds a primary faculty appointment in Geography, along with affiliations in the Environmental Engineering and Natural Resources programs.

Public goods theory is fundamental to much of his teaching and research, as he seeks to bridge the theory-practice gap and help students to do so, as well. In addition to an array of journal articles, his books International Cooperation and Public Goods (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1993) and Defensive Internationalism (University of Michigan Press, 2005; co-authored with Davis B. Bobrow) developed new theoretical models of international cooperation and the provision of public goods in the contemporary world system. A second large, long-term research project is the GlobalEd Project (www.globaled.uconn.edu, co-directed with Scott W. Brown (UConn, Educational Psychology)). GlobalEd pursues the possibilities that exist for scholars to integrate of research, teaching and service at top-tier universities. Started in 1992 and based on the Project ICONS simulation model developed by Jon Wilkenfeld at the University of Maryland, GlobalEd conducts Internet-based international studies simulations for secondary school students and has received over $6 million in peer-reviewed grant support in the last 15 years. His most recent, and on-going, research project, Adapting to Climate Change is currently under contract with the University of Michigan Press.

His professional awards include the UConn Honors Program Faculty Member of the Year (2015), the International Studies Association’s Ladd Hollist Award for Service to the Profession (2009), the UConn Provost’s Outreach Award for Public Service (2006), the UConn Alumni Association’s Award for Excellence in Teaching at the Graduate Level (2004), the UConn Chancellor’s Information Technology Award (2001), the American Political Science Association’s Rowman & Littlefield Award for Teaching Innovation (2000), a Pew Faculty Fellowship in International Affairs (1992) and an SSRC-MacArthur Fellowship from 1986-88. He also served twice as editor for ISA journals: International Studies Perspectives (2000-2004) and International Studies Review (2008-2012; co-edited with Jennifer Sterling-Folker).

Executive Directors of ISA

Mark A. Boyer

2015-2025
University of Connecticut

Thomas J. Volgy

1995-2015
University of Arizona

W. Ladd Hollist
1990-1995
Brigham Young University

William A. Welsh
1985-1990
University of South Carolina

James A. Kuhlman
1979-1985
University of South Carolina

Carl Beck
1973-1978
University of Pittsburgh

John E. Turner
1968 - 1973
University of Minnesota

Vincent Davis
1959 - 1968
University of Denver

Role of the Executive Director

Executive Director Annual Reports