• Participant, XVIth International Conference of Ethiopian Studies, Trondheim, Norway, 2007; 50th Anniversary Meeting, African Studies Association, New York City 2007

• Government of Libya Conference, Democracy in the 21^st Century, Sebha, 2007

• Hiob Ludolf Endowed Professor in Contemporary Ethiopian Affairs, Asien- Afrika Institut, Abteilung Äthiopistik,
  Universität Hamburg, 2005

• Who's Who in America, 2004-2008

• Who's Who in American Education 2006-2008

• Technology Innovator Award, Divisions of Academic Affairs and Information Technology, Oklahoma State University, 2004

• Who's Who Among American Teachers, 2004, 2005 (nominated by former students)

• Phi Beta Delta, Honor Society for International Scholars, 2004-

• Board Member, Ethiopian Research Council 2003-

• Mortar Board Honorary Initiate 2003

• Regents Distinguished Teaching Award Nominee, 2002

• Outstanding Political Scientist 2001, Oklahoma Political Science Association

• Recipient of the "2001 Outstanding Professor Award" from the College of Arts and Sciences; Finalist, 2005

• Recipient of Certificate of Achievement, Tulsa Opera, 2001

Contact Info:

Office Location: OSU-Tulsa T-MCB 2405

            OSU-Stillwater 534 Math Sciences                                  

Email Address: ted.vestal@okstate.edu

Telephone:  Tulsa: (918) 594-8277; Stillwater: (405) 744-7586

Office Hours: at OSU-Tulsa during Summer 2008 Term   Monday-Thursday 4:00-5:00 and by appointment.

Theodore M. Vestal has been a member of the faculty of Oklahoma State University since 1988, serving in the Department of Political Science, where he has been a professor since 1995, and in the School of International Studies. Professor Vestal teaches primarily in the field of constitutional law, with an emphasis on civil liberties and civil rights. His research interests include public law, contemporary Ethiopia, and international education. Dr. Vestal testified before the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, Subcommittee on Africa in 1994 on "Ethiopia: The Challenges Ahead." In 2002, Professor Vestal was awarded a research grant from the Oklahoma Council for the Humanities to write a book about U.S. foreign policy and attitudes towards Africa generally and Ethiopia specifically as seen in the North American travels of Emperor Haile Selassie. In September 2002, the Theodore M. Vestal Collection was formally opened in the OSU Library, Department of Special Collections and University Archives. From 1994-2007, Dr. Vestal received travel grants from OSU to attend International Ethiopian Studies Conferences in East Lansing, Kyoto, Hamburg, and Trondheim. Stanford University invited Dr. Vestal to be a panelist and moderator and to deliver a paper at the December 2003 conference, "100 Years of US-Ethiopia Relations." In December 2003 he was appointed to the Board of the Ethiopian Research Council, which since 1934 has been disseminating information on the history, culture, civilization, and diplomatic relations of Ethiopia in ancient and modern times. In 2004 he was an official representative of OSU at the 50th anniversary of the founding of Alemaya University in Ethiopia. In 2005 Dr. Vestal served as a moderator at the annual meeting of Orbis Aethiopicus in Liepzig. 

Professor Vestal earned his B.A. in Government with high honors from the University of North Texas (where he was honored as Alumnus of the Year in Political Science in 2006) and his advanced degrees (M.A. and Ph.D.) in political science from Stanford University. He also studied law at the Yale Law School and holds a diploma from Harvard University’s Institute of Educational Management.

Professor Vestal served abroad as Associate Director of the Peace Corps in Ethiopia, as Resident Director of the University of the State of New York’s Educational Resources Center in New Delhi, and as Director of OSU-Kyoto. He worked in the federal government as University Officer in Peace Corps/Washington; as Assistant to the Assistant Secretary for Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare; and as an officer in the U.S. Army Chemical Corps. Professor Vestal was a dean at Austin College and Briarcliff College and was president of the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco.

Vestal-sensei slaying dragons of ignorance!
(Photo courtesy Kyoto Films)

Scholarship:

Books

• The Eisenhower Court and Civil Liberties (Westport, CT: Praeger, 2002).

• Ethiopia: A Post-Cold War African State (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1999).

• Freedom of Association in the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia (Boston University, African Studies Center Working Papers, W.P. No 210, 1998).

• International Education: Its History and Promise for Today (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1994).

• The Pits: Federal Administration of the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977 in Oklahoma (Norman, OK: University of Oklahoma, Bureau of Government Research,1986).

Selected Book Chapters 

• “Reflections on the Battle of Adwa and Its Significance for Today,” in Paulos Milkias and Getachew Metaferia (eds.), The Battle of Adwa—Reflections on Ethiopia's Historic Victory Against European Colonialism (New York: Algora, 2005).

• “Harlan Fiske Stone: New Deal Prudence,” in William Pederson (ed.), Rating Game of the Greatest Supreme Court Justices: Polls and Case Studies (New York: Peter Lang, 2003).

• “Consequences of the British Occupation of Ethiopia During World War II,” in Barry J. Ward (ed), Rediscovering the British Empire (Malabar, FL: Krieger, 2002).

• “Promises to Keep: Human Rights in Post-Derg Ethiopia,” in Abebe Zegeye and Pat Lauderdale (eds), Crisis and Terror in the Horn of Africa (London: Ashgate Publishers, 2000).

Recent Articles 

• “An American's View of the Horn of Africa from World War II to the Present,” XXV Horn of Africa 71-89(2007). Published April 2008.

• “Emperor Haile Selassie’s First State Visit to the United States  in 1954: The Oklahoma Interlude,” 1 International Journal of   Ethiopian Studies 133-152 (2003).

• “Globalization And Human Rights: The Bush Administration’s Policy Toward The Federal Democratic Republic Of Ethiopia,” 3 Pan-Ethiopia Forum: 14-23 (2002-2003).

• “Consequences of the British Occupation of Ethiopia During World War II,” 18 Horn of Africa 60-69 (2000). Published January 2002.

• “Emperor Haile Selassie in Stillwater: The First Visit to Oklahoma by a Reigning Foreign Head of State,”  74 Chronicle of Oklahoma 132-157 (Summer 2001).

• “Human Rights Abuses in Ethiopia: New Light on the Slippery Slope,”  2 Pan-Ethiopia Forum: 1-11 (2000-2001); also Published in Proceedings of the 43rd Annual Meeting of the African Studies Association, Nashville, TN, 16-19 November 2000. 

• Forthcoming: "Public Diplomacy in the U.S. Supreme Court: The Warren Years" in The Journal of Supreme Court History (2008).

Encyclopedia Articles      

• “General Reginald Edward Harry Dyer,” “Werner Erhard,” “Abraham Fortas,” “Albert Speer,” “Robert (Bobby) Baker,” “Nathuram Vinayak Godse,” and “Gerald L.K. Smith,” in Carl L. Bankston III, ed., Notorious Lives from History (Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2007).        

• “Constitution, U.S., and Criminal Justice,” “Due Process of  Law,” “Supreme Court Cases: Table (APPENDIX),” “Radio Coverage of Crime,” “U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service,”  “Treason: Definitions, History, and Prevalence,” “Treason:  Investigation, Prosecution, and Punishment,” and “Television Programs” (APPENDIX) in Encyclopedia of Criminal Justice   (Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2005). 

• “Modern Education;” in Siegbert Uhlig, ed., Encyclopedia Aethiopica, Vol. II (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2005). Forthcoming:  “League of Nations Relations with Ethiopia;” “Ethiopia’s Official Newspaper, Nägarit Gazeta;” “Archeologist and Ethiopianist Stuart Munro-Hay;” “Peace Corps;” “Ethiopia-United States Relationships.”

• “Biological warfare and bioterrorism,” “Chemical warfare,” and “Famine as an instrument of oppression or coercion” in Ethics, Revised Edition (Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2004).

• “Jencks Act” and “National Defense Education Act” in Timothy L. Hall, ed., U.S. Laws, Acts, and Treaties (Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2003).

• “Älemayya (town, college)” in Siegbert Uhlig, ed., Encyclopedia Aethiopica, Vol. I (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag, 2003)

• “Earl Warren,” “Robert H. Jackson,” “James Madison,” and “Circuit Courts of Appeals,” in Thomas T. Lewis   and  Richard L. Wilson, eds., Encyclopedia of the U.S. Supreme Court (Pasadena, CA: Salem Press, 2000).

• “Montesquieu, Charles de Secondat,” in Robert A.   Rutland, ed., James Madison and the American Nation, 1751-1836: An Encyclopedia (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994).

  Forthcoming: "Warren, Earl," "Brennan, William J.. Jr.," and "Wieman v. Updegraff," in David Tanenhaus, ed., Encyclopedia of the Supreme Court of the United States (Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2008).

   

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