Jeff Seward, PhD

Education

PhD at Stanford University (Fulbright Dissertation Fellowship, Brazil)

Master of Arts at University of Washington, Seattle, Wash.

Secondary Teaching Certificate at Boise State University

Woodrow Wilson Fellow at Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Bachelor of Arts at University of Texas, Austin, Texas

Scholarship and Professional Work

I was a political reporter and documentary film producer for public television prior to my academic career. At KAID-TV in Boise, Idaho, and KCTS-TV in Seattle, Wash., I covered five sessions of the Idaho Legislature and one session of the Washington Legislature, interviewed dozens of major state and national political figures, and produced numerous film and video documentaries on major public affairs issues. Two of my documentaries received national recognition:

A Place in the Sun, a half-hour film analyzing a major UN conference on global development held in Seattle, was honored for outstanding local coverage of economic issues by the Economic Broadcasters Association.

In the Best of Times, a half-hour film analyzing the problem of African-American youth unemployment in Seattle, aired nationally on the Jim Lehrer-hosted "US Chronicles" series, was named best local production on economic issues by the Economic Broadcasters Association, and received national Emmy recognition for "Community Service Award" by the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

Current Scholarly Projects

The Politics of Capitalist Transformation: Brazilian Informatics Policy, Regime Change, and State Autonomy, Routledge Press (2017). For more information. Paperback edition, August 2018.

Awarded Story-Dondero research grant to support field work in Montevideo, Uruguay in January of 2019 to begin research for an article on modern Uruguayan political history.

Presented paper, "It's a Feature, Not a Bug: Political Inequality, State Autonomy, and Actually Existing Democracy," at the Midwest Political Science Association (April 2016) meeting.

Presented paper, "State Autonomy and Varieties of Capitalism," at the Western Political Science Association meeting (April 2014)

Presented paper, "Inequality and Actually Existing Democracy: A New Framework of Analysis," at the Pacific Northwest Political Science Association (September 2011) and Western Political Science Association (April 2012) meetings.

Production of an hour-long video documentary on a group of women who were pioneers in the computer science professions in Peru, The Grasshopper Women: A Peruvian Tale of Globalization, presented for Women's History Month, Pacific University, March 15, 2018.

Presentation, "Sustainable Progressive Governance: The Case of Uruguay," Pacific University Faculty Forum, March 19, 2019

Extracurricular Activities

I live in Portland with my wife, Maria Seward, a retired systems programmer. Our daughter Annamaria is a 2014 graduate of Amherst College in Massachusetts and now lives and works in Seattle. I love to travel abroad with my family (trips since 2000 to France, Spain, Peru, Great Britain, Ireland, Uruguay, Argentina, China, and Italy). I'm fluent in Portuguese and Spanish and spent three months in France in the spring of 2018 trying to become fluent in French. I am also an avid golfer, tennis player, and film buff.