Ted Vestal served as a Peace Corps executive in Ethiopia and has maintained an academic interest in the country ever since
Theodore M. Vestal, Ph. D.
Phi Beta Delta, Honor Society for International Scholars, 2004
Technology Innovator Award, Divisions of Academic Affairs and Information Technology, Oklahoma State University, 2004
Who's Who Among American Teachers, 2004 (nominated by former students)
Who's Who in America, 2004, 2005
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
Recipient of Certificate of Achievement, Tulsa Opera, 2001
Contact Info:
Office Location:534 Math Sciences Bldg.
Email Address:vestal@okstate.edu
Telephone
405) 744-7586 Office Hours:Tues & Thurs 10:30 to 11:30;
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, an allegory 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. In 2003, Dr. Vestal received a travel grant from OSU's College of Arts and Sciences to attend the 15th International Ethiopian Studies Conference in Hamburg. Stanford University invited Dr. Vestal to be a panelist and deliver a paper at the December 2003 conference, "100 Years of US-Ethiopia Relations." In December 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.
Professor Vestal earned his B.A. in Government with high honors from the University of North Texas 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
"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).
"Reflections on the Battle of Adwa and Its Significance for Today," in Maiamire Mennasemay, Getachew Metaferia, and Paulos Milkias (eds.), The Battle of Adwa-AnAfrican Resistance to European Imperialism: New Reflections (Lawrenceville, NJ: Red Sea Press, 2004).
"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
"Emperor Haile Selassie’s First State Visit to the United States in 1954: The Oklahoma Interlude," 1 International Journal ofEthiopian 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.
Encyclopedia Articles
"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 (Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz Verlag,2003).
"Earl Warren," "Robert H. Jackson," "James Madison,"and "Circuit Courts of Appeals," in Thomas T. Lewisand 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).
