People
Core Research Team
Peter M. Shane is the Joseph S. Platt - Porter, Wright, Morris & Arthur Professor of Law at the Ohio State University’s Moritz College of Law, where he also directs the Center for Interdisciplinary Law and Policy Studies. In addition, he serves as Distinguished Service Professor (Adjunct) of Law and Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University’s H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management, where he was the founding director of the Institute for the Study of Information Technology and Society (InSITeS). Among his prior academic appointments, he served as dean of the University of Pittsburgh School of Law from 1994-1998, and was inaugural holder of the “Visiting Foreign Chair,” for the University of Ghent Program in Foreign and Comparative Law, in Ghent, Belgium in 2001. He has written extensively on cyberdemocracy, constitutional law and public administration. Recent publications include Peter M. Shane, “Analyzing Constitutions,” in R.A.W. Rhodes, Sarah Binder & Bert Rockman, eds., Oxford Handbooks of Political Science: Political Institutions (Oxford, 2006), Peter M. Shane, ed., Democracy Online: The Prospects for Political Renewal through the Internet (Routledge, 2004), and Peter M. Shane, John Podesta and Richard C. Leone, eds., A Little Knowledge: Privacy, Security and Public Information After September 11 (Century Foundation Press, 2004).
Peter Muhlberger, who constructed and implemented the VAP social science program, is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Texas Tech University, where he is also a Senior Policy Fellow at the Center for Public Service. During 2005-06, he was a visiting scholar at the University Center for Social and Urban Research at the University of Pittsburgh. From 2001 until 2005, he served as E-Democracy Research Director at Carnegie Mellon University's Institute for the Study of Information Technology and Society (InSITeS) and Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at the H. John Heinz III School of Public Policy and Management. At InSITeS, he was a founding member of the Community Connections project, an initiative devoted to the study of computer-mediated democratic deliberation. He conducts research on the social and psychological effects of political participation, with special interest in political agency, moral reasoning, and decision processes. Peter’s frequent presentations on deliberation, political psychology, and democratic theory include appearances at annual meetings of the American Political Science Association. the Association of Internet Researchers, and the International Society of Political Psychology.
Robert Cavalier is Teaching Professor of Philosophy at Carnegie Mellon University, where he directs the Center for the Advancement of Applied Ethics and Political Philosophy. He is also Director of the Center's Digital Media Lab which houses Project PICOLA (Public Informed Citizen Online Assembly) and co-Director of Southwestern Pennsylvania Program for Deliberative Democracy. Dr. Cavalier is internationally recognized for his work in education and interactive multimedia. He is a past president of the International Association for Computing and Philosophy (2001 - 2004) and Chair of the APA Committee on Philosophy and Computers (2000-2003). In 1996 Cavalier was designated "Syllabus Scholar" by Syllabus Magazine in recognition of his life long work with educational technologies. In 1999 he received an award for "Innovation Excellence in Teaching, Learning and Technology" at the 10th International Conference on College Teaching and Learning. In 2002, he was recipient of the Elliott Dunlap Smith Teaching Award bestowed by the College of Humanities and Social Science.