Veronica Czastkiewicz is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Political Science, whose studies focus on American government, policy, and politics. She has co-taught courses on American government, comparative politics, and judicial process and behavior and now teaches research methods and American Government for Northeastern. Veronica is also a doctoral fellow in the Law and Policy program at the College of Professional Studies.
Veronica’s research interests include American exceptionalism, problem definition, political rhetoric, and education policy. Her dissertation will examine the melodramatic language that surrounds education and school choice in the United States.
Veronica enjoys pushing the envelope in the classroom and engaging students in tough conversations that examine the political structures, language, and environments in which they have grown up. Although Veronica is particularly passionate about American government, her diverse professional history is a testament to the comparative perspective with which she approaches the classroom and her own research.
Veronica is pleased to have worked with the Goldwater Institute in Arizona, the 2008 Democratic National Convention, Economic Opportunity Studies in Washington, DC, and local government in Jefferson County, Colorado. In the summer of 2011, Veronica participated in the State Department’s internship program at Embassy Warsaw. In the summer of 2013, she will lead a Dialogue of Civilizations trip to Germany and Poland, where she will help students examine the role of trauma and memory in politics today.
Veronica holds her Bachelor’s degree from Cornell College, where she was honored to have been selected into Phi Beta Kappa and to have completed a semester abroad with the Department of International Polish Studies at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
Although academia and policy are endlessly fascinating, Veronica also enjoys a life outside of these coveted genres and spends her vast free time and fortune as a graduate student cooking, eating, power-walking, and reading. She is a proud big sister, grateful daughter, and demanding friend.
