Valerie M. Hudson

Valerie M. Hudson is a professor of political science at Brigham Young University (BYU). She is most noted for having co-authored the book Bare Branches about the negative effects of China's overabundance of males.

Early life and education

Hudson was born in Washington, D.C.. She joined The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon or LDS Church) in 1971. Hudson received her bachelor's degree from BYU and her master's and Ph.D. from Ohio State University.

While a doctoral candidate, Hudson taught for three years at Otterbein College, and after receiving her Ph.D., was a visiting professor at Northwestern University and then Rutgers University . In 1987 she joined the faculty of BYU. Hudson served as Associate Director of the David M. Kennedy Center for International Studies for eight years, in which capacity she directed the graduate program.

Family

Hudson is married to artist David Cassler, a painter with an MFA from BYU. They are the parents of eight children. David is also a landscape architect. They live in Orem, Utah.

Three of the Casslers' children have cystic fibrosis.^[1] Hudson has published a paper in which she argues that glutathione deficiencies associated with cystic fibrosis may be the cause of many of the chronic problems connected with it.^[2]

Writings

Hudson's research foci include foreign policy analysis, national security policy, social science methodology, and gender in International Relations. She has also published LDS-related writings, particularly on the topic of LDS doctrine concerning women, as well as medical articles on cystic fibrosis.

Hudson has written or edited several books, including Foreign Policy Analysis: Classical and Contemporary Theory (Boulder, Colorado: Rowman and Littlefield, 2007), Culture and Foreign Policy, Artificial Intelligence and International Politics as well as Bare Branches: Security Implications of Asia's Surplus Male Populations (MIT Press, 2004). The last was with Andrea Den Boer. She has also written Women in Eternity, Women of Zion with A. Don Sorensen (Springville: Cedar Fort, 2004).

Hudson has edited multiple books with Kerry M. Kartchner on Latter-day Saints and their relationships with United States foreign and security policies. Hudson wrote a long article with Sorensen on Latter-day Saint views of Womanist theology published in David L. Paulsen's and Donald W. Musser's Mormonism in Dialogue with Contemporary Christianity (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2007). She contributed a collaborative article with Alan J. Hawkins, Camille Fronk Olson, Lynn D. Wardle, Richard D. Draper, Diane L. Spangler and a few others, an article about mothers and fathers being equal partners in David C. Dollahite's Strengthening Our Families: An In-depth Look At The Proclamation on The Family. With A. Don Sorensen and Allen Bergin Hudson wrote an article entitled "Benevolent Power and Unrighteous Dominion" that was published in Bergin's Eternal Values and Personal Growth: LDS and Social Sciences Perspectives (Provo: BYU Press, 2002).

Hudson has published articles in such journals as International Security and Political Psychology. One of her articles in the former was an article written with Bonnie Ballif-Spanvill and several others about the relationship between the security of women and the security of states. She also contributed a chapter to Foreign Policy Decision Making (Revisited).^[3]

Recent work

Hudson was one of eight founders of the on-line journal Square Two, which is a forum for scholarly articles on important issues of the world today as informed by an LDS perspective. She is also a principal investigator of the WomanStats Project, which began in 2001. She is a principal investigator on the New Kind of Social Science Project.^[4]

Hudson was a self-described feminist. She has been influenced by the writings of Alma Don Sorensen on equality and Sylviane Agacinski on parity between men and women.^[5]

Sources

• Amazon blurb on Women in Zion
• bio of David Cassler
• Salt Lake Tribune piece addressing a talk by Julie B. Beck
• Deseret News March 9, 2010
• July 3, 2004 New York Times article on Hudson and her book
• Hudson's vita
• Deseret News, June 15, 2009
• MIT Press bio
• WomanStats project webpage

Notes

1. ^ Summer 1998 article on how various people deal with cystic fibrosis
2. ^ article about Cystic Fibrosis
3. ^ Macmillan bio of Hudson
4. ^ Bush School of Government presentation speaker bio for Hudson
5. ^ Interview with Hudson

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Name	Hudson, Valerie M.
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Date of birth	1958
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