Marc Scarcelli is a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science. He received his B.A. from Purdue University, and his Ph.D. from the University of California, Davis.

When he was an undergraduate at Purdue, Dr. Scarcelli was heavily involved in humanitarian development work in Haiti, an experience which first drew him to the study of political science, and he maintains a strong personal and teaching interest in matters of extreme poverty. While in the doctoral program at UC Davis, he was mentored by the late Donald Rothchild, one of the original scholars of ethnic conflict, which led to his primary research focus, which is on the causes of modern civil wars. His second body of research is on the topic of human smuggling and human trafficking, drawing on his background in Haiti.

Dr. Scarcelli's publications include a forthcoming book chapter on the role of religious identity in Africa's civil conflicts, a coauthored article on the evolution of Haitian and Cuban human smuggling networks which appeared in the September 2009 issue of the journal Crime, Law, and Social Change, and an in-process, coauthored book on human smuggling and human trafficking, to be published by Polity Press. He teaches International Relations, Current World Problems, Terrorism, Political Violence, and Transnational Smuggling.