Dr. Sapna Varkey completed her Master of Public Administration at East Carolina University. Afterwards, she completed her Ph.D. in Public Administration at North Carolina State University. She is currently an Assistant Professor at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She is a nonprofit and public management scholar specializing in publicness. Her research identity focuses on organizational performance and the institutional pressures and organizational structures and practices that influence outcomes. Her research agenda explores how organizational characteristics affect service delivery and how to improve services. Sapna completed her Bachelor of Arts at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and double majored in political science and public policy with a concentration in social justice.

 

Every four years the American Political Science Association’s highly visible journal “PS: Political Science and Politics,” published several forecasts (predictions) of the presidential election. Inclusion in this issue of the journal is limited, but Dr. Brad Lockerbie has been one of those included for many election cycles.

His 2020 forecast, titled “Economic Pessimism and Political Punishment in 2020,” is not available.

Please see: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/ps-political-science-and-politics/article/economic-pessimism-and-political-punishment-in-2020/EB45A538B74A88A6D8B420FF70CE2DB1

Dr. Kassab, with Jonathan Rosen, has a new edited collection which analyzes trends of corruption in countries throughout the Americas. The contributors examine the main actors involved in corruption as well as the linkages between organized…

“For some states in Latin America, corruption is not simply an industry, but rather it is part of the political system. This collection studies the nature of corruption and its recent trends through expert contributions from scholars from the region who have diverse scholarly backgrounds, theoretical orientations, and methodologies. Through case studies of countries throughout the Americas, the contributors analyze the links between corruption and organized crime, the main actors involved in corruption, governmental responses to corruption, and the impact that corruption has on governmental institutions and people’s faith in them.”

At Amazon: https://amzn.to/3kqb3k2

At Publisher’s Site: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781793627216/Corruption-in-the-Americas

The 13th edition of Prof. Hugh Lee’s Alabama Elder Law, published by Thomson Reuters, will be coming out this December (2020). Continue to watch here for links to the book!

On October 19, Dr. Kassab was part of the expert panel, sponsored by the Florida International University’s School of International and Public Affairs, which discussed the latest developments in the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region and what they mean not only for Armenia and Azerbaijan but for the greater area.

See the Video: https://www.facebook.com/fiusipa/videos/342657023625446/

Dr. Francia has been quite busy writing speaking to the media about the 2020 election, as well as the recent passing of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. His comments have appeared in:

The Charlotte Observer: 

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/rnc-2020/article245377540.html https://www.charlotteobserver.com/news/politics-government/article245682065.html)

Local television, WITN and WNCT

https://www.witn.com/2020/09/29/political-expert-says-presidential-debate-unlikely-to-sway-votes/

https://www.witn.com/2020/09/30/president-trump-asked-to-clarify-debate-comments-on-white-supremacy-proud-boys/

https://www.witn.com/2020/09/09/pollsters-discuss-methodology-accuracy-ahead-of-november-elections/

https://www.wnct.com/local-news/local-political-experts-react-to-passing-of-justice-ginsburg/)

The podcast, What the Politics?

https://www.wnct.com/what-the-politics/what-the-politics-ep-2-presidential-debates/

Renewed fighting between Armenia and Azerbaijan in and around the disputed Nagorno-Karabakh region dating to September 27, the worst in many years, has caused hundreds of civilian and military casualties on both sides. While members of the Minsk Group led by the U.S., France, and Russia have called for an end to the violence, other countries, including Turkey and even Iran, have become involved to varying degrees, raising the possibility that the conflict could spiral out of control into a bigger conflagration.

Join Dr. Kassab and an expert panel to discuss these latest developments and what they mean not only for Armenia and Azerbaijan but for the wider region.

See: https://calendar.fiu.edu/event/spiraling_out_of_control_armenia_and_azerbaijan_on_the_brink#.X4mfNFqJJ7c

Please come and join our virtual booth at https://bit.ly/3dwBHF6.

Prof. Hugh Lee has an article coming out this month in the Elder Law Advisory entitled “Nursing Home Liability for COVID Transmission and Death: Proposed and Enacted Federal and State Responses to the Pandemic.”

Dr. Marie Olson Lounsberry, with Frederic Pearson, recently published an article titled “Conflict Settlement and Outcomes of Post‐Cold War International Military Interventions.”

Abstract: Scholars noted a remarkable shift in the pattern and motives of international military intervention with the end of the Cold War, namely toward more multilateral and humanitarian missions, often leading to more negotiated conflict settlement. Yet just twenty years later, counter‐trends had already begun to emerge, with renewed major power competition, more complicated multi‐factional civil wars, and cross‐border insurgent/terrorist networks. Using aggregate intervention data from 1989 to 2006 and case study analysis since 2010, we examine the question of continuity versus change in international security and humanitarian policy, in general, and regarding military intervention and outcomes, in particular. Based on patterns of pro‐ and anti‐government interventions and their effects on conflict duration and outcome, appropriate policy approaches are suggested.

See: https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1111/pech.12427