The following students enrolled in the “Visegrad in the 21 Century” course taught by Dr. Magda Giurcanu, with Dr. Armin Krishnan as guest speaker, presented research posters at the State of North Carolina Undergraduate Research and Creativity Symposium (SNCURCS) hosted by NC State University in Raleigh on Nov 10, 2018.

• Andrew Li and Maya Gonzalez, “A comparison of the Involvement of Young People in the Czech Velvet Revolution and Tunisian Arab Spring”
• Spence Hodges, “The Current State of the Refugee Crisis and Immigration into V4 States”
• Alexis Newman and Kaleigh Calloway, “Anti-Communist Movements and Opposition to Communism Prior to 1989”
• Cady Willard and Deyanira Sanchez, “Communist Nostalgia in Hungary and Poland”
• Alexa Braithwaite, “Thersienstadt Labor Camp and the Propaganda behind it”
  Artis Destiny and Brown Wilson, “Russian Online Propaganda”

In addition, George Hendrix, mentored by Dr. Magda Giurcanu, presented the following research paper at the same conference: “The Roles of Social Media in 21 century Populism(s): US Presidential Campaigns”.

ECU’s students participation in the SNCURCS conference was made possible through the generous sponsorship of the Office of Undergraduate Research and the Visegrad International Fund.

The Student Chapter of the International City/County Management Association (ICMA) of the MPA program is sponsoring a panel event on Monday, November 26, 2018 at 6:00 – 7:15 PM at Rivers W-105A. The event—which focuses on flooding, community resilience and sustainability, and local government capacity—will consist of brief presentations from our panelists followed by a question-and-answer session. Panelists include both ECU faculty members and local government practitioners.

competed in the National Model United Nations (NMUN) conference in Washington, DC from November 9-11, 2018. Students Kaitlyn Rose, Dustin Younts (MUN Club Vice President), Morgan Musumeci, Suramie Jlay, Molefi Henderson, Paula Acevedo, Menna Abdel-Salam, and Aji Njie (MUN Club President) represented the country of Saudi Arabia (pictured below with Faculty Advisor Marie Olson Lounsbery). Students collaborated with other student delegations from around the world to draft and pass resolutions dealing with issues of international importance, including climate change and food security, expanding protections for victims of gender-based violence, and the treatment and prevention of HIV/AIDS.

On November 1 Dr. Eamon was a guest on a live public radio special focusing on the 2018 elections and background in North Carolina. There were three segments in the one hour program. He was the guest on the first which focused on evolution of NC politics and speculation on 2018. Sponsored by WFAE in Charlotte and WUNC in Triangle, program was aired on most North Carolina public radio stations.

 

On Nov. 9, three political science faculty were honored at the 2018 Faculty Book Award ceremony for books published in academic year 2016-2017. Dr. Armin Krishnan was recognized for his Why Paramilitary Operations Fail (Palgrave Macmillan), Dr. Alethia Cook was honored for Terrorist Organizations and Weapons of Mass Destruction: US Threats, Responses and Policies (Roman & Littlefield), and Dr. Jody Baumgartner for The Internet and the 2016 Presidential Campaign (with Terri Towner, Lexington). Congratulations to all three!

Peter Francia and Jonathan Morris, on behalf of the Center for Survey Research, co-authored a report on the state of public opinion towards the legalization of sports gambling. The report generated press attention from several media outlets across the nation, including the Miami Herald, Kansas City Star, and Sacramento Bee, as well as from newspapers across the state of North Carolina, including The News & Observer of Raleigh and The Charlotte Observer.

In April 2018, a team of faculty and student affairs educators presented a workshop titled “Working Beyond Boundaries: Cross-Disciplinary Approaches to Bridging Ethical Global Learning and Campus Context” at the 5th Global Service-Learning Summit at the University of Notre Dame. The team included Dennis McCunney and Nichelle Shuck, Center for Leadership and Civic Engagement, Archana Hegde, Human Development and Family Science, Kim Larson, College of Nursing, Derek Maher, Religious Studies, and Susan McCammon, Psychology.

This cross-disciplinary panel representing student affairs and academic affairs addressed some of the large-scale challenges of institutionalizing ethical global learning across campus. The presenters discussed ECU programs and partnerships representing several continents and social issue areas, including conflict transformation in Northern Ireland, public health and community health nursing in Guatemala, sacred spaces and community service in India and Nepal, and family health care services in the Dominican Republic.

 

Armin Krishnan and Magda Giurcanu have invited Dr Istvan Hegedus, Chairman of the Hungarian Europe Society (a Budapest-based NGO), from Brussels to ECU. Dr Hegedus will attend Magda Giurcanu’s Visegrad course, will meet with interested students and faculty, and will give a public lecture. The topic of the public lecture is “Hungary’s Relations with the European Union: An Anti-Liberal Experiment.” The lecture will take place in Rivers 105 on October 23, 2018 from 6pm to 7:30pm. All interested students and faculty are welcome.

In August, Dr. Samantha Mosier presented a co-authored paper at the American Political Science Association’s Annual Meeting in Boston Massachusetts. The paper, “A Moving Target Concept: Citizens, Partisanship, and Defining Sustainability”, examines how the American public defines the term ‘sustainability’ and compares the results against existing theoretical conceptualizations for the term. This research extends Dr. Mosier’s work on the politics and policy of sustainability.

Colonel (retired) Scott Barker continues to serve as the President of the Pitt County Veterans Council for a second year. In addition to leading this particular group of veterans, Barker also is the Chairman of the East Carolina Veterans Coalition and the Chairman of the North Carolina Army Retiree Council – Eastern Region – while he is not teaching.