Jody Baumgartner & Jonathan Morris recently published an article in the Journal of Political Marketing titled  “Did the “Road to the White House Run Through” Letterman?.”

The article presents the results of an experiment designed to disentangle the effects late-night talk show viewership have on presidential candidate evaluations. Respondents in one condition viewed a short video clip of David Letterman humorously disparaging New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, thought by many at the time to be considering a run for the presidency in 2016. Those in a second condition saw a short clip of Christie engaging in self-deprecating humor while appearing as a guest on Letterman’s program. Compared with respondents in a control condition, those in the other-disparaging humor condition had lower evaluations of Christie and reported a lower likelihood of voting for him in 2016, while those in the self-deprecating humor condition had higher evaluations of him and expressed a greater likelihood of voting for him. 

The article can be seen here: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/15377857.2015.1074137

Dr. Alethia Cook presented her research, “Applying a Layered Defense Paradigm to Counter-Radicalization,” at the Midwest Political Science Association’s Annual Convention in Chicago on April 6. The paper examined U.S. Federal Government engagement in activities that are part of counter-radicalization, including countering violent extremism (CVE), counterterrorism, and disengagement/deradicalization, to determine if application of a layered defense paradigm would be beneficial. The paper concluded that while layered defense may be helpful for examining CVE and counterterrorism, the lack of a Federal strategy or policy for disengagement/deradicalization hinders application of the paradigm in that area and overall.

Dr. Marie Olsen Lounsberry will be presenting a paper at the International Studies Association Annual Meeting in San Francisco this week, April 4-7, entitled “Civil War Resolution Sequences: Failure and Success in the Aceh Peace Process” with Karl DeRouen, Jr. (The University of Alabama). Lounsberry, together with DeRouen, organized conference’s panel on Civil War Peace Processes.

On April 10th, the Great Decisions Program will be featuring Ken Wilburn, Professor of History from ECU, who will be discussing “South Africa’s Fragile Democracy.”

The Great Decisions Program is the oldest and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind in the country. Established in 1954, it is the flagship program of the Foreign Policy Association, a non-partisan, non-governmental organization. The goal of the Great Decisions program is to discuss, debate, and learn about international affairs, national security and U.S. foreign policy.

The event will be held in the Rivers West Building, Auditorium 105, from 6:00 – 7:30 P.M.

The cost is $10.00, but Students, Faculty & Staff Attend for Free!

I am also co-editing two special sections in the journal Peace and Change with Karl DeRouen (University of Alabama). Both sections will examine civil war peace agreements with articles drawn from scholars and practitioners. The first is to be published in March and the second in May.

 

ECU is again hosting the Foreign Policy Association’s Great Decisions program. The program consists of a series of eight lectures by academic and professional experts on topics of global significance.

The topic for the March 27 session is “Global Health: Progress and Challenges,” presented by Joseph Hellweg, Whichard Distinguished Professor, ECU Department of Philosophy & Religious Studies

The Great Decisions Program is the oldest and largest grassroots world affairs educational program of its kind in the country. Established in 1954, it is the flagship program of the Foreign Policy Association, a non-partisan, non-governmental organization. The goal of the Great Decisions program is to discuss, debate, and learn about international affairs, national security and U.S. foreign policy.

PLACE: Rivers West Building, Auditorium 105

TIME: 6:00 – 7:30 P.M.

COST: $10.00, but Students, Faculty & Staff Attend for Free!

East Carolina University’s Model UN students are preparing to compete in the Southeast Regional Model United Nations competition this April in Charlotte on April 12-14. They will be representing Nigeria and Iraq. Historically our students do a superlative job in these events, and this year is sure to be no different!

Bonnie G. Mani presented a manuscript, “Psychological Contracts between Federal Agencies and Employees: A Structural Equation Model,” to the Annual Meeting of the American Society for Public Administration, in Denver on March 9, 2018.

On March 17, 2018, sherepresented ECU’s Gender Studies Program on a panel organized by AMEXCAN, an organization whose mission is, “To encourage active participation of Mexicans and Latinas/os in our communities of destination and origin; to promote appreciation, understanding and prosperity of the community through actions; for transnational Cultural, Educational, Health, Advocacy and Leadership.” The title of the AMEXCAN program was “Empowered Women Leaders for Successful Futures.”

 

Hugh Lee published a two-part series entitled, “The Republican Tax Plan: ‘Big, Beautiful Christmas Present’ or Significant Blow to the Elderly” in West Publishing’s Elder Law Advisory. The first publication was “Part One: The Tax Plan’s Benefits” (324, March 2018) and the second (forthcoming) provides the opposing perspective “Part Two: Concerns for the Elderly (325, April 2018). He also presented a lecture to the North Carolina Bar Association’s 23rd Annual Elder and Special Needs Law Symposium at Pinehurst, North Carolina on February 23, 2018 entitled “Advising Clients about Long-Term Care Insurance – Dealing with today’s long-term care insurance market.”

Bonnie Mani presented “Psychological Contracts between Federal Agencies and Employees: A Structural Equation Model” at the annual meeting of the American Society for Public Administration in Denver, Colorado on March 9.

Carmine Scavo was quoted in Barry Yeoman’s article, “Walter Jones, Jr. is a Voice of Dissent in the GOP,” which will appear in the April 2 edition of The Nation. The piece is currently available online at https://www.thenation.com/article/walter-jones-jr-is-a-voice-of-dissent-in-the-gop/.

Olga Smirnova and Master of Public Administration alumna Sapna Varkey published “Using an Engaged Scholarship Symposium to Change Perceptions: Evaluation Results,” in the Journal of Extension.

Magda Giurcanu, with Petia Kostadinova, recently published “Capturing the legislative priorities of transnational Europarties and the European Commission: A Pledge Approach”, in European Union Politics (doi.org/10.1177/1465116518760242). 

Abstract: This article presents a new dataset of pledges made by Europarties during the 2004 and 2009 European Parliament elections, as well as pre-legislative priorities of the European Commission following these elections. The data cover two legislative cycles in the period 2004-2013. The article discusses the rationale behind the development of this dataset, the coding, and the measurement of the variables, and it highlights the applicability of these data.

European Union Politics’ current 5-year Impact Factor is 2.627. The journal ranks in the top quartile of all political science journals indexed in the Clarivate Analytics (formerly Thomson Reuters) Social Science Citation Index.

The article can be accessed online at: http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/1465116518760242 .

Access to the dataset is provided through the Dataverse depository at Harvard University, available at:  https://dataverse.harvard.edu/dataset.xhtml?persistentId=doi:10.7910/DVN/WUVHJP