Want to learn more about primaries, elections and voting? Need help navigating the news and media? Think about attending sessions of Citizen U. This is a 10-week program, hosted by ECU Leadership and Engagement, meeting one night a week, with FREE food, awesome field trips and engaging guest speakers!
For more information and to apply, click here
Apply by Jan. 24, 2020. First session begins on Jan. 28, 2020.
The London School of Economics United States Politics and Policy Centre publishes a blog on the American Politics and Policy, and has just featured Olga Smirnova and Suzanne Leland’s book chapter “Contracting out in the Transit industry: Recent Perspectives of Transit Agency Managers”
See http://bit.ly/2mn8upL
Dr. Kassab’s new book, Terrorist Recruitment and the International System, is now available!
Recruitment is key to a terrorist network’s survival strategy. Steady enrollment is needed, not just to fight against perceived injustice, but to keep the network’s grand strategy alive. When a weak state fails to protect its territory and implement the rule of law because of corruption or incapacity, it results in the creation of power vacuums. Terrorist networks thrive within power vacuums and opportunistically fill the space where a weak state could not maintain control. This destabilizes the international system and forces great powers to intervene. Historically, interventions are ineffective in combatting terrorism and have actually increased recruitment through regional political destabilization. Further, interventions have drained the capabilities of states, allowing for shifts in the distribution of power, thus changing the international order. Understanding recruitment mechanisms is key to developing strategies to combat recruitment in the short and long term.
See: https://www.amazon.com/Terrorist-Recruitment-International-System-Kassab-ebook/dp/B081798BHM/ref=sr_1_5?keywords=hanna+kassab&qid=1574436650&sr=8-5
Political Science faculty have been busy sharing their insights with local media about the impeachment hearings and the 2020 elections.
Hugh Lee gave 3 interviews to about the impeachment hearings to WITN on September 25th, ECU News Services on September 27, and WCTI on November 13.
Jody Baumgartner and POLS students Bobby Fortune, Gavin Hockett and Tyler Polensky were also interviewed about impeachment by WITN’s Kathryn Dawson on November 15.
Peter Francia was interviewed by WNCT TV about the impact North Carolina could have on the 2020 elections on November 15.
Conventional Wisdom and American Elections: Exploding Myths, Exploring Misconceptions, by Drs. Baumgartner and Francia, is now officially in its 4th edition – and available!
From the book jacket: During every election cycle, political observers generate a seemingly limitless supply of theories, opinions, and predictions. Unfortunately, many of these assertions oversimplify complex subjects or over-hype the latest political fads. Inevitably, some misinformation becomes part of the conventional wisdom about American elections. The objective of this book is to bring clarity to several of these subjects.
Olga Smirnova was invited for the North Carolina Local Government Budget Association summer conference (July) in Wilmington, NC.
Together with Jennifer Wolf from the City of Charlotte, they led the panel on “Green Investments for Public Facilities and Fleet”
See: http://nclgba.org/wordpress/nclgba19-recap-series-a-culture-of-high-performance/
Congratulations to Katie Nilges, a political science major and ECU graduate (2015). Katie was recently hired as the Director of Governmental Affairs and Legislative Liaison for the South Carolina Department of Education. In 2018, Katie received her law degree at the University of South Carolina.
Way to go, Katie!
Dr. Olga Smirnova conducted a webinar on July 2nd “Social Network Structure of Dark Markets,” via “Zoom,” to about 9 people from the DHS and FBI. The basis for the webinar was published as a white paper “Social Network Structure of Dark Markets: Research Summary,” part of the white paper series for the Criminal Investigations and Network Analysis Center (CINA).
See https://cj.msu.edu/_assets/pdfs/cina/CINA-White_Papers-Smirnova_Social_Network_Brief.pdf
The College of Arts & Science’s Center for Survery Research, which includes the political science department’s Peter Francia (director), Jonathan Morris and Baekwan Park, has had their latest poll tracking opinion regarding the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination picked up by RealClear Politics, the national clearinghouse for political polls. A huge breakthrough!
https://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2020/president/NorthCarolina.html
CONGRATULATIONS to all involved!
American Political Humor: Masters of Satire and Their Impact on U.S. Policy and Culture, by Jody C Baumgartner
This two-volume set surveys the profound impact of political humor and satire on American culture and politics over the years, paying special attention to the explosion of political humor in today’s wide-ranging and turbulent media environment.
Historically, there has been a tendency to regard political satire and humor as a sideshow to the wider world of American politics—entertaining and sometimes insightful, but ultimately only of modest interest to students and others surveying the trajectory of American politics and culture.
This set documents just how mistaken that assumption is. By examining political humor and satire throughout US history, these volumes not only illustrate how expressions of political satire and humor reflect changes in American attitudes about presidents, parties, and issues but also how satirists, comedians, cartoonists, and filmmakers have helped to shape popular attitudes about landmark historical events, major American institutions and movements, and the nation’s political leaders and cultural giants. Finally, this work examines how today’s brand of political humor may be more influential than ever before in shaping American attitudes about the nation in which we live.
Features
See: https://www.abc-clio.com/ABC-CLIOCorporate/product.aspx?pc=A5370C
