ECU Department of Political Science: News

Alethia Cook and Marie Olson Lounsbery, of ECU’s Department of Political Science and the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, are pleased to announce the release of their book, Conflict Dynamics: Civil Wars, Armed Actors, and Their Tactics by University of Georgia Press.

Conflict Dynamics presents case studies of six nation-states: Sierra Leone, the Republic of Congo, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Indonesia, and Peru. In the book, Alethia H. Cook and Marie Olson Lounsbery examine the evolving nature of violence in intrastate conflicts, as well as the governments and groups involved, by focusing on the context of the relationships involved, the capacities of the conflict’s participants, and the actors’ goals. The authors first present a theoretical framework through which the changeable mix of relative group capacities and the resulting tactical decisions can be examined systematically and as conflicts evolve over time. They then apply that framework to the six case studies to show its usefulness in better understanding conflicts individually and in comparison.

ECU’s Model United Nations Club competed in the Southeast Regional Model United Nations competition in Charlotte, North Carolina from March 30 – April 2. Jesse Cole, Andrew McLeer, Sorrell Saunders, Braxton Smallwood (ECU’s MUN President), and Kyra Wheatley represented the Democratic Republic of the Congo, while Haley Creef, Caroline Debnam, Shaquille Dixon, James Harris, Jack Myrick, and Aji Njie represented the Dominican Republic. During the competition, delegates engaged in active debate aimed at resolving a series of complex international issues, including preventing gender-based sexual violence, food security in impoverished areas, smart cities for urban sustainability, among others. In doing so, Shaquille and James earned a delegation award on the Commission for Science and Technology for Development, while the Dominican Republic team earned a conference-wide Distinguished Delegation Award.

The Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences, Department of Political Science, and the Center for Survey Research present Professor Adam Berinsky of the Massachusetts  Institute of Technology, who will speak about fake news and political rumors on April 18 at East Carolina University. Berinsky is a professor of political science at MIT and serves as the director of the MIT Political Experiments Research Lab (PERL). He is the author of the book, In Time of War: Understanding American Public Opinion from World War II to Iraq (University of Chicago Press, 2009) and Silent Voices: Public Opinion and Political Participation in America (Princeton University Press, 2004).

Congratulations to Dr. Magda Giurcanu, who has been recently awarded a GESIS- Leibniz Institute for the Social Sciences grant to visit the EUROLAB in Cologne, Germany. The grant, which includes €950 for travel and a month of housing, will allow her to spend June 2017 in Cologne accessing European datasets located at the GESIS DATA archive. These new data will contribute to a research project she is currently working on, titled “The Emergence of New Anti-EU Parties in EP Elections: Strategic Elite Calculations and European Union Debates.”

Drs. Magda Giurcanu and Armin Krishnan are very happy to announce the launch of a new course “Visegrad in the 21st century” made possible by a three-year University Studies Grant from the International Visegrad Fund in Bratislava, Slovakia. The €18, 503 funds received from the Visegrad Group will be used to raise awareness on the security threats and geostrategic opportunities the Eastern European Visegrad states are facing after the fall of the Soviet Union.  In addition, the course and the ECE community will tremendously benefit from the visits, talks, and presentations of at least six scholars from the Visegrad states (Hungary, Poland, Czech Republic, and Slovakia) that will be organized starting this coming fall.

Dr. Jody Baumgartner has been designated as a 2017 University Scholar. The University Scholars Program was established to recognize exceptional scholarship at East Carolina University as defined by discipline specific criteria.  Each year, academic units nominate faculty members deemed to represent excellence in their discipline.  The University Research Council reviews the nominees and conveys the designation.  Sixty-six faculty members have been designated as University Scholars, making you a member of an elite group at this institution.

Leshaun, ECU Political Science 2000, has been named as one of the Class of 2017 “40 Under 40” Leadership Award Honorees. He teaches social sciences at Tarboro High School,

The “40 Under 40” Leadership Awards Committee worked diligently to complete a very competitive selection process of the recipients. Consideration is a tribute to each nominee’s ability to use education to pursue their passion to lead positive change through leadership and service. All nominees were exceptionally accomplished, committed leaders, making the committee’s decision was extremely challenging.

The 2017 Class of “40 Under 40” will be honored at the Division Student Affairs 3rd Annual Corporate & Leadership Awards Banquet on Saturday, April 22, 2017 at 6:00pm. For more information, please visit our WEBSITE.

Are you interested in becoming a Friend of Political Science? Stay tuned to this website for more details about getting more involved in the affairs of ECU’s Department of Political Science.

Our own Dr. Peter Francia, Professor of Political Science, was recently named Director of the Thomas Harriot College of Arts and Sciences (THCAS) Center for Survey Research. Watch out Quinnipiac University Poll!