Blog gets out of town for the summer

In one of my last duties as department chair, I am sending the blog on a much-deserved vacation so that it can return refreshed for the fall. Never fear, gentle readers--though shorn of power, I will return with all the news and tips and odds and ends that are fit to pixelate. Have a wonderful summer, keep us posted, and see you soon!

Student summer jaunts--Beijing, Managua

Two of our majors are off on epic travels this summer:


Elly Henriksen has taken a job in Beijing for the summer to work for Puget Sound alum Paul Strickland '98. Among other things, she'll be helping with his expanding hot dog franchise, of all things (see pic below), but Mr. Strickland is involved in a number of businesses in China, including investment banking.


------

Meanwhile, Geoff LeGrand has arrived in Nicaragua to do work connected with his university summer research grant, "The Sandinstas since the Sandismo Experiment: Preserverance and Change" Read more here:
http://sites.google.com/site/geofflegrand/updates

And he has some great pictures:

Graduation 2009: Haltom toasts as only he can...(video)

Part of our yearly graduation ritual is Professor Haltom choosing and paraphrasing a piece of poetry to send our majors off. Always a treat.

Graduation 2009 (pics!)

Last weekend we had our department graduation reception. Awards were given, breakfast eaten, toasts made (always courtesy Professor Haltom), and students sent off into the wild. Pictures here:



And the titles of this year's senior theses:

Senior Seminar in Comparative Politics

* Kali Bechtold, “Amnesty: The Road to Justice No Matter How you Walk It? South Africa, Guatemala, and Argentina, and the Path to Transitional Justice.

* Josh Cole, From Political Benediction to Divine Resistance: The National Catholic Churches of Nazi Germany and Pinochet Chile.

* Sarah Glancy, The Effect of Culture on Attitudes Towards Immigration: A Comparative Study of Denmark and the United States.

* Paul Hughes, Empowering Bullies?: Power-Sharing and its Success in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kenya.

* Liz Kaster, “Who’s Pedaling This Thing? Bicycle Planning Process in the Twin Cities.

* Elliott Largent, “Submit or Defect, You Will Not Succeed: The Role of Foreign Actors in Land Reforms Past and Present.”

* Kagan Riedel, “Too Close to Home: Examining Race and Religion in Times of Crisis.

* Jared Sage, “Does Democracy Make a Difference? The Relationship Between Student Protest and Political Regimes.

* Stephen Souvall, “Dictator’s Dream or Despot’s Nightmare? Questioning the Olympic Movement’s Ability to Liberalize Authoritarian Host Governments.

* Peter Stanley, “The Greater of Two Evils: Choices of the Revolutionary Middle Class in Iran and Cuba.


Research Seminar in International Relations

Seminar Paper Titles

Lauren Bagby An African Curse: Resource Dependence and Civil War

Jordan Barber State Responses to International Terrorism: Is Cooperation Useful?

Tashi Chogyal Title unavailable

Alycia Corey Creating Cooperation: The Transformation of States’ Identities

Colin Cronin Navigating Conflict: Cooperation in the Structure of Hydropolitics

James Edwards Organizing Terror: How Successful Terrorist Groups are Structured

Max Harris Armed Conflict in a Post-Cold War World

Garrett Heilman Preserving U.S. Hegemony Through Financial Institutions

Torey Holderith Offense-Defense Theory and the Security Dilemma: Capabilities and Transformation as Indicators of State Preference in the 21st Century

Lindsey Janes Assent and Dissent: European Responses to U.S. Interventions

James Melton America’s Future: Primacy Through Checkbooks or Battlefields?

Ashley Reyes The Media’s Influence on Conflict Intervention: The U.S. Decision to Intervene in Foreign Conflicts

Kei Sato The Emergence of Stable Multipolarity

Nadia Soucek Moving Target: Transitioning Terrorist Organizations

Harry Stevens Under Uncle Sam’s Thumb: Regional Hegemony and U.S.-Latin American Relations

Nicholas Van Putten American Evangelicalism: National Identity and the Formation of National Interest

US Politics and Public Law
Judicial Hellholes California And Litigation Descending Into Hell Or Just A Political Ploy?
Ashley Guerriero

Paradox Of Liberal Pluralism: Equality And The Comprehensive Doctrines That Protect It
Josh Louie

City Governing: An Analysis Of Centralized And Decentralized Policy-Making And Administration At The Municipal Level.
Nick Cronenwett

Increase In Presidency Decline In Legislating: The Expansion Of The Presidential Role Through Control Of The Executive Branch Agencies’ Functions And Regulatory Processes FDR Through Reagan
Charles Davis-Aitken

Surfing The Toll-Road: How Surfers And Their Friends Stopped The Destruction Of The Largest Protected Wetland In Southern California
Sam Kussin-Shoptaw

The conundrum of the exclusionary rule the struggle to balance crime control and fourth amendment rights
Justine Shepherd

Small Is Not Always Beautiful: Why The Town Of Ruston Is Failing And What Can Be Done To Save It
Caitlin Boersma

Legal Rights And Rehabilitation: A (False?) Dichotomy
A Bridge Between Criminality And Community To Save At-Risk Youth
Jay Free

Fear And Consequence Along The US-Mexico Border: The Creation Of Operation Gatekeeper
Seth Tucker

Entering The Permanent Campaign Framework
Jeremy Ciarabellini

“In Common With”? A Fight Between The Traditional And The Contemporary: How The Boldt Decision Violated The United States Constitution And In Doing So Reestablished Rights Long Denied To Native American Tribes
Kip Carleton

Town and gown and dollars and sense

Hat tip to Megan Buscho '06 for this recent NYT piece on growing tensions between schools and cities; "as endowments everywhere sink with the economy, town-gown relationships, often carefully nurtured during the boom years as colleges and universities sought to expand, are fraying." Read the whole thing here.

How is Puget Sound doing? There was a university forum on our finances yesterday, and the short answer is: pretty good. Incoming class is strong (so far--there is always the question of who will actually show up), and ironically our smaller endowment has worked to our advantage. Since we rely less on it, we had less to lose in the market. The administration has been pretty conservative in planning and construction, and we can see the benefits of that.

Summer Internship on global health--deadline 5/22

Hat tip: Ned Culhane 06. Looks pretty interesting.

Research!America's Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research
Full-time, stipend provided
Summer 2009

Research!America is the nation's largest non-profit public education and advocacy alliance working to make research to improve health a higher national priority. We are located in Old Town Alexandria, Virginia, a 10 minute walk from the King Street Metro stop. For more information, visit www.researchamerica.org.

Internship Description

This full-time internship reports to the Vice President, Public Health Partnerships and will work closely with those responsible for specific advocacy outreach activities of a select group of prominent U.S. global health researchers ─ known as Ambassadors ─ in the Paul G. Rogers Society for Global Health Research. Candidates must be available 40 hours per week between the hours of 9:00 a.m. and 5:30 p.m. and for a minimum of eight weeks starting as soon as possible.

This position was created to assist the organization in its mission to make research to improve health a higher national priority - through education, advocacy and public policy activities. Within this framework, this position focuses solely on strengthening advocacy for an increased investment in U.S. funded global health research.

Responsibilities include:

* Assist in scheduling and planning meetings between policymakers and leading U.S. global health researchers. Conduct, analyze and summarize succinct background meeting materials and information as requested.
* Track relevant policy issues, including budget and appropriations legislation and hearings related to U.S. investment in global health research.
* Complete and present a self-directed project on a global health research policy topic relevant to U.S. concerns.
* Provide administrative and project coordination support.

Eligibility

Graduate students, recent graduates (undergraduate or graduate school), and highly accomplished college seniors with a public health, global health, political science, public policy or related degree or degree goal are encouraged to apply.

Ideal candidates will have a strong academic background with excellent oral and written communication skills; a strong interest in connecting global health research to U.S. policy and be proficient with Microsoft Office Suite software.

Compensation
Research!America offers a competitive stipend and paid parking or a transportation subsidy (Metro).

To Apply

E-mail resume and cover letter (no phone calls please) indicating your academic status and interest in this internship. Please include three references (complete contact information) and one writing sample that relates to global health research, global health or public health by May 22, 2009 to:
Karen A. Goraleski
Vice President, Public Health Partnerships
kgoraleski@researchamerica.org

Congrats to Linz Heppe '07: New job at MENA

We've received word that Linz Heppe '07 has taken a job with the Middle East Policy Council as an assistant to the president, William L. Nash (Major General, U.S. Army, Retired). Sounds like a great job and a cool place. Congrats!

...oh, and Linz? Got any internship opportunities?

Graduation Reception! See you there!

Kindle for Kollege?

Hmm. From Business Week (hat tip, Shirley Skeel in Media Relations):

Kindle may start getting a warmer reception in colleges come May 6, when Amazon (AMZN) launches what is expected to be a larger version of its Kindle e-book reader that is more suited to academic publishers. Six universities including Case Western, Pace, and Princeton are partnering with Amazon and major publishers to supply students with the new device in the fall, The Wall Street Journal reports. Details of the name of the device, as well as specific features and price, have not been released. Amazon declined to comment on the report.

Why not just wait for the Asus T91 tablet? That's what I'm waiting for:

International summer short courses, Montreal

Hat tip: Dean Ferrari. Looks very interesting. You go?

Centre for International Studies of the Université de Montréal

One of North America’s most ambitious international-affairs summer school programs is to be found in Montreal. Aimed at undergraduate students in their last years and at graduate students as well as members of NGOs and civil society, the courses are offered in English. Each of our schools is given by a dozen experts in the field. The schools last six days in early July -- and coincide with Montreal's famed jazz and comedy festivals.

Subjects in 2009:

From June 29 to July 4th:
The Obama Presidency: Year One
India: Surprising Modernity
Pluralism and Radicalization in the Arab-Muslim World
International and European Environmental Law/Climate Change

From July 6 to 11:
Biodiversity: current situation, challenges and management issues
China Risen: How it is Changing, and Changing Us
Understanding and Preventing Terrorism
Peace Operations: Manufacturing Peace

Registration and lodging fees for students (one week): about $1000

For further information and a short video: www.cerium.ca/summer

What are they saying about the schools ?

"The CERIUM runs a serious program that is at once educational and very enjoyable. The courses typically include regular instructors and invited participants of a very high quality. Even better, the student body is very international and very diverse (including working professionals, MA students, and undergrads mixed together). All of the students that I took profited enormously from it (and from their stay in Montreal - a beautiful, cosmopolitan city). The internationally-renowned jazz festival occurs during the first week of their summer session. The staff at UdeM is a delight and are very welcoming. And Montreal is a blast."
Charles Noble, Chair, Political Science Dept, USC Long Beach, Ca.

"Aside from the outstanding quality of the conferrences, I was impressed by the expertise of the participants and their involvement in the debates, which often drew on experiences in the field"
Celestin Monga, Senior Economist, World Bank

Centre for International Studies of the Université de Montréal

Another internship opporunity for the City Council race

Dear Prof. O'Neil,

My name is Olgy and I worked with Hart Edmonson last fall in the Tacoma democratic headquarters. I understand you have a very prominent blog at UPS and I would really appreciate your assistance in recruiting a intern by posting the below announcement. I'm running a Tacoma City Council race and this would be a great opportunity for students gain campaign experience by working in a tight knit local race directly with the candidate, myself (an Obama organizer here in Pierce County last fall), and our consultant (one of Obama's original Iowa Caucus organizers).

Thank you,
Olgy Diaz

Internship, Roxanne Murphy for Tacoma City Council Dist. 4

Tacoma City Council campaign is seeking energetic interns to help elect Roxanne Murphy, a local Eastside community leader. Learn more about Roxanne on Facebook at http://tinyurl.com/d5zvbp Internship offers extensive experience in local politics and field work. This campaign is very grassroots in nature. It focuses heavily on community and voter contact as inspired by President Obama's successful field campaign and our management team of former Obama organizers. Duties will include:

* Voter outreach through canvassing and calling
* Event coordination and participation
* Database management
* Voter Registration
* Research, as needs arise
* Assisting with volunteer management

Qualifications:

* Ideal candidate is a self-starter, detail orientated, and hard working
* Interest or experience at any level in community advocacy, politics, or public service.
* Must have reliable transportation.
* Internship is unpaid but may count towards class credit

Scheduling is flexible however interns are required to work at least 1-2 days a week, with time off available for vacations and midterms/finals. Ideally students will be available this summer and into fall through Election Day on Nov. 3. If interested in solely this summer or postponing involvement until fall, please indicate that in your inquiry.

To set up an interview or find out more, contact:

Olgy S. Diaz
Campaign Manager
Roxanne Murphy for City Council Dist. 4
olgy.diaz@gmail.com
(253) 228-8567

More from the Weinbergers

Professor Weinberger is interviewed in the NY Metro newspaper on Obama and the use of torture: http://www.readmetro.com/show/en/NewYork/20090429/1/6/

Meanwhile, his father, Professor Jerry Weinberger, sends in another dispatch from Kurdistan:

On first entering my apartment here, I knew that my palate, tongue, and nose were under assault from petroleum molecules—but I didn’t know why, since there’s no oil drilling nearby. It turns out that every house, business, and hotel has an ample, and often leaky, supply of diesel fuel in the basement. That’s because there’s hardly a house or business in Suli that doesn’t have a diesel-powered generator just outside the door. And that’s because electricity is available from the main grid only six or eight hours per day...

Read the whole thing here:
http://www.city-journal.org/2009/eon0422jw.html

Congrats to Kate Trinh '10, Matelich Scholar

The accolades keep coming in for Kate Trinh (and PG, of course). Last week it was the news that Kate had been granted a Trimble award so that she could continue research in Vietnam; this week we heard she was one of five students to be given the Matelich Scholarship for $12,000.

University guidelines state that "Matelich candidates...demonstrate exceptional drive, discipline, and determination to achieve a high measure of success after college and emerge as a leader in their chosen field. Candidates...exhibit strong moral character, leadership abilities, and be involved in campus activities and/ or are making a difference through community service."

Way to go, Kate!

5/4 Brown Bag Talk: The Torture Memos

Defining Torture: The Justice Department Memos and Coercive Interrogation
Monday, May 4, 2009
5-6pm
Wyatt Hall 109

When President Obama decided to release four memos written by the Office of Legal Counsel in the U.S. Department of Justice he created a political tempest that will not go away any time soon. These memos outline in graphic detail the procedures used to interrogate suspected members of al Qaeda and the legal justifications for those procedures.

Professor Seth Weinberger will lead a discussion of many of the issues raised by these memos: Are the techniques used by the CIA to interrogate suspected terrorists torture? Were they illegal under U.S. law? Under international law? Should members of the Bush administration involved in these practices be prosecuted, and if so, who should be? Does it matter if the techniques produced “actionable intelligence”?

Hosted by the Department of Politics & Government

Change education?

You may have seen this editorial in the NYT yesterday; a few excerpts below. Thoughts? One response can be found here.

April 27, 2009
Op-Ed Contributor
End the University as We Know It
By MARK C. TAYLOR

...If American higher education is to thrive in the 21st century, colleges and universities, like Wall Street and Detroit, must be rigorously regulated and completely restructured. The long process to make higher learning more agile, adaptive and imaginative can begin with six major steps:

1. Restructure the curriculum, beginning with graduate programs and proceeding as quickly as possible to undergraduate programs. The division-of-labor model of separate departments is obsolete and must be replaced with a curriculum structured like a web or complex adaptive network. Responsible teaching and scholarship must become cross-disciplinary and cross-cultural.

Just a few weeks ago, I attended a meeting of political scientists who had gathered to discuss why international relations theory had never considered the role of religion in society. Given the state of the world today, this is a significant oversight. There can be no adequate understanding of the most important issues we face when disciplines are cloistered from one another and operate on their own premises.

It would be far more effective to bring together people working on questions of religion, politics, history, economics, anthropology, sociology, literature, art, religion and philosophy to engage in comparative analysis of common problems. As the curriculum is restructured, fields of inquiry and methods of investigation will be transformed.

2. Abolish permanent departments, even for undergraduate education, and create problem-focused programs. These constantly evolving programs would have sunset clauses, and every seven years each one should be evaluated and either abolished, continued or significantly changed. It is possible to imagine a broad range of topics around which such zones of inquiry could be organized: Mind, Body, Law, Information, Networks, Language, Space, Time, Media, Money, Life and Water.

3. Increase collaboration among institutions. All institutions do not need to do all things and technology makes it possible for schools to form partnerships to share students and faculty. Institutions will be able to expand while contracting. Let one college have a strong department in French, for example, and the other a strong department in German; through teleconferencing and the Internet both subjects can be taught at both places with half the staff. With these tools, I have already team-taught semester-long seminars in real time at the Universities of Helsinki and Melbourne.

4. Transform the traditional dissertation. ...For many years, I have taught undergraduate courses in which students do not write traditional papers but develop analytic treatments in formats from hypertext and Web sites to films and video games. Graduate students should likewise be encouraged to produce “theses” in alternative formats....

6. Impose mandatory retirement and abolish tenure.

Reminder: 4/28 Brown Bag: US-Cuba Relations

P&G Brown Bag Series: the Department of Politics & Government invites all interested students to join a casual conversation about current events led by department faculty and driven by student questions.

The next P&G Brown Bag will be held on April 28, 2009, from 12-1 in WYATT 226.

TOPIC OF DISCUSSION: U.S.-Cuba relations in the Obama Administration

The recent Summit of the Americas presented President Obama with an opportunity to meet with leaders from 33 Latin American and Caribbean nations and to articulate his approach to diplomacy. The administration has also begun to liberalize relations with Cuba, and just announced some important changes to U.S. policy toward Cuba, including easing travel restrictions for Americans with family members in Cuba and expanding telecommunications services in Cuba. Professor Share will lead a discussion about these changes, the Summit of the Americas, and their implications for U.S.-Cuba relations in the Obama administration.

P&G will provide beverages and dessert; just bring your lunch and your interest!

For questions about this event, or to recommend a discussion topic for the future, email Professor Kessel, akessel@ups.edu.

Congrats to our research award winners!

PG has a bumper crop of research award winners this year:

Katrina Bloemsma has been awarded a Bangs-Collier Research Award for her summer project, "Understanding History and Sovereignty in Native American Environmental Conservation".

Geoff LeGrand has been awarded a Summer Research Award for his summer project "The Sandinistas since the Sandinismo Experiment: Perseverance and Change".

Kyla Roberts in Foreign Languages and International Affairs will be working under PG professor Don Share on her Summer Research Award project, "Socialism or Death: The Trajectory of Socialism in Venezuela".

Kate Trinh has been awarded a Charles Garnet Trimble Award for research in Vietnam during the summer of 2009 in preparation for her senior thesis project in the Politics and Government department.

Congrats, all!

PG alum needs interns in Tacoma

From T'wina Franklin '06 who is campaign manager for Victoria Woodards:


Victoria Woodards for Tacoma City Council!

Public Service That Puts People First

Tacoma is at a critical juncture in its history, a city rich in tradition, history and culture. Proud to call the “City of Destiny” home for nearly her entire life, Victoria has seen this city grow and become the amazing community we all know it as today, but Victoria also knows….we’re not done yet.


We haven’t yet achieved all that we know this city is capable of achieving.
Through hard work, collaboration, and strong leadership we can make Tacoma the city we know it can be, but to get us there we need a committed public servant who knows Tacoma and its people.

Victoria Woodards is that leader.

Please join us as we build our community block by block on this campaign, we would be honored to have your support.
Please contact T’wina Franklin to volunteer!
253.882.7810
tfranklin@ups.edu

4/30 talk: Armstrong Williams

On April 30 ASUPS Lectures presents an evening with Armstrong Williams, called “one of the most recognizable conservative voices in America” by The Washington Post. Mr. Williams, a third generation Republican, is a political commentator, syndicated columnist, and TV and radio host. His column appears weekly in the Washington Times and his radio program, “The Armstrong Williams Show,” can be heard across the nation throughout the week.

Armstrong will present a lecture titled, “Has America Lost Its Moral Economic and Military Might in the World?” at Kilworth Chapel (N. 18th and Warner) at the University of Puget Sound at 8:00PM. Williams is a pugnacious, provocative and principled voice for conservatives and Christian values in America’s public debates. Admission is free for UPS students and $5 public. Tickets are available at the UPS Info Center.

From 2002 to 2005 Williams hosted “On Point” with Armstrong Williams, a monthly primetime television special whose guests included Vice President Richard Cheney, former Secretary of State Colin Powell and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice.

Williams has served as confidential assistant to the Chairman of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as well as legislative aide and advisor to U.S. Senator Strom Thurmond. In addition, Williams served as a presidential appointee to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and legislative assistant to the U.S. Representative Carrol Campbell, former governor of South Carolina.

Williams is a board member of The Carson Scholars Fund, Inc and the Youth Leadership Foundation and a member of Independence Federal Bank Board of Directors. He is also the CEO of the Graham Williams Group, an international public relations consulting firm.

http://www.armstrongw.com/
http://washingtontimes.com/staff/armstrong-williams/
http://www.sourcewatch.org/index.php?title=Armstrong_Williams

Jonathan Roberts '10 updates from Ecuador

The email with everything in it--travel, alums, internships, and paramilitaries...

Hi Professor O´Neil,

This e-mail has been long in coming. First, let me say that UPS Politics people do indeed flock together! We had a lecture from two U.S. State Department representatives from the US Embassy here in Quito and the Political Officer was Mark Pannell, UPS Politics and Government Class of `89! Small world.


Times down here have been pretty fascinating with elections coming up on April 26 and doing work on the politics of alternative development with a group called Defense of the Community of Intag (DECOIN) which is a region in Imbabura, the province directly above Pinchincha (where Quito is located). This group has been resisting copper mining by Canadian companies since the late 90s. My advisor is Carlos Zorilla, the president of DECOIN and, interestingly enough, was targeted for assasination by paramilitaries hired by two companies and had to live in hiding and change his appearance on two separate occasions. He has recently brought charges against a number of Canadian companies for violations of the Ecuadorian constatution, so while he´s a busy guy, he´s an amazing resource. I´m excited to have the opportunity to work with him.

At the same time I´m working as a consultant for Earth Economics (I think I mentioned this) on a project doing a cost-benefit analysis of ecosystem services provided by the Intag It is actual, factual, on the ground development work and I´m happy as a clam building alliances, conducting interviews, and talking with stake-holders. Today I had took two kids from the street out to lunch after I spoke with them for a bit about their work. It´s crazy to see how prevelant the informal economy is here and how sistemic it actually is. David(10) and Efran(11) came in and offered to shine my shoes (which I didn´t need). But in the process I asked them what they made, if they made enough, and (because they looked like hell, but dirtier and more thin) when the last time they had eaten. I suppose it was for my own selfish reasons, but I asked them if I could buy them lunch, proceeding to glean some insight into the effect of poverty on these kids. After asking if they went to school, Efran said he did, likes math and wants to be a doctor, but David responded that he couldn´t becasue he didn´t have good shoes. He proceeded to show me the gaping hole in his shoes that went from the middle toe around to nearly his arch. That was the only thing that (he said) was keeping him from going to school. Shoes are cheap (to we comparatively rich americans) so I sprung for a $15 pair, and he said I was a gift from God. I can´t believe that something as seemingly trivial as a pair of shoes can stand between a ten year old kid and his education...like we have reasons to complain.

Any way, I´m learning a great deal and am looking forward to hearing back from the enrichment comittee about a research grant proposal I submitted. If it goes through I´ll be continuing looking at Intag´s development model through the political lens of the Correa administration´s populist rhetoric concerning mining revenue. He has pointed to mineral wealth as a source of funding for social programs, but he´s quoting a ridiculous figure ($220 bn revenue), when less than 7% of the reserves are ¨proven,¨ the rest are possible reserves (which are least certain). Furthermore, only 5-7% of the actual $220bn quoted would stay in the country. If we´re critical (which numerous economists here are), we find only a meager amount that would be gained, only for 10-15 years and at the cost of some of the richest areas of environmental importance to both the carbon and water cycles. All that said, I really hope to have the opportunity to continue on this.