Last semester’s POLISCI NEWS highlighted a number of Political Science alums and

their early career successes. According to the University’s Career Development Center’s

annual First Destination Survey: Career Follow-Up of UST Graduates such success

stories are hardly unique. The report noted that POLS graduates are working in a diverse

set of organizations, including Cargill, Assessment Associates International, Imagewerks

Marketing, Lockton Companies, and Northland Communications. Other students have

found positions with the Minnesota DFL Caucus, the Republican Party of Minnesota, and

Paulsen for Congress. Equally important, the Center reports that initial salaries for POLS

graduates are equal to or higher than many other social and physical science majors. The

full report is available from the Center.

Steve Hoffman, Ph.D.

Professor and Chair

Department of Political Science

Message from the Chair

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G.W.C. Ross Awards

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The department annually awards scholarships to students majoring in

Political Science using funds bequeathed to the University by G.W.C.

Ross, the department’s first chairperson. Awards are based on class

status and GPA. This year’s awardees are:

Gabe Flaa Grace Forciea Danielle Kahler

Anthony Martin Mallory Patrow Hayley Spratt

Mitchell Sullivan Tyler Trudell MacKenzie Watson

Congratulations all!

Suma Sreekanta and Professor Arijit Mazumdar are happy to

announce the arrival of their son Aaditya, born on

November 4, 2014.

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Student Internships:

POLIS CI NEWS

Ryan Niezgocki is a junior double-majoring in Political Science and Justice

and Peace Studies, with a minor in Art History. In addition to his academic

studies, Ryan is involved in both Mock Trial and Model United Nations. This

spring, he is interning with the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, a

government agency that investigates discrimination complaints, educating

Minnesotans about their rights and ensuring that state contractors are in

compliance with equal opportunity regulations. Ryan works in the government

relations and communications departments of the agency where he spends most

of his time researching policy, monitoring legislation and developing content for

blog posts.

Pat Flavin graduated from St. Thomas in 2004 with a B.A. in Political

Science. While at UST, he was involved in Pi Sigma Alpha, participated in

the Washington Semester at American University, and fondly recalls taking

classes with Professors High-Pippert, Hatting, and Farlow. He then earned his

M.A. (2007) and PhD (2010) at the University of Notre Dame and is currently

an assistant professor in the Department of Political Science at Baylor

University. At Baylor, he teaches classes on American politics, public policy,

political behavior, and political science research methods. His research

interests include political inequality, the effects of politics and public policies

on citizens' quality of life, and U.S. state politics. He and his wife Rebecca

(who also teaches Political Science at Baylor) live in Woodway, Texas.

Alumni Profiles:

Chelsea Petersen is serving as Executive Office Intern at womenwinning.

According to Chelsea, she is getting a unique look at Minnesota politics while

learning how her favorite non-profit organization operates. Her main focus is

in marketing and development along with conducting research on women

running for state and local public office. She will be helping the staff with

fundraising, candidate training, endorsing conventions, voter contact, and other

projects as necessary.

Austin Dufort graduated last year but he has continued to represent St.

Thomas and the Department of Political Science at various academic

conferences. In early February Austin presented a paper at Pi Sigma Alpha’s

Second Annual National Student Research Conference held at Georgetown

University in Washington, D.C. He is also scheduled to present a paper at the

Midwest Political Science Association’s annual conference, which will be

held in mid-April in Chicago. Both of these papers are based on research he

undertook in POLS 328: International Security that addressed the role nuclear

weapons and their proliferation have in either fostering or inhibiting

international peace and security.

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The Foreign Affairs Club will hold informational meetings on March 24 at 12:00 in JRC

401, and on March 25 at 6:00, on OEC 208. The club leadership will brief members and

prospective members on this semester’s events, including two sessions on current

international issues and an in-house United Nations Security Council simulation to be held

later in the semester.

The Club will host two sessions on major international issues this semester. The first is entitled,

Humanitarian Aid Organizations in the Syria Crisis: Who Are They, What Do They Do, How Do We

Protect Them? Chelsea Reinartz will provide a briefing on her research on this topic, conducted in her

semester abroad in Geneva, Switzerland and updated to include new developments in Syria. The meeting

will be held on April 7, during convo hour in JRC 401. The second is entitled, The United Nations and the

Korean Peninsula. Kenzie Watson will be presenting on this topic, based on her J-term experience in

South Korea and subsequent research. This event will be held on April 21 during convo hour in MHC 201.

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The 2014-2015 Mock Trial Team represented UST at five tournaments this year, placing

second at both the University of Minnesota’s Mock Trial Battle and the UST Hatting

Invitational. The Team also won a Spirit of AMTA award, which is given for outstanding

sportsmanship, at the Durst Memorial Invitational. Individually, eight different students earned

awards in at least one of the tournaments, either as an attorney or as a witness. Congratulations to the entire

2014-2015 team are in order, as well as best wishes to the graduating seniors - you will be missed! And of

course, a big thank you to our coaches (and UST alums), Cory and John Monnens.

Pi Sigma Alpha, the National Political Science Honor Society, sponsored an ice cream

social for Political Science students and faculty on February 25. It was great to meet new

people and catch up with those we hadn’t seen in a while.

Following the Spring initiation banquet on Wednesday, April 8, Pi Sigma Alpha is sponsoring

an event entitled Wal-Mart Gender Discrimination: The Fight Continues, featuring four local attorneys, one

of whom (Janet Olawsky) is a recent graduate of UST and a former member of Pi Sigma Alpha! The event

will be held at 7:00 p.m. in OWS 150 (3M Auditorium). All are invited to attend.

The Model United Nations Team invites its members and other interested UST students to

participate in its United Nations Security Council simulation. The simulation will cover

current topics before the UN Security Council and students will be able to sign up for a

variety of UNSC member states. The event will take place on April 25, from 8:00 a.m.-

7:30 p.m., location TBD. Participants will write position papers for the country they will

represent in preparation for the simulation. These will be due to the club leadership by April

14. Model UN simulations are a great way to get hands-on experience with the political aspects of the

UN, and to learn more about the countries on the Security Council. If you are interested in participating,

please contact Jose Munne-Caceres (munn4002@stthomas.edu), Alexander Sarno

(sarn1657@stthomas.edu), or Carly Johnson (carly.johnson@stthomas.edu) for more information.

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The Pre-Law Society has an ambitious semester planned, with a number of events

coming up during the month of April. On April 7, we will be traveling to the UST Law

School to watch the MN Supreme Court's oral arguments. On April 14 at 7:00 p.m. our

"Constitutional Controversies" event will examine the apparent conflict between the 14th

Amendment's equal protection clause and the 1st Amendment's protection of religious

liberties. This event is open to the entire UST community - faculty, staff, students, and alumni are all

warmly invited to attend; more information will be posted to the Political Science website closer to the

event. Our annual Attorney Networking Event will be held the evening of April 30. If you're interested in

joining the Pre-Law Society, please email PLS@stthomas.edu for more information.

Political Science major Joseph Janochoski, Dr. Steve Hoffman, and Dr. Paul Lorah (Geography)

published an article entitled “Resisting the Inevitable: Tar Sands, Regionalism and Rhetoric” in the

European Journal of American Studies. Special Issue: Transnational Approaches to North American

Regionalism, Volume 9, Number 3. The article discusses the various Canadian and American

organizations working in opposition to the exploitation of the Canadian tar sands. The article is

available at http://ejas.revues.org/10368. Several other papers dealing with various issues related to this

topic have recently been presented at a number of professional venues, including the meetings of the

Minnesota Political Science Association, the Midwest Political Science Association, and the Canadian

Sociological Association.

Political Science major Morgan Schreurs and Dr. Angela High-Pippert will present a paper at the

Midwest Political Science Association’s national conference in Chicago in April. The purpose of this

research is to explore the differences in political ambition between women who grew up in rural areas

and those who were raised in more urban areas of Minnesota. Homegrown: The Political Ambition of

Rural- and Urban-bred Women is a two-part study: 1) intensive interviews with eight women involved

in politics and public policy, and 2) surveys distributed to politically-involved college women across the

state of Minnesota. In developing the methods a feminist lens was applied in order to allow for self-

description of the women’s diverse motives and expand political ambition narratives beyond the bounds

of electoral politics.

Political Science major Erin Statz and Dr. Arijit Mazumdar will publish an article entitled “Democracy

Promotion in India's Foreign Policy: Emerging Trends and Developments” in an upcoming issue of

Asian Affairs: An American Review. Research for the article was supported with an Undergraduate

Collaborative Inquiry Grant and a travel grant awarded by the University’s Grants and Research Office

(GRO) and the Department of Political Science. Erin also presented the results of her research at the

“Inquiry at UST” poster session event in Spring Semester 2013 and at the Pi Sigma Alpha National

Undergraduate Conference in Washington, D.C., in February 2014. The article is part of Dr.

Mazumdar’s on-going research focusing on the changes in Indian politics since the end of the Cold

War.

Dr. High-Pippert’s recent work on how Gir l Scouts of the USA is redefining of leadership

development of girls will be published in Girlhood Studies this summer. This article is part of Dr. High-

Pippert’s larger research agenda within women and politics; various stages of this research were

presented at the Midwest Political Science Association’s conference last spring and the National

Women’s Studies Association’s conference last fall.

Dr. Hoffman and Dr. High-Pippert continued their work on community solar gardens. They

surveyed members of a number of Minnesota and Colorado-based organizations, including Minnesota

Interfaith Power and Light, Clean Energy Resource Teams, Fresh Energy, the Midwest Division of the

Izaak Walton League, the Minnesota Renewable Energy Society, MN Community Solar, and the

Colorado State University Extension Service, with reports being prepared for each of these

organizations. In cooperation with staff from Fresh Energy, they also provided comments to the

Minnesota Public Utilities Commission regarding the development of rules regulating community solar

gardens.

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POLIS CI NEWS Page 5

Honors Seminars

Two members of the department will be offering Aquinas Honors Seminars in the Fall 2015

Semester.

Dr. Hoffman’s course is entitled For God and Country: Nations and Nationalism in the 21st

Century. Until recently, it was thought that the 21st century would be witness to the disappearance

of a nationalism based upon traditional forms of personal identity such as tribe, clan, and ethnicity.

Yet, as evidenced in places as far apart as Ukraine, Palestine, and Quebec, the idea of belonging to

and being defined by a particular nation remains a core part of personal identity. This course will

examine why nationalism persists in a world of instant communications and social media and how

is continues to shape a great number of the world’s conflicts.

Dr. Kathleen Winters, along with Dr. David Williard (History), will be teaching an Aquinas Honors Seminar in Fall 2015 as well as Spring 2016. The seminar, Citizenship and Civil War, will take students through an inter-disciplinary examination of the Civil War and its pre-cursors, including the Supreme Court's infamous Dred Scott decision, the emancipation of slaves, the passage of three major constitutional amendments, and the process of reconstructing the United States. These events gave rise to many of the most influential Supreme Court decisions in American history and are pivotal to the development of citizenship in the United States. The course will examine Supreme Court decisions in-depth while also considering the historical and societal contexts for the decisions and their implications for and effects on citizenship.

A Day at the Capital

Dr. High-Pippert's POLS 205: Introduction to the

American Public Policy Process students

participated in the Minnesota Private College

Council’s Day at the Capitol on March 12.

Students met with their state representatives and

talked about the importance of the Minnesota State

Grant program. They were also able to speak with

Representative Erin Murphy and Senator Richard

Cohen about the importance of the Minnesota State

Grant program to UST students and the university

community.

A Beyond the Classroom session took place on March 10. Dr. Renee Buhr

presented and the topic was: Freedom or Solidarity? French National Identity

and the Charlie Hebdo Attack.

A second event, Supreme Court Round-Up, will be held on Tuesday, May 5. Dr. Kathleen

Winters will be providing a summary, analysis, and discussion of the October Term 2014

decisions that have been made by the U.S. Supreme Court. All are welcome to attend!

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