• Doctoral Candidate Volodymyr Gupan was cited in a Hartford Courant article entitled “Ukraine War Concerns UConn, ECSU academics.” Volodymyr comes from Ukraine and has family still there. Currently, he is teaching about the country in a class at UConn’s Hartford campus.
• POLS Major Damani Douglas ‘23 (CLAS) has been elected as the new Student member on the UConn Board of Trustees and will officially take office in July 2022.
• Ph.D. student Mohammad Aynal Haque has been selected to participate in the 8th Annual Duck Family Graduate Workshop in Environmental Politics and Governance at the University of Washington in Seattle on May 18-20, 2022. The workshop will feature research that seeks to enhance our understanding of the governance and political aspects of environmental issues.
• Both Gregory Doukas and Erica McDonald successfully defended their dissertations in early April. Dr. Doukas’s dissertation was on “ Political Responsibility in Tumultuous Times” while Dr. McDonald’s dissertation was titled “Formally Informal? Sex Work, Stigma, and Institutions.” 
• Ph.D. student Carol Gray has been awarded the Mary Miles Bibb Post-Doctoral Teaching Fellowship at Framingham State University. The two-year fellowship at the rank of Assistant Professor begins in Fall 2022, focusing on courses in American Politics and Pre-Law. Ms. Bibb is credited by some as being the first Black female journalist in Canadian history.

• An undergraduate POLS Major, Samuel Dorman, attended Providence College’s 13th Annual Undergraduate Research Conference on Health and Society earlier this month. He presented a paper (virtually) entitled “The Medicaid Blockade: Analyzing the Impact of Gubernatorial and State Legislature Partisanship in the Ballot Initiative Process for PPACA Medicaid Expansion.” 

• POLS Major Shelby Houghton ’22 (CLAS) invited members of the UConn community to a weeklong series of events in April entitled “Rest is Revolution: UConn’s Week of Reflection.” Shelby’s initiative focused on promoting and encouraging rest as a means of personal wellness and social change. The list of events included a podcast, free guided meditations, body stretches, and other resources.
• An incoming graduate student, Shubham Sharma, has published an article entitled “Imperialism of our Times: Understanding the Russian War on Ukraine” in the April 10, 2022 issue of The Leaflet.
• Several undergraduate POLS Majors received Cohen Student Leadership Scholarships for Enhancing Community including Jalyn Brown ‘23 (CLAS), Muhammad Yasser Elsabbal ‘23 (CLAS), Heidi Pineda ‘23 (CLAS), Asija Qyteza ‘24 (CLAS), and Felipe Sanches ‘22 (CLAS). The awards go to student leaders who – through the work in their student organizations – have personified the commitment and goal of Stephen Cohen: to eliminate discrimination and build a more inclusive community on campus and beyond.
• Hoeun Lee (joined by Matthew Singer) published an article entitled “The Partisan Origins of Economic Perceptions in a Weak Party System: Evidence from South Korea” in the March 2022 edition of Political Behavior.

• Ph.D. student San Lee presented a paper entitled “How Could the ‘#MeToo’ Movement Spread Worldwide In 2017?” Supplemental Analysis on the Conditions under Which Transnational Advocacy Networks Become Influential” at the ISA 2022 Annual Convention in Nashville, Tennessee last month. Additionally, San Lee plans to present a paper at the 2022 Conference on “Remapping the Feminist Global: A Multi-vocal, Multi-located Conversation” sponsored by the IFJP and the Asian Center for Women’s Studies at Ewha Womans University. That conference is scheduled to take place this summer in South Korea.
• Karus Sabio (CLAS) presented her research on “America” at the Frontiers Stamford Exhibition on Tuesday, April 12th.

• Sercan Canbolat (with co-author Ozgur Ozdamar of Bilkent University) has received a book contract from Cambridge University Press to publish their book project entitled “Leaders in the MENA: How Ideology Shapes Foreign Policy.” The book is slated for publication in Spring 2023. Sercan presented a compendium of the ibook project to a Foreign Policy Analysis panel at the recent ISA convention in Nashville, Tennessee.
• Deng Yinghao successfully defended his dissertation prospectus, “Sinicizing the Nation: the Birth of Minzu (民族，Nationality) and the Question of anti-Manchu Revolution.”