Many of our students – Robert Downes (POLS PhD student), Alexander Gray (POLS PhD student), Micah Press (PPC MA student), Ilia Medina (IIREP MA student), Archiwal Ahmadullah (POLS PhD student), Rohan Naik (5th Year POLS MA student), Evenin Lucas-Moran (5th year MA student) and Brooke Bigda (POLS honors student) – attended the Northeastern Political Science Association annual meeting in Boston with Prof. Jane Gordon and Prof. Jennifer Sterling-Folker.

Cory Runstedler (PhD student) presented his paper, “Right to Stand Up? Cross-National Analysis of Labor Rights and Union Repression” at the Northeastern Political Science Association (NPSA) conference. This paper includes the compilation of multiple data sets to conduct a first of its kind historical cross national analysis of labor rights in law and in practice. Additionally, at NPSA he also served as the discussant for the “Perspectives on Extremism and Islamism” panel and as chair and discussant for the “Human Rights and Mobilization against Oppression” panel.

Bieu Tran (PhD student) was recently made a Fellow at the Daniel K. Inouye Asia-Pacific Center for Security Studies (DKI APCSS) in Honolulu, Hawaii. DKI APCSS is one of the Department of Defense’s five regional security studies centers. The Center addresses and studies regional and global security issues affecting the Asia-Pacific region. Bieu was also recently promoted to the title of Director, Export Control and Sanctions Compliance at UConn and UConn Health under the Office of the Vice President for Research. Bieu and his team continue to provide guidance and oversight over export and sanctions matters for over $375M in annual research enterprise at all UConn campuses.

San Lee (PhD student) will present her paper titled “Recruiting Women in Rebel Groups Is Helpful for Conflict Resolutions When It Contributes to The Groups’ Success in Outbidding: The Comparison of the FARC and the ELN in Colombia” at the upcoming annual conference of the International Studies Association (ISA), which will be held in April 2024, in San Francisco. She was granted a pre-doctoral award from the department to attend the 2024 ISA conference.

Aynal Hague’s (PhD student) paper titled “Climate Change Mitigation – Made in Bangladesh” based on chapter four of his dissertation, has been accepted for presentation at the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) Annual conference in April 2024. Aynal has also been nominated for the CETL Outstanding Graduate Teaching Award ’24.

Benjamin Stumpf’s (PhD student) paper “Creolizing Conjunctural Analysis: A Method for the Current Crisis,” has been accepted for presentation at the 2024 Western Political Science Association Conference. The paper examines the productive intersections of conjunctural analysis in the work of Antonio Gramsci and Stuart Hall with developments in Global Southern thought in Frantz Fanon, as well as developments in the creolization of political thought in the work of Prof. Jane Gordon and Michael Monahan. In addition, Ben’s article “Behind Bars in the Belly of the Beast: Red Dragon’s Anti-Imperialist Political Thought” was accepted by the journal Philosophy and Global Affairs for publication in 2024. It focuses on a prisoner-produced radical newsletter from the 1970s and 80s called Red Dragon, analyzing how incarcerated activists came to theorize the US prison within the international context of imperialism and the struggle against it. Ben also has opinion pieces on the intersection of police militarization and climate change at the Security in Context blog.

Shubham Sharma (PhD student) published “Threads that Bind Hindutva and Zionism” in the National Herald and “Does the Tongue Belong to the Thakur as Well” in The Leaflet.

William “Will” Herens (CLAS ’24), and his faculty advisor Prof. Evan Perkoski were selected to attend the fully-funded Rising Scholars Conference hosted by the Department of Government and Politics at the University of Maryland Nov 2-3. The conference was designed to increase diversity in the field by introducing undergraduate students from underrepresented groups to the academy and facilitating engagement with students on their research interests and activities.

UConn’s Model United Nations student organization successfully hosted a conference at Storrs November 3-5. 310 high school students from 24 high schools throughout the region participated in the three-day simulation as UN delegates. The annual conference is made possible by more than 60 UConn undergraduate students who volunteer months of preparation to research and create scenarios, officiate proceedings, and coordinate travel and lodging so that the delegates have a positive and safe experience.

Sidratul Muntaha (CLAS ’26) was quoted in UConn Today (Nov. 21, 2023) in the article “UConn Hartford Welcomes Transformative Project Serving Asian American Students“.