Arianna Estrella (‘28) won a free passport and support through the application process from EGL’s Global Passport Project.
Gianna Socci (‘25)’s research was featured in the UConn Today article, “‘It’s Alive!’ (and Guilty?): Student Considers Whether Frankenstein’s Monster Could Be Held Liable in Court Of Law”
In October, James Shiang (’25), Mariam Vargas (’25), and Taylor Moran (’26) took part in a program for POLS called “Beyond UConn: POLS Majors Who Have Applied to National Opportunities”. James was a part of the Public Policy and International Affairs Program, Mariam was part of the Charles B. Rangel Summer Enrichment Program, and Taylor was a part of The Borgen Project.
Alexander Grey (Ph.D. Candidate) was named a student contributor to the Lawfare Institute at Brookings. Grey also presented at APSA (September) and the Frontiers in Education (October) conferences. The FIE paper is forthcoming for publication.
Robert Downes (Ph.D. Candidate)’s article, “Reason vs. Reverence: Unsettling Social Ecology’s Enlightenment Roots with Indigenous Cosmologies,” was accepted for publication in Harbinger: A Journal of Social Ecology. In November, Robert presented his conference paper titled “Judicial Ideology & Federal Environmental Protections: An Empirical Study of U.S. Courts of Appeals” at the Northeastern Political Science Association (NPSA) Annual Meeting. His conference paper, “Mycelial Politics: Radical Ecology & Renewal in the Anthropocene,” has been accepted for presentation at the Western Political Science Association (WPSA) conference in April 2025. Robert also presented “Procedural Justice and Offshore Wind’s Landfall in Southern New England” at the North American Wind Energy Academy (NAWEA) / WindTech Conference and the New England – St. Lawrence Valley Geographical Society meeting, both in October 2024. For this last and ongoing project, he collaborated as a co-author and research assistant with faculty and graduate students from UConn’s Agricultural & Resource Economics, Geography, and Political Science departments.
Chloe Kwak (Ph.D. Candidate) received an honorable mention from the FTGS committee for the paper “Unsilenced Voices of Comfort Women: The 2023 Court Decision to Deny State Immunity of Japan” presented at the ISA conference in April 2024. She also presented her paper, titled “Necropatriarchal Vandalism: Men’s Symbolic Violence against Comfort Women Memorials Aiming at the Social Death of Victims of Sexual Violence” at the 2024 ISA-Northeast conference held in Baltimore, MD on November 8th. Chloe engaged in various forms of activism to advocate for the preservation of comfort women memorials and to oppose numerous attempts to have them removed. She participated in a protest against the German government’s efforts to remove the Statue of Peace in Berlin, responding to pressure from the Japanese government.
Nick Lanza (‘25), who is the director of external affairs for UConn’s Undergraduate Student Government, was quoted in a UConn Today article, “A Visit to Dodd Center, Former Members of Congress Discuss Bridging Divides – and Issue a Call to Action“.
Kate Czajkowski (’27) moderated the ‘Our International Journey Panel’ on Nov. 19 that was part of International Education Week.
San Lee (Ph.D. Candidate) is going to present her paper titled “The Use of the CEDAW for Advancing LGBTQIA+” reorganized based on her dissertation chapter as a panelist at the upcoming 82nd Midwest Political Science Association, from April 3-6, 2025.
Bieu Tran (Ph.D. Candidate) has had a busy six months:
In November 2024, Bieu presented his paper “Signaling for Sanctions: Overt/Covert Signaling and Social Movements Operating in Repressive Environments” at ISA Northeast.
His other paper, co-authored with Prof. Miles Evers, “Beyond the Battlefield: Economic Interdependence, Revisionism, and Global Power Shifts” was also presented at ISA Northeast.
Bieu was recently honored as U.S. Navy Officer Language Professional of the Year and received a Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal from Vice Admiral Rick Cheeseman, Chief of Naval Personnel.
Bieu recently graduated from the Joint and Combined Warfighting School at Joint Forces Staff College (JFSC), National Defense University. His research paper titled “Cognitive Warfare and the Metaphysical Domain: An Exploration of Chinese Strategic Thinking and Its Implications on Contemporary Strategic Competition” won the Commandant’s Distinguished Writing Award, JFSC’s highest honor.
While at JFSC, he also met up with Dr. Kevin Generous, who earned his PhD in Political Science from UConn, and is now an Associate Professor at JFSC.
During summer 2024, Bieu was selected by the US Navy to attend the Reserve Component National Security Course at National Defense University in Washington, D.C. He also visited Capitol Hill as part of this course.