Political Science and Legal Studies

A new course, being offered at Mt. Holyoke College, is called: Politics 361: Politics & Rhetoric, and will be taught by Prof. Liz Markovits. The course is intended for Juniors and Seniors, although Sophomores with the appropriate previous coursework may be admitted if there is room.

A description of this course:

People have long accused politicians of using rhetoric to pander to audiences and get what they want regardless of the truth. But democratic politics depends on communication to persuade and motivate others. In this course, we will analyze classical writings on rhetoric, contemporary democratic political theory, and hear from professionals in order to probe the relationship between rhetoric and politics. Students will also engage in an extended campaign simulation, in which they devise, implement, and react to campaign rhetorical strategies; our guest professionals will also be involved in the simulation.

As mentioned, this course will have guests, who will include:

- Ashley O’Connor, Director of Advertising, Romney 2012 (MHC Alum)
- Catherine Cromwell, Cromwell Public Affairs (RI) (MHC Alum)
- Michael Huffman, author of We’re With Nobody (Morrow, 2012)
- Mark Watts, Abacus Associates (MA)
- Elanie Pluta, former Mayor of Holyoke
- Priti Rao, MA Women’s Political Caucus
- Karen Middleton, Emerge America

The course will meet weekly, with a required 4th hour. This will involve a group meeting time to work together.

In the first part of the semester, the fourth hour will give the entire class time to learn technical skills that will be critical during the latter part of the course.

You can email Prof. Liz Markovits (emarkovi@mtholyoke.edu) with questions or to request registration permission. You should include a list of relevant coursework in your registration email.

UMass will offer a new online course, which will be designed for juniors, who will write an honors thesis. However, others may enroll with permission as well.

In Spring 2013, this course will be a 1-credit online course, (HONORS 495K) entitled, “Research Gets Real: Principles and Practices of Community Engaged Research.”

Students will gain foundational knowledge and skills with which to conduct research in real-world settings with communities. After the course has concluded, students will have obtained

a human subjects training certificate, compared and contrasted traditional vs. community-based research strategies, and gained valuable research and communication skills.

This spring Commonwealth Honors College will be offering a brand new 1-credit online course [HONORS 495K] entitled, “Research Gets Real: Principles and Practices of Community Engaged Research.” This ten-module online course was developed after the positive response we received from delivering the content in person to REU Fellows last summer.

The course will provide students with foundational knowledge and skills to begin conducting research in real-world settings with communities. Upon completion of this course, students will have obtained a human subjects training certificate, compared and contrasted traditional vs. community-based research strategies, and gained valuable research and communication skills.

This course is designed for students who are interested in community-based research and are planning to write an Honor’s Thesis. It is open to Juniors in Commonwealth Honors College, but others may enroll with permission.

For questions, contact:

Dr. Elena T. Carbone
Associate Professor and Graduate Program Director
Department of Nutrition
Director, Community Engaged Research
Commonwealth Honors College
Chenoweth Lab
100 Holdsworth Way
Amherst, MA 01003
Ph: 413-545-1071
Fx: 413-545-1074
ecarbone@nutrition.umass.edu

As part of the University’s General Education Requirements, each student is required to fulfill a Basic Mathematics requirement. This requirement, more commonly known as your R1 requirement, can be fulfilled either by taking a course, or by getting a passing score on an R1 exemption exam. These exemption exams are given several times each semester.

The last exam for Fall 2012 will be held at 6:30pm in Marcus 131 on Monday, December 3. If you can’t make it, there will be 3 in the spring semester as well.

If you are interested in taking a course instead, you can search for a course which would fulfill the requirement by going to SPIRE, searching for classes normally, but then making sure to select the correct option within the drop down “Gen Ed Category”.

More information can be found here, for students having enrolled after Fall 2010, or here, for students who enrolled prior to Fall 2010. Finally, the General Education Program maintains a lot of frequently asked questions, which can be found here.

The American Bar Foundation will sponsor 4 students from diverse backgrounds to have a fellowship within a research-oriented career in the field of law and social science.

Taking place in Chicago, the Foundation conducts research on a broad range of issues. Current research includes:

- Professionalism and the transformation of the legal profession in the United States and abroad,
- The dynamics of employment discrimination disputes,
- The impact of civil rights law on the economic progress of minorities,
- Jury decision making,
- Public interest lawyering and social reform,
- Historical analyses of labor,
- Group libel, and regulatory law, and
- The role of law in racial relations,postcolonial settings, and globalization.

Students are eligible if they are

American citizens and lawful permanent residents including, but not limited to, persons who are African American, Hispanic/Latino, Native American, or Puerto Rican, as well as other individuals who will add diversity to the field of law and social science.

Additionally, applicants can only be sophomores and juniors, and must have not received a bachelor’s degree by the time the fellowship begins. They must also have a GPA of at least 3.0 and be moving or have a major in the social sciences or humanities.

Each accepted student will have a Professor and mentor who will be involved in a research project. Fellows will also have several seminars and field trips related to social science research. The students will work at their offices in Chicago, for 35 hours a week for 8 weeks, with a stipend of $3,600.

To apply, you will need

- A brief essay on the topics indicated in the application form
- Official transcripts of all academic courses completed at the time of application
- One letter of recommendation from a faculty member familiar with the student’s work
- Completed applications, including transcript and letter of recommendation

All of which is due no later than February 15, 2013. Awards will be announced by April 1, 2013. More information and application materials can be found on their website here.

The Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University is launching USAID’s Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship program. They want young people interested in careers in international development as USAID Foreign Service Officers.

The Payne Fellowship Program provides benefits valued at up to $90,000 over two years to fund a two-year master’s degree, arranges internships on Capitol Hill and at USAID missions overseas, and provides professional development and support activities…Fellows may use the fellowship to attend a two-year master’s program in a U.S. institution to study an area of relevance to the USAID Foreign Service. At the end of the two-year fellowship, Fellows enter the USAID Foreign Service.

To apply, you must be a senior in college, or looking to start graduate school in the fall of of 2013, must have a GPA of at least 3.2, and be a US citizen. Some frequently asked questions may be found here. The application deadline is January 23, 2013. You must have:

- A personal statement
- A statement from the applicant that discusses his/her need for financial assistance to attend graduate school
- Two letters of recommendation, one from a faculty member who is well acquainted with the individual, and one from a community leader or other individual who can comment on the applicant’s non-academic accomplishments and his/her potential to serve as a USAID Foreign Service Officer.
- Proof of U.S. citizenship
- Student Aid Report (SAR) generated from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) form.
- GRE or GMAT Scores
- Official Financial Aid Statement from your senior year, if you received financial aid.

The courses offered through Continuing and Professional Education (CPE) here at UMass take place over the course of both Fall and Spring, as well as Winter and Summer.

To register, an interested student needs to go through SPIRE in order to get a CPE Enrollment Appointment. However, SPIRE recently received a makeover, and the menu with many links, typically found on the left side of the screen, is no more. Instead, it has been replaced with a dropdown menu on the top of the screen. Go to the Main Menu -> Enrollment -> CPE Enroll Appointment. This will get you to a screen which at the bottom has a green link, called “Request CPE Enrollment Appointment”.

Finally, if you were wondering which courses you could take through CPE, Political Science and Legal Studies courses can be found here, with all classes for all majors listed here.

The Writing Program will be administering two instances of the writing placement exam, which does not require registration:

– Wednesday, November 7, 2012, 6:00pm-7:00pm, Location: Lederle Graduate Research Center 103
– Thursday, November 15, 2012, 6:00pm-7:00pm, Location: School of Management 133

This test is important, as students must take this course to be placed into College Writing (Englwrit 112), which, along with Basic Writing (Englwrit 111), must be satisfied to graduate. Students will take this test to determine which of the two is appropriate for them.

It consists in writing an essay in response to a short excerpt.

Placement essays should demonstrate clear organization, relevant support and examples, and an adequate understanding of sentence structure.

While you will mostly likely be placed into Basic Writing or College Writing, a few students may be waived from both based on their performance, but will not receive credit for this waiver.

For more information, contact Deirdre Vinyard, Placement Officer and Deputy Director of the Writing Program. For more information on the placement test, see this webpage.

Each Monday, the Political Science and Advising Blog will post announcements about internships or career opportunities that come across our desk. Remember that UMass Career Services also maintains a list of opportunities through CareerConnect.

INTERNSHIPS WITHIN MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR’S OFFICE
There are several departments that the office of Governor Patrick is looking to place unpaid interns into:
- Appointments
- Community Affairs
- Press
- New Media(Photo and Video)&Online Strategy
- Constituent Services
- Governor’s Council

As well as several others. You will need:

1. A cover letter
2. A resume
3. A writing sample (2-3 pages of a previously written paper)
4. Two (2) letters of recommendation (At least one from a current or former employer

You can submit your application via mail to Lauren Feltch – Internship Coordinator, Office of the Governor, State House, Room 271-M, Boston, MA 02133,(617) 725-4010 or via email at Lauren.Feltch@state.ma.us.

The deadline is November 16th. This internship is unpaid, but features a number of frequently asked questions, as well as an extensive listing of details on this webpage.

SUMMER JUNIOR RESIDENT FELLOWSHIP PROGRAM IN CAMBODIA
The Center for Khmer Studies sponsors 15 undergraduates, 5 of which come from America, to join a 6 week (from Monday June 24th, 2013 to Friday August 2nd, 2013), with an application deadline of April 1st, 2013.

The program occurs in English, with it being structured around

interactive classroom sessions from Monday-Friday (2 hours in length) held in the CKS conference and seminar facilities in Siem Reap, and classroom in Phnom Penh. Select field trips will include visits to historical and cultural sites in and around Siem Reap and Phnom Penh, and interactions with national and international NGOs.

You need to be an undergraduate and must hold United States, French or Cambodian citizenship. Graduating seniors are eligible. Additionally, you will need to submit:

1. Application form US Applications French Applications
2. A two page statement outlining why they want to join the program, how they think the program will help them in their future careers, as well as a summary of their topic of interest to be presented at the end of the course.
3. Scanned university transcripts with cumulative GPA (scale 1- 4) (Because of limited internet service please ensure your transcripts are sent using the smallest files available).
4. Two (2) recommendations from professors (these can be submitted electronically directly from professor from university/professional email address)

The program covers

tuition, accommodation (bed and breakfast), local transportation whilst taking part in program activities, books and study materials, and some field trip expenses such as entrance fees to historical and cultural sites. CKS has also made available small program grants, worth up to $800, to help with international air fares, visas, and medical insurance.

All else is provided by the fellows themselves.

To apply, or ask questions, contact Tith Srey Pich, at juniorfellowships@khmerstudies.org .

A recently created graduate fellowship, the Donald M. Payne International Development Graduate Fellowship program, sponsored by The Ralph J. Bunche International Affairs Center at Howard University, will launch on March 2, 2012.

This fellowship will develop graduates in careers as USAID Foreign Service Officers, which tend to work on international development. It provides benefits valued at up to $90,000 over two years, which will be used to fund a master’s degree, set up internships in Washington, and to travel to USAID locations overseas. After the fellowship, they enter the USAID Foreign Service.

Applicants must be college seniors or graduates looking to start graduate school in the fall of the year they apply and have GPAs of at least 3.2. To apply, you will need:
- Some basic personal information,
- A personal statement,
- A brief financial statement, stating your financial needs,
- Two letters of recommendation,
- Proof of your citizenship,
- A student aid report, available through FAFSA,
- GRE or GMAT scores,
- An official financial aid transcript from your senior year,
- A complete college transcript.

The application deadline is January 23, 2013. More complete information and application materials for the program are available at www.paynefellows.org.