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November Newsletter: Volume 1, issue 2

November 27, 2014

News

MPPPA Internship Program

On October 9, the MPPPA Internship Program hosted a campus visit by the Evaluation, Performance Measurement and Review Branch of Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada. The guest speakers explained the federal government’s interview and hiring processes, reviewed educational aspects of the internship experience, and provided details about security clearance. The dynamic format of the presentation — the MPPPA students were put into groups to compete in providing answers to potential interview questions and they were evaluated on their success — provided students with a better understanding of how to succeed in an interview for an internship with the federal government.

FRONT ROW: (left to right) Qiang Hsu, Maria Allaham, Diana Dobrovetsky, Marina Revelli, Martin Gautron BACK ROW: (left to right) Ben Hayes, Matthew Scott-Moncrieff, Daniel Adams, Isabelle Bhola, Eve Pankovitch

This year’s Open House on November 7, was a great success. Those participating were Rick Bisaillon from the faculty, Mounir Katul, Jocelyn McGrandle, Özge Uluskaradag and Teodora Mihaylova from the PSGSA; and Gemma Acco and Fiona Schlumberger from the PSSA.

On November 24, the International Political Science Association (IPSA) Secretariat hosted a meeting with the China Party History Research Center, organized by the Beijing-based Canada China Economic and Cultural Centre (CCECC), one of the organizations approved by the Chinese government for international technical and scientific cooperation and exchange. Concordia’s President and Vice Chancellor Dr. Alan Shepard spoke at the meeting, which aimed to provide information about the history, system, and operations of Canadian political parties to the 23 delegates in attendance. The event was a success and a great opportunity for Concordia University to consolidate its relationships with Chinese academic authorities.

On November 5-7, Eve Pankovitch conducted on-site interviews with this semester’s group of nine interns in Ottawa and their public service employers. Reports were extremely positive, and one employer noted that she was recently asked by a colleague where she obtained such impressive interns! The interviews were followed by a briefing session between the MPPPA Director Brooke Jeffrey and the interns. In addition a meet and greet event took place on Thursday evening at Milestones, where many interns and alumni gathered to share experiences and exchange views: The 5 à 7 turned into a 5 à 9. Photo of nine interns are below.

Publications

Csaba Nikolenyi’s new book titled Institutional Design and Party Government in Post-Communist Europe was just released on October 30, 2014, by Oxford University Press. The book examines the institutional foundations of coalition government in ten post-communist states in Eastern and Central Europe from 1990 until 2010 and argues that differences in the arrangement of political institutions explain patterns of multi-party government.

Csaba Nikolenyi published a chapter entitled “Party System Institutionalization in India” in Allen Hicken and Erik Kuhonta’s co-edited book Party System Institutionalization in Asia (Cambridge University Press).

Csaba Nikolenyi published a chapter entitled “The Selection and De-Selection of Cabinet Ministers in India” in Keith Dowding and Patrick Dumont’s co-edited book The Selection and De-Selection of Political Elites Outside Europe (Routledge).

Ceren Belge published a co-authored article (with Lisa Blaydes) titled “Social Capital and Dispute Resolution in Informal Areas of Cairo and Istanbul” in Studies in Comparative International Development.

Daniel Douek published a book review of Timothy Gibbs’, Mandela’s Kinsmen: Nationalist Elites and Apartheid’s First Bantustan (Oxford: James Currey) in Journal of Modern African Studies Vol. 52, No. 4 (forthcoming).

Recent Presentations

Travis Smith gave an invited lecture at The College of the Humanities at Carleton University in Ottawa, titled "Earth’s Mightiest Characters" (November 6).

Csaba Nikolenyi presented a paper at the 30th Annual Meeting of the Association of Israel Studies in Sde Boker, Israel, titled “Institutional and Strategic Foundations of Party Switching in the Knesset” (June 23-25).

Csaba Nikolenyi presented a paper at the 3rd Annual Meeting of the European Association of Israel Studies in London, United Kingdom, titled “Party Defections in the Knesset” (September 14-16).

Csaba Nikolenyi presented a paper at the Workshop on the Legal Regulation of Political Parties held under the auspices of the Annual Meeting of the Australian Political Science Association, titled “Why Do Parliaments Adopt Anti-Defection Laws? The Tale of Three Cases: Israel, India and Canada” (September 28).

Csaba Nikolenyi presented a paper at the Australian National University’s Center for European Studies, titled “Presidents and Parliaments: The Institutional Foundation of Divided Government in Post-Communist Europe” (September 30).

Csaba Nikolenyi authored a guest post on the Presidential Power blog titled “Indirectly Elected Presidents: The Importance of the Rules of the Game.” Available at presidential-power.com/?p=2103

Jim Moore presented a paper entitled “From Pufendorf to Adam Smith" and chaired a panel on "Early Modern Explorations" for the Research Committee on Political Philosophy at the IPSA conference in Montreal in July.

Jim Moore presented a paper titled "The Pyrrhonian Controversy and the Passions" at the conference Dignity, Respect and Esteem in 17th and 18th-century Moral Philosophy before Kant at the University of Lausanne (September 5).

Jim Moore delivered a plenary lecture to a joint conference of the Canadian Society for Eighteenth-Century Studies and the Eighteenth-Century Scottish Studies Society at the Hotel Delta and UQAM (October 16).

Mireille Paquet presented on Québec’s immigration policies at the Annual Pathways to Prosperity Conference in Montreal, on November 24.

Daniel Douek gave a presentation at the African Studies Association conference in Indianapolis titled "Chris Hani: Assassinating the Subaltern" (November 22).

Daniel Douek, MIGS' new Research Fellow, gave a seminar entitled “Informers, Intelligence Recruitment, and Apartheid Counterinsurgency” at Concordia University (November 7) and at Northwestern University's African Studies Program (November 18).

Ryan Hipgrave (Undergraduate Student, Political Science Department) presented a paper entitled "The Pig at the Pork Store: How The Sopranos Changed Law Enforcement on American Television" at the Popular Culture and World Politics Conference hosted by the University of Ottawa (November 21-22).

Kudos

Congratulations to Shoghig Mikaelian, who has been awarded the Concordia University Retired Faculty and Staff Graduate Award.

Congratulations to Ginta Cojocaru, who was the Governor General’s Silver Medal recipient for having the highest GPA of the graduating class for the Faculty of Arts and Science. Currently, she is a B.C.L./LL.B. (Bachelor of Civil Law/Bachelor of Laws) candidate at McGill University.

Congratulations to Mona Tajali, who accepted a nine-month postdoctoral research fellowship at Oxford University’s St. Anthony’s College in the School of Interdisciplinary Area Studies, Middle East Studies Program. Mona recently completed her Ph.D. under the supervision of Homa Hoodfar, Kimberley Manning, and Lynda Clarke in the Interdisciplinary Humanities Program at Concordia.

Congratulations to our students who were invited to be honoured at this year’s Arts and Science Awards Evening on October 15: Jenna Albanese, Charlotte Baigent, Louie Carlos, Ginta Cojocaru, Yann Grand-Clément, Félix-Olivier Hébert, Connor Mellegers, Rachel Miletti, Isaac Paonessa, and Zachariah Su.

Congratulations to Csaba Nikolenyi who was awarded funding under the Aid to Research Related Events, Exhibition, Publication and Dissemination Activities Program for his project entitled: The 31st Annual Meeting of the Association for Israel Studies Theme: Sustainable Israel: A Changing Society in the 21st Century.

Media Appearances

Amy Poteete’s article “How the Rules are Privileging Botswana’s Ruling Party” appeared in The Monkey Cage Blog of The Washington Post (4 November 2014):
www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/monkey-cage/wp/2014/11/04/how-the-rules-are-privileging-botswanas-ruling-party/

Rejoinder to "Democracy Derailed? Botswana's Facing Halo" from John Holm and response by Amy Poteete, posted on 3 November 2014 as “Botswana’s Democracy: On Course or Derailing?”(africaplus.wordpress.com/2014/11/03/botswana-democracy-on-course-or-derailing/#more-945) and reposted to allAfrica.com as “Debating Botswana’s Democracy” on 4 November 2014 (allafrica.com/view/group/main/main/id/00033632.html).

Amy Poteete had numerous media interviews about the Botswana elections of October 24th, 2014 by outlets such as Reuters (by email), American Public Media's Marketplace program (NPR) (by telephone), Radio France Internationale’s English service (by telephone), and Dutch/UK press (by email/telephone).

All of these recent media appearances led to Amy Poteete becoming Concordia’s Newsmaker of the Week during the last week of October.

Daniel Douek was interviewed in La Presse for the following article on the Oscar Pistorius trial in South Africa: plus.lapresse.ca/screens/298213c0-b80a-43bc-b667-907f8254ef0e%7C_0.html

Mireille Paquet participated in a talk-back round table based on the play Refuge (by Mary Vingoe), during the week long event on the impacts of war, organized by Montreal's Imago Theatre around Remembrance Day.

An article in a special ageing-focused edition of Québec Science (November 2014) describes the research findings of Louis Bherer, scientific director of the PERFORM Centre, as well as those of Patrik Marier – PERFORM research member and professor in the Department of Political Science and director of the Centre for Research and Expertise in Social Gerontology.

Theses and Internship Defenses

Congratulations to André Rochon who successfully defended his internship report entitled “International Policy Implementation at the United Nations” on October 21, 2014, under the supervision of Dr. Harold Chorney, second reader Dr. Tina Hilgers and chaired by Dr. Brooke Jeffrey.

Congratulations to Daniela Valencia who successfully defended her internship report entitled “Evaluation Use by International Organizations: Examining the Impact Evaluation Knowledge on the World Meteorological Organization and the Inter national Civil Aviation Organization” on October 28, 2014, under the Supervision of Dr. Mireille Paquet, second reader Dr. Amy Poteete and chaired by Dr. Brooke Jeffrey.

Congratulations to Andrea Shlien who successfully defended her internship report entitled: “A Critical Analysis of Transport Canada’s Safety Measures for the TDG by Rail: The Application of John Kingdon’s Multiple Streams Model” on November 20th, 2014, under the Supervision of Dr. Daniel Salee, second reader Dr. Stephanie Paterson and chaired by Dr. Brooke Jeffrey.

Congratulations to Kayla Chiricosta who successfully defended her internship report entitled: “The Role of Advocacy Coalitions in the Development of the Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act” on November 19th, 2014, under the Supervision of Dr. Jean Mayer, second reader Dr. Axel Huelsemeyer and chaired by Dr. Stephanie Paterson.

Good luck to André, Daniela, Andrea and Kayla in all their endeavours.