This past week our department convened to attend the Senior Capstone presentations of our students who are completing POSC 396 this spring. Senior and junior POSC majors presented work on topics ranging from “Democracy and Drama: Political Themes in Aeschylus’ The Oresteia, Euripides’ Electra, and Sophocles’ Electra” to “Neorealism and International Organizations: Earmarked Funding in the UN System” to “From Constraint to Mission: USACE and Environmental Protection” to “#MeToo: An Analysis of the Political Movement against Sexual Violence.” Two intense sessions of student presentations of work in progress were followed by our buffet dinner and a photo shoot of student presenters with their faculty supervisors (see the photos on our Facebook page). As always, I was impressed by the professional nature of our students’ presentations and the facility, insight, and grace with which they responded to challenging questions.  Congratulations to all the students who presented their work on Wednesday!

The Senior Capstone projects are part of the criteria considered for awarding three new prizes for graduating political science majors this year, one for each graduating senior POSC major who has done outstanding work in one of the three major subfields in which we offer courses. These prizes are:

1. The Comparative Politics Prize, for outstanding academic performance in comparative politics by a graduating senior majoring in political science;
2. The International Relations Prize, for outstanding academic performance in international relations by a graduating senior majoring in political science; and
3. The US Politics Prize, for outstanding academic performance in US politics by a graduating senior majoring in political science.

Each award is a cash prize of $350, to be first awarded in May 2019. Students eligible for each subfield prize will be nominated by their senior capstone advisors. I look forward to awarding these prizes at the Senior Prizes Ceremony on May 18. Our Department is grateful to an anonymous donor whose generosity funds these prizes.

As we approach the final week of classes and move into reading days and final exams, we all – faculty, students, and staff – are anxious and feeling overburdened with work and real deadlines. Nonetheless, we have good news to celebrate for our students and for our alumni. Congratulations to POSC major Gillian Prater-Lee for her admission to the summer program on Spatial Models and Electoral Districting Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) at the University of Washington-Tacoma and the University of Puget Sound. Ms. Prater-Lee has a strong interest in voting rights and has been prepared for the RUE by her POSC coursework in Comparative Political Parties, US Political Parties, and Research Methods. Ms. Prater-Lee is a double major in Political Science and Mathematics, with a Minor in Social Justice. Congratulations, Gillian! Congratulations as well to our alumna Hayley Rassuchine, who will attend New York University’s School of Law, which has awarded her a scholarship that will cover tuition for all three years. She previously served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. Congratulations, Hayley!

These are just two examples of the good news that continues to be reported to our Department. As I met yesterday morning with admitted students at the Admissions Open House and talked to them about our Department and our current students, I was reinspired by the record of our students’ and our faculty’s accomplishments, and by the collegiality and cooperative spirit that our students share with each other. I thank all of our students, and our POSC majors and minors, for their excellent example and for helping to create the context within which the next entering class will be welcomed.

With all best wishes,
Karen

Karen Beckwith
Flora Stone Mather Professor and Chair
Department of Political Science