As a senior, I so often hear my peers speak of what sound like incredibly interesting projects for their seminars, their independent studies and their theses, yet rarely have I had the opportunity to learn more about their actual research and driving academic passions. The “Political Transformations in the Middle East” student conference aims to change this status quo. This Wednesday, Nov. 13 from 4 to 7 p.m. in Main Street West above Harris Dining Hall, 24 students in the Government and International Relations Departments will be presenting their independent research.
The students are enrolled in Professor Caroleen Sayej’s courses GOV 238: Middle East Politics and GOV 493: The Iraq War. Additionally, Sarah Huckins ’14 is conducting an independent study that thematically matches up with both courses. The student conference will be a culminating effort of Professor Sayej, her students and the Academic Resource Center (ARC). Professor Sayej recalls originally approaching Dr. Noel Garrett, Director of ARC with the idea, saying, “I wanted to add something innovative to the classroom. I wanted to do something proactive, real.” It was then that she decided to organize both of her Middle Eastern courses around the idea of political transformation.
Every Friday this semester, the students have been meeting for their “lab day,” which Garrett has been facilitating in terms of research, literature reviews, posters and presentations. Professor Sayej stressed that these workshops are “empowering students to work with raw data,” and that, “the students are so motivated, so it’s a whole new level of real, tangible learning.” Garrett added that they’re presently “at a point in the semester when the students’ motivations are at an all-time high.”
Professor Sayej spoke highly of the richness of the topics of students’ research. Marina Sachs’ ’15 research is entitled, “Expression Under Censorship: Iranian Street Art and the Nature of Political Participation in Authoritarian Settings.” Sachs commented, “Being able to combine an academically rigorous research with my own artistic curiosity and passion for creating graffiti has been amazing, and I am so thankful for Professor Sayej for encouraging me to challenge myself to choose a unique topic that I can feel passionately about.”
Conor McCormick-Cavanagh ’14 is analyzing “the relationship between Iraq and Israel after Iraq’s transition from authoritarianism to democracy in 2003.” It is entitled, “From Baghdad to Tel Aviv: A Critique of Democratic Peace Theory.”
Huckins’ independent study is titled, “Legitimacy in Words and in Action: The Jordanian Regime’s Maintenance of Stability Amid Arab Spring Protests.” It analyzes “the legitimating strategies King Abdullah II employed in order to maintain the stability of his regime in the context of Arab Spring protests… and argues that the stability of King Abdullah’s rule rests upon two pillars of legitimacy, those of concrete reform and symbolic rhetoric.”
Huckins said of the event, “I’m really looking forward to the conference; I think the poster presentations will be a great way for everyone to illustrate [his or her] research. I’m excited to see what everyone has been working on.”
Lauren Schumacher ’14 agreed with Huckins, “I think that the conference will be a really great way to showcase the research that so many students are doing here and the way that we have the opportunity to truly delve into topics that we find interesting. It will be interesting to not only share the work we do but also learn from everyone else’s research, as so many unique topics are being presented.
As Professor Sayej mentioned, this conference will essentially allow students to present their own research in a similar manner to how faculty would present theirs. “I am very excited for this conference. It will hopefully provide a great opportunity to show Conn’s professors the different topics that we have spent the semester focusing our research on. I am always intrigued by the different types of research that professors focus on during their sabbaticals. Now we get to share our research with them and intrigue them with our work,” added McCormick-Cavanagh.
Earlier this semester, ARC hosted their inaugural student conference, the Science Poster Conference. Garrett said, “We were just happy to have students come talk because it signified to others that there were opportunities.” The Political Transformations in the Middle East conference will be on a much larger scale; Garrett hopes to have four to five conferences of this magnitude per year in the future. He said that the conferences enable students and professors to appreciate the impressive research being showcased, in the sense that, “‘Wow… This is happening here.’”
Sachs said, “[As a member of] the IR/Gov. Student Advisory Board, this conference is an exciting opportunity to see the feasibility of holding conferences like these in the future, say for other independent study or honors theses students.”
ARC has three broad areas covering the resources they provide to Connecticut College students: individual coaching and tutoring; workshops that are designed to enhance skills ranging from note-taking to studying for final exams; and helping many seniors through their final papers, independent studies and theses. Garrett said of their community involvement next semester, “We will be tackling the Student Academic Fair in the spring.”
And their work certainly does not go unappreciated. Schumacher commented, “They have worked a lot with us on presentation skills such as creating a poster that effectively presents our material in a way that viewers can easily understand.”
“Noel Garrett has been great to work with. He’s very intelligent, helpful, personable and just a delight. He really helped me clarify the exact focuses of my project… He also wrote his really thoughtful dissertation on schizophrenia, which I’ve always been interested in, so he’s even cooler. I’ve fine-tuned the skill of poli-sci research. It ain’t easy, but it’s gratifying for sure.”
Sachs agreed, saying, “Noel has been incredibly helpful in providing guidance to our classes’ research and poster presentations. I worked closely with him to design the conference theme and logo, and he was beyond receptive to the creation of my artwork and making it work within the framework of political science research.”
Huckins echoed this sentiment, expressing her gratitude for “all the hard work that ARC has put into helping to organize this conference. Noel is an amazing resource, and I am so appreciative of his willingness to meet with students and help them with their research.”
The event, open to the public, will be fair-style, in which attendees and participants can feel free to mingle and discuss the in-depth research that has previously been largely behind the scenes for the Government and International Relations Departments. Appropriately, Middle Eastern food and pastries will be served. •
