Welcome to the December edition of Political Pulse. We have some exciting news and events to share with you. Included in the newsletter are the following:

1. A feature on visiting scholar Dr. Ommar Abbasi who is joining us this year and will be teaching two courses in the Winter 2024 term: POLS 1300 and 2880.

2. Dr. Geoffrey Callaghan will be presenting a talk for CRRAR on Friday December 1st, for CRRAR at 3:00pm in CHN 1163.

3. Registration is open for the Winter term of Reading Liberty.

4. The Library is open for students to relax and have a quiet study space.

5. The Model NATO team has been selected and are seeking your support.

As we close 2023, I hope you're all doing well and enjoying the last few weeks of the semester. It always seems to me that by December, I am done with the year and looking forward to the next. I am aware that this has been especially difficult time for many and the one thing we could probably agree is that we hope the future is brighter in 2024.

I want to wish you all a happy holiday season and a wonderful new year. You deserve some rest and relaxation after all your hard work. Thank you for being part of this amazing department.

We hope you enjoy this newsletter and find it useful. As always, we welcome your feedback and suggestions. Please feel free to contact me at [email protected]. Thank you for being part of our community!

Q: What inspired you to become a professor?

A: At a young age, probably in my 20s, I found I could make an impact as a professor because I realized how important professors are in society. They change society for the better. And I realized that it can be selfish if you only work for your own well-being rather than to work to improve other people’s lives.

 Q: What is your area of research?

A: I am particularly interested in: 1) political science, 2) leadership, 3) public policy, 4) critical theory, and 5) religion and politics. But I am also critical about over-specialization and over-compartmentalization. Although it is good in the sense that it produces experts, which is very important, I also like to get a comprehensive idea of broader knowledge. I think overspecialization is one of the reasons why we have fewer polymaths nowadays.

 Q: What courses are you teaching this semester?

A: I am currently teaching war and terrorism.

 Q; How difficult are your courses?

A: My courses challenge my students but they are designed so that if you come to class prepared, contribute, and listen to your fellow classmates, you should not have to worry about failing. My students enjoy my classes precisely because I have designed them in a way where learning and not grades are the main priority. And I am very happy to say that my students by and large have learned so much in my classes.

 Q: Do you have any tips on how to succeed in university?

A: Have a passion about what you’re studying, but also realize that keeping that passion alive can be hard because life is unpredictable. I tell students two things: 1) dreaming without action and action without direction are both a waste of time. If you act without a sense of direction, that is also a waste. Make sure that you act but with a sense of direction. 2) Enjoy the process even if there are highs and lows. Because you should not expect life to be a smooth ride. Enjoy every step of the way even if it seems difficult. Every step of the way is the present, and the goal is the future. There will be distractions along the way and that’s ok, but stay focused on the goal.

 Q: What are your favorite hobbies?

A: I love playing badminton and tennis because it requires skill but also use of the mind to strategize. It helps keep me active and engaged but also healthy, and I believe that an active brain is a healthy brain. I also enjoy thinking and reflecting a lot.

 Q: What is your favorite part of being at UWindsor?

A: I love teaching and interacting with students. UWindsor is by far the best workplace I have ever been a part of in my career, and I really want to express how overwhelmed I’ve felt by the love and support I have received from students and faculty here.

Reading Liberty for Winter 2024 is now open for applicants.

It has become fashionable to argue that something has gone wrong on many college campuses in the last few years. Speakers are shouted down. Students and professors say they are walking on eggshells and are afraid to speak honestly. Rates of anxiety, depression, and suicide are rising—on campus as well as nationally. How did this happen?

First Amendment expert Greg Lukianoff and social psychologist Jonathan Haidt show how the new problems on campus have their origins in three terrible ideas that have become increasingly woven into American childhood and education: What doesn’t kill you makes you weaker; always trust your feelings; and life is a battle between good people and evil people. These three Great Untruths contradict basic psychological principles about well-being and ancient wisdom from many cultures.  Embracing these untruths—and the resulting culture of safetyism—interferes with young people’s social, emotional, and intellectual development. It makes it harder for them to become autonomous adults who are able to navigate the bumpy road of life.

Lukianoff and Haidt investigate the many social trends that have intersected to promote the spread of these untruths. They explore changes in childhood such as the rise of fearful parenting, the decline of unsupervised, child-directed play, and the new world of social media that has engulfed teenagers in the last decade. They examine changes on campus, including the corporatization of universities and the emergence of new ideas about identity and justice. They situate the conflicts on campus within the context of America’s rapidly rising political polarization and dysfunction.

Sign up today for your free book and chance to participate in lively discussion!

The FAHSS Co-op application is now open on MySuccess. The deadline for applications is Monday, January 8th at 4pm.

Co-op work semesters allow students to complete a four-year Honours Degree while gaining the equivalent of one year of career-related work experience. By combining semesters of classroom study with semesters of full-time, paid employment in career-related positions, you will have the best of both worlds as you apply your formal learning to the workplace, and vice versa.

If you are a first year student consider applying for the Co-op program.

Ignite student Emily MacIntyre has completed the organization of the department’s library.

The political science library contained a few shelves and many unorganized books. The books and the furniture were cleared out, so the walls in the room could be painted over reading week. Once the painting had been completed, the furniture was rearranged. The political science library now contains more shelves for the books, a worktable, and a couch. The books were organized into the categories of Canadian Politics, American Politics, Latin-American Politics, International Politics, Comparative Politics, Religion, Conspiracy, Canadian Journals, Social Statistics, and Political Research Methods. The bookshelves were labelled as the appropriate categories.

The library is open during normal working hours and all students are invited to drop by the library to take a book, or just have a quiet space to read and reflect.

Faculty are encouraged to donate any books that they no longer are using.

We are writing to you as members of the Model NATO Club at the University Windsor. We are a group of students who are passionate about international relations and diplomacy, and who participate in simulations of NATO decision-making processes. We have been selected to represent the Department of Political Science at the Model NATO Conference in Ottawa, Canada, from February 22^nd to 25th, 2024. This is a prestigious and competitive event that will allow us to interact with students from other universities, learn from experts and practitioners, and develop our skills and knowledge.

However, attending this conference requires a significant amount of funding. The total cost per student is estimated at $602 which includes registration fees, transportation, accommodation, and meals. Unfortunately, our university does not provide any financial support for extracurricular activities, and most of us cannot afford to pay this amount out of pocket. Therefore, we are reaching out to you, our alumni, to ask for your generous contribution to our fundraising campaign. Any amount you can donate will make a difference and help us achieve our goal of $3,705 for 3 delegates.

We believe that participating in the Model NATO Conference will be a valuable and rewarding experience for us and for our university. It will also strengthen the ties between our club and the alumni network and create opportunities for future collaboration and mentorship. We would be very grateful if you could support us in this endeavor and share this letter with your contacts who might be interested in donating as well.

To make a donation, please visit https://www.uwindsor.ca/supportuwindsor/Political Science. You can also follow our progress and updates on our Instagram @windsormnato. If you have any questions or suggestions, please feel free to contact Dr. Miljan. [email protected].

Thank you for your time and generosity.

 Sincerely,

 The Model NATO Club

• Geoffrey Callaghan will be presenting a talk, “What Protest Can Teach Us About Regulating Online Misinformation” for CRRAR on Friday December 1 at 3:00 pm in CHN 1163. All are welcome

• Recent graduate, Lila Iriburiro Happy wrote the lead article in the inaugural UWill Discover Journal: Sustainable Futures, “African Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Experts at the Intersect of Environmental Sustainability and Legal Precedent”. Her paper was among the top honours for the entire UWill Discover conference as she was able to tie in many of the conference themes. She also won the EDID aware.

• Emmanuelle Richez participated in the Northeastern Political Science Association annual meeting in Boston from November 2^nd  to 4^th  at the Omni Parker House Hotel. Dr. Richez presented a paper titled "Lost in Translation? How Culture and Language Are Shaping the Tone, Structure, and Focus of Constituent Communication in Canada," which was co-written with Dr. Vincent Raynauld who is an Associated Professor of Communications at Emerson College. Victorieuse Sambao, a first year undergraduate student in our department, was the research assistant for this paper.

• November 24 - December 3 - “The Play that goes Wrong”- University Players - Essex Hall Theatre

• December 6th - Last day of Fall 2023 classes

• December 8th - GRAD: Deadline for deposit step #1 of 3 for completion within Fall term 2023...

• December 9-20 - Final exams for Fall 2023

• December 15th Fees Due: Winter 2024

• December 21 - Alternate Final Exam day

• December 22 - Grad: Deadline to complete deposit steps #2 and #3 for completion within Fall term 2023

• December 23-January 2, 2024 - University Closed for December Holiday recess

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