Welcome

Welcome to the world of Politics & International Affairs! 

Our department’s focus is both domestic and international, with particular strengths in environmental politics and sustainability, political economy of development, and politics of diversity.

We offer undergraduate and graduate courses in:

• American politics
• international relations and comparative politics
• public policy
• public administration
• theory

The results from the UCLA Module United Nations conference are here; NAU traveled with a team of 50 undergraduate students to California from April 4-6, 2014. Ten students won awards. Those students include:

John Kelly, undergraduate senior, won the Outstanding Diplomacy award at the World MUN conference in Brussels! Congratulations, John! The Harvard World MUN conference hosted more than 2000 students from 60 countries. Eight NAU undergraduates represented NAU at the conference.

Also, congratulations to undergraduate Claire Bergstresser who was awarded Outstanding Delegate at the University of California Berkeley's MUN conference.

Three undergraduates representing NAU, Rebecca Andryushchenko, Shilo Rynn, and Nick Schlegel, brought home awards from the National Model UN conference. The conference took place in Washington D.C. during the last weekend in October 2013. Of 100 universities represented at the conference, these students earned an honorable mention, placing in the top tier of delegations for the entire conference! NAU stood out as a global competitor and established themselves as a force to be reckoned with at this year's national conference. Additionally, the MUN team returned from the University of California at Santa Barbara MUN conference with excellent news. The NAU team, which includes 27 undergraduate students, received the high honor of Distinguished Delegation. The NAU team placed higher than teams from Stanford, USC, UCLA, ASU and UofA. In addition, the following students received individual awards.

• John Kelly, Outstanding Delegate
• Greg Goekler, Outstanding Delegate
• Greg Wilson, Distinguished Delegate
• Claire Bergstresser, Distinguished Delegate (first time conference attendee)

Learn more about MUN:

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The Model United Nations Club at NAU demonstrated excellent, professionalism, and ranks as a global competitor at MUN events this year! Special thanks and congratulations to John Kelly, the current president of the MUN club, for his commitment, hard work, and leadership. Nationally, NAU is ranked in the top 75 for North American teams! What an accomplishment!

Undergraduates Rivera and Stump earn debate awards

During spring break NAU RS, Brandon Rivera and Nick Stump earned the following debate awards:

• 3rd place at the National Parliamentary Tournament of Excellence (NPTE)
• Quarter-finalist at the National Parliamentary Debate Association Championships

Here is the semi final round at NPTE: 

The affirmative team is from Lewis and Clark College. They read an argument rooted in Hip Hop Feminist principles. We are on the negative. We read an argument modeled after Joel Olson's The Abolition of White Democracy.

Candice Giffin, a double major in the Department of Politics & International Affairs, was awarded the Environmental Professionals of Arizona (EPAZ) scholarship on Tuesday, February 11th, 2014, at the organization's annual conference in Phoenix.

The award recognized Candice's commitment to sustainability and campus stewardship while at NAU.

Congratulations, Candice!

In Memorium, Geeta Chowdhry, Ph.D.

Teacher, Mentor, Friend

1956 - 2014

Learn more about the life and legacy of Geeta Chowdhry, Ph.D. Condolences and memories may be shared on this Facebook page.

Faculty news & updates

Lori Poloni-Staudinger, associate professor in the Department of Politics & International Affairs, along with Candice Ortbals of Pepperdine University, coauthored “Gendering Abbottabad: Agency and Hegemonic Masculinity in an Age of Global Terrorism,” in the January 2014 issue of Gender Issues journal.

Poloni-Staudinger also recently signed a learning agreement grant with the Kettering Foundation. As part of the agreement, she will collaborate with the foundation to research democratic capacity-building associated with statewide issue forums. Poloni-Staudinger has been serving for the last year as statewide coordinator of Arizona Deliberates, a collaborative effort between Poloni-Staudinger at NAU and partners at Maricopa Community College District and Our Family Services, a non-profit in Pima County. The learning agreement will investigate how coordination of statewide forums can increase democratic capacity at both a state and local level, thereby ameliorating a democracy void in Arizona.

• NAU Experience named Gretchen Gee, John Hultgren, Stephen Nuno, Mark Montoya and Naomi Pinion, PhDs, for outstanding teaching, reported by NAU sophomores.
• Professor Jacqueline Vaughn, PhD just released a new book, Philanthropy and the National Park Service with Palgrave Macmillan Publishers.. The book, co-authored with Dr. Hanna Cortner, formerly of NAU, explores the relationship between private philanthropy and non-profit organizations, called friends groups and cooperating associations, that support specific national park units. The research for the book, which outlines financial and volunteer support for the nation's 401 national parks, was conducted during Dr. Vaughn's sabbatical.
• Professor Paul Lenze, PhD will serve as a reviewer of applications for the prestigious Boren Award program and will serve as an expert in the areas of Middle East, North Africa, and South Asia
• Professor Jacqueline Vaughn, PhD will be presenting a paper, "Frosting or Cake? Philanthropy, Nonprofit Partnerships and the National Park Service" at the annual meeting of the Southern Political Science Association in New Orleans in January. She will also be serving as a chair of a panel on Executive Powers and Executive Privilege, and as discussant on a panel on Environmental Policymaking at the Local Level.
• Professor Zach Smith, PhD is publishing two books with Routledge Press UK: Sustainability: If it is Everything it is Nothing (published with Heather Farley, PhD) and What is Water Worth? (published with Kira Russo). Professor Smith also signed a book contract with Routledge for a book tentatively titled Why REDD Will Fail (forthcoming 2014). 
• Professor Zach Smith, PhD will present "Administering Public Art Programs in Arizona's Cities and Towns: Development, Operation, and Promotion" at the International Society of Management and Behavioral Sciences Conference in Montreal. A publication with the same name is currently under review for publication in the Journal of Arts Management.
• Professor Zach Smith, PhD will present "Building Civic Engagement Through Public Art" at the Southern Political Science Association Conference in New Orleans (January 2014).
• Professor Paul Lenze, PhD will present "Civil-Military Relations in the Middle East: Leadership Traits of Egyptian Military Officers" at the Southern Political Science Association Conference in New Orleans (January 2014).
• Professor Paul Lenze, PhD will present "Death Knell for Democracy?: Civil-Military Relations in 1991 Algeria and 2013 Egypt" at the Western Political Science Association Conference in Seattle (March 2014).
• Congratulations Professor Paul Lenze, PhD on forthcoming book publication Civil-Military Relations in "Islamic Democracies": Military Intervention & Withdrawal in Algeria, Egypt, Pakistan, and Turkey contracted with First Forum Press.

Contact Information

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  Fred Solop, PhD

  Department Chair
  Fred.Solop@nau.edu

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  Carol Thompson, PhD

  Graduate Coordinator
  Carol.Thompson@nau.edu

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  Stephen Nuño, PhD

  Undergraduate Coordinator
  Stephen.Nuno@nau.edu

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  Laurie Gilbreth

  Administrative Associate and Graduate Program Administrator
  Laurie.Gilbreth@nau.edu

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  Amanda Garrison

  Administrative Assistant and Travel Administrator
  Amanda.Garrison@nau.edu

Politics & International Affairs street address

Department of Politics and International Affairs
Raul H. Castro Social and Behavioral Sciences
5 E. McConnell Dr.
Flagstaff, AZ. 86011