The Divided Lands course focuses on states in their post-conflict transitions; this winter term, the class is in the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. Political Science professors Baris Kesgin and Safia Swimelar co-lead the class for a third time.

Recently, the students, Kesgin, and Swimelar spent a full day with the United Nations Peacekeeping Force in Cyprus (UNFICYP), met with the international organization���s representatives on the ground and visited various locations under the United Nations��� (UN) control. The group met with the UN Good Offices Mission leaders, UN Police officers, and then joined a walking tour of the old airport of the Cypriot capital (pictured) and of the buffer zone.�� The decayed airport appears as it did when it was abandoned in 1974 during the military conflict.

���The UN briefing and tour of the abandoned Nicosia International Airport and buffer zone provided rare insight into peacekeeping in Cyprus and the costs of war,” said Hayes Johnson ’28. “The buffer zone was in a state of decay, used only for UN patrols and receiving minimal maintenance or reinforcement in the hope of an eventual reunification that never seems to come. This experience made clear that peace is something that must be actively defended through constant effort, not complacency.���

���The airport still had boarding passes on the floor and colorful airline advertisements on the walls, and houses still had scarves hanging in the closets and half-used bars of soap in the kitchen,” said Kate Gray ’27. “It was moving to see all these personal items that had been ruined by time and the elements and will probably never be reunited with their owners. We were lucky to have really knowledgeable guides who explained significant areas and gave us time to explore the space and immerse ourselves.���

Cyprus became an independent state in 1960, and shortly after, experienced violent clashes between the Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities on the island by late 1963. The UN forces arrived in 1964 and have remained on the island since then to prevent conflict escalation between the two communities. In 1974, the two sides were divided along a buffer zone managed by the United Nations.

For Claire Blatt ���26, the visit with the UN ���made the fragile nature of this “peace” painfully clear. The walk along the Green Line and through the abandoned airport felt surreal and heavy; there were tens of cars left untouched covered by decades of debris, homes reclaimed by nature, personal belongings scattered as if people meant to return. It was impossible not to think about the lives interrupted there, and to realize that what can seem distant or abstract to outsiders is a lived reality of loss, fear, and uncertainty for those who call Cyprus home.���

This year, the class ran into the president of the Republic of Cyprus, Nikos Christodoulides in the streets of Nicosia. The president spared some time to chat with the group before he greeted his official guest, the President of the European Commission Ursula von der Leyen. The president then introduced the group to von der Leyen. Both presidents expressed appreciation for American students��� interest in Cyprus, Europe, and cultural exchange. They also emphasized the importance of close relations between the United States and Europe.

Kesgin and Swimelar designed the course in 2019 and led its first cohort in 2022. One of the key motivations for the duo was to add ���off the beaten path��� study abroad destinations. The destinations of the course, Cyprus and Bosnia & Herzegovina (the past two iterations), represent a major contribution to Elon���s faculty-led study abroad programs for its geographic locations. Furthermore, the course���s thematic emphases on post-conflict societies and navigating multiple ethnic and religious identities in transition, domestic and international peacebuilding efforts, and complicated intersections of memory, narrative, and truth-telling relate the course to students��� multiple academic interests.

While the students attain foundational knowledge about divided lands such as Cyprus in the pre-departure course, they meet with a diverse array of domestic and international actors during the travel class. These meetings include major non-governmental organizations (such as civil society members, journalists, academics), international actors (US Embassy, United Nations personnel, the European Union, among others), as well as their peers (such as university students).

Anastasia Feldman ���28 said: ���Here in Cyprus, we���ve been exposed to a lot of differing perspectives, activities, and cultural experiences that I���m grateful to see and do,” said Anastasia Feldman ’28. “This was an amazing opportunity to learn about how the United Nations keep the peace in a high tension environment. We were able to see locations that haven���t been touched since 1974 such as the old Nicosia airport, and walking the buffer zone between the North and South which was incredible from a historic perspective. Beyond the UN, having the opportunity to meet with the president of Cyprus as well as the president of the European Commission was an incredible experience that I���m sure I never would have had without this course.���

Korea University’s Department of Political Science and International Relations�� hosted the conference in celebration of its 80th year. The organizing committee invited approximately 20 scholars from diverse academic disciplines and around the world to present their research and share ideas about the conference theme: “The Climate Challenge: Democracy, Governance, and Global Response.”

Kesgin���s research builds upon his and explains what Pacific Island countries��� (PICs) political leaders believe about world politics in general and climate change specifically. His current project expands his research to specific PICs’ leaders and seeks to explain variations in individual leaders��� beliefs about climate change within a country and across the Pacific Islands to account for variations in government type.

Baris Kesgin, associate professor of political science and public policy, and Elon alum Katherine Graham McCormick ���24 published an article in “, one of the publications of the American Political Science Association.

This work is an important contribution to the at-a-distance study of political leaders and gender studies, and in fact illustrates a rare connection between the two. The authors present systematically developed profiles of multiple contemporary American women political leaders and an average profile (in contrast to the many existing ones that are predominantly male). Kesgin and McCormick project that the dataset will be used, invite conversations and receive critique, be updated by others, and this manuscript will inspire other similar undertakings.

According to the authors, although women leaders assume prominent national offices in the United States (and the world), one of the well-established specializations in political science and psychology (i.e., leadership studies) is inundated with male-centric benchmarks. Their article suggests a remedy and introduces a women leaders comparison group for operational code analysis, which is a quantitative approach measuring leaders��� beliefs about politics. The manuscript and its associated dataset give scholars in the field a more appropriate quantitative benchmark for effectively comparing specific female leaders to a larger female norming group.

Kesgin and McCormick gathered American women leaders��� speeches from the Iowa State University Archives of Women���s Political Communication. Using an automated content analysis, they developed a comparison group exclusively for American female politicians in national politics. The authors’ findings indicate noticeable differences and suggest similarities with the existing male-dominant comparison groups; notwithstanding, they note that they aspire to initiate a conversation and hope that more data will follow and shed more light on women leaders. Kesgin and McCormick hope that their manuscript and the dataset will provide an illustrative example to bridge leadership and gender studies in advancing the study of women leaders in the United States and beyond.

Kesgin published multiple manuscripts on political leaders of India, Israel, Turkey, and small Pacific Island states. McCormick graduated from 消消犯 with a degree in political science and public policy, with minors in peace and conflict studies and public health. Currently, she is a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Foreign Policy Analysis is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the International Studies Association. The journal was established in 2005, and serves as a source for efforts at theoretical and methodological integration and deepening the conceptual debates throughout this rich and complex academic research tradition. It provides an open forum for research publication that enhances the communication of concepts and ideas across theoretical, methodological, geographical and disciplinary boundaries.

Leslie Wehner (University of Bath, UK) and Sibel Oktay (American University) join Kesgin as co-lead editors.��The lead editors assembled a strong, international team of associate editors; their term will begin in 2026.

The International Studies Association is one of the oldest interdisciplinary associations dedicated to understanding international, transnational and global affairs. Founded in 1959, its more than 7,000 members span the globe ��� comprising academics, practitioners, policy experts, private sector workers and independent researchers, among others. The Association has long served as a central hub for the exchange of ideas and for networking and programmatic initiatives among those involved in the study, 消消犯 and practice of International Studies.

Kesgin has been an active member of the International Studies Association, its sections and committees, and its Midwest region, and has served in multiple capacities.

The recipients of the Turnage Fund will present their work on campus during the 2024-25 academic year.

Enrique Armijo��

Enrique Armijo, professor in the School of Law, is pursuing a research project titled ���Counter���lies: Disinformation and the Marketplace of Ideas.��� According to Armijo, “participants in knowledge production environments are often not motivated by accuracy.���

His project ���offers a novel but needed corrective to First Amendment theory by taking a social epistemology approach to considering actors��� motivations in the knowledge production system and introduces and theorizes the concept of counter���lies: disinformation concerning verifiable facts that is shared with the intent to deceive one into believing their mistaken beliefs are true.”

Armijo will use the Turnage Funds to present his work at professional venues and produce public-facing writing for general audiences.

Jane O’Boyle

Jane O���Boyle, associate professor of strategic communications, received support for her project ���Gen Z, Media Literacy and Elections: Two studies about news consumption and first-time voters.��� O���Boyle says her project���s goal is “to teach students how important it is for a democracy to have citizen engagement and ethical news media that reaches them.���

Noting a distrust in news media and politics, she will collect national data about Gen Z���s use of news media and also develop ���pedagogical tools that will make a difference in students��� learning and engagement on these topics.”

J. Israel Balderas and Jill Auditori

The trio of J. Israel Balderas, assistant professor of journalism, Jill Auditori, lecturer in political science and public policy and Matthew Blomberg, assistant professor of journalism at Temple University Japan, will have the Turnage Fund support their collaborative project ���The N.C. Coalicio��n por la Precisio��n: Combating Misinformation and Disinformation Targeting North Carolina’s Latino Communities in the 2024 Election.���

Balderas, Auditori and Blomberg are working with the Latino community through Alamance Community College, and with the support of resources from Factchequeado, a pioneering Spanish-language fact-checking organization in their project. Among the objectives of this project are analyzing “how political actors communicate to Latino constituencies in a fraught media environment��� and equipping “Latino voters with media literacy skills to determine information accuracy.��� The researchers will use the Turnage Funds for data collection and dissemination of their research.

The Turnage Family Faculty Innovation and Creativity Fund for the Study of Political Communication was established with generous contributions by Dave Turnage to facilitate the study of political communication and media literacy in the 21st century. Baris Kesgin, associate professor of political science and public policy, is the director of the Turnage Fund.

Elon MUN earned multiple awards at the conference, where students from eight different universities competed. The Elon team received the recognition of ���Best Small Delegation,��� Griffin Barriss won the ���Best Delegate Award,��� and Hunter Copeland got a Verbal Commendation.

Before the Florida State conference, Elon MUN hosted a training conference, which helps prepare new delegates for competition in intercollegiate conferences. This year���s event was organized by a MUN team led by Taylor Rudtner; the theme for the one-day virtual conference was immigration -looking into Italy, Turkey, and the African Union. Eli Bier and Hannah Blackmore were both recognized for their work at this conference.

The MUN program at Elon is a student-led organization; Associate Professor of Political Science and Policy Studies Baris Kesgin is the faculty advisor for MUN. The MUN is an academic club; there is also a one-credit course for students interested in earning academic credit while participating in the club���s activities. In weekly meetings,��students get a chance to debate and practice public speaking through role-playing of their assigned country’s policies. The club and the class are open to all Elon students.

The club also competes nationally at a variety of intercollegiate conferences, where delegates��travel to different campuses��and compete with other schools. Each semester, in consultation with the MUN faculty advisor, the club’s executive��board selects from its active members respective Elon delegations to represent Elon at these intercollegiate conferences.��MUN��members attend five to��six��different each academic year.��Recently, much like Florida State���s conference, these events have moved onto a virtual platform. According to the bestdelegate.com, which ranks Model United Nations teams across North America, Elon���s MUN is one of the top 75 MUN clubs in their rankings.

The ISA is the field’s largest international professional��organization with about 7,000 members around the world and an annual conference that attracts 6,000 attendees. The ISA-Midwest is one of the four ISA regions in the United States, and there are three other geographic sub-units of the ISA (Asia-Pacific, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean). The ISA-Midwest mainly draws participants from the Midwestern states, and others arrive from Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, as well as from around the world.

Professor Laura Roselle and Assistant Professor Joel Shelton of the Department of Political Science & Policy Studies attended the conference as well. Roselle was an invited participant to serve as a mentor to junior scholars and graduate students, and to join a roundtable about the publication process. Shelton presented his research, chaired and served as a discussant on multiple panels. In addition to his conference duties, Kesgin presented a new project about conflicting roles lead to foreign policy fiascos.

Two Elon students also presented their research at the conference. Pearl Sullivan ���21 and Caitlin Wynn ���20 present their research. Sullivan is a double major in international & global studies and Spanish, with minors in economics and Latin American studies. Her research profiled Chile���s Michelle Bachelet as Chile���s president and a United Nations officer. Wynn, who traveled to the ISA-Midwest for a second time, is majoring in political science and economics and is pursuing a minor in classical studies. This year, she presented her research about former Israeli prime minister Ehud Barak���s decision to withdraw from Southern Lebanon.

Assistant Professor of Political Science and Policy Studies Baris Kesgin recently published research��温恢看顎岳油油庄稼油the international relations journal��Cooperation and Conflict.

Kesgin���s manuscript sheds light on the frequently used metaphors to describe policymakers��� foreign and security policy stances, and advances a systematic and objective framework to profiling the so-called hawks and doves.

To contextualize this discussion, Kesgin looks at the case of Israeli prime ministers from the early 1990s to the present day. Kesgin argues that Israel and its leaders provide meaningful observations for this because of the prevalence of these metaphors in its domestic and foreign policy. Based on a quantitative profiling approach to political leaders, Kesgin develops theoretical expectations and traces these in the profiles of Israel���s prime ministers.

According to Kesgin���s findings, the metaphors are meaningful in that Israeli leaders profile correspond to the hawk-dove typology commonly applied to these leaders. The manuscript offers distinctive personality traits to hawks and doves in foreign policy: Kesgin finds that hawks think in simple terms, are distrustful and confident. In addition, according to the findings, hawks are relationship oriented (against the expectation that they would be problem focused). Kesgin���s paper successfully builds up the first systematic attempt to unpacking the personality traits of these commonly used phrases in foreign policy debates.

The manuscript, ���,��� is published in��. The journal is one of the top venues for peer-reviewed research in international relations.

In MUN meetings, students get a chance to debate and practice public speaking through role-playing of their assigned country's policies. The club also competes nationally at a variety of intercollegiate conferences, where delegates travel to different campuses and compete with other schools’ delegations.

Each semester, in consultation with the MUN faculty advisor, the club's executive board selects Elon delegations from its active members to represent the University at these intercollegiate conferences. MUN members attend five to six different conferences each academic year. 

This academic year, students in Elon’s MUN attended six intercollegiate conferences, hosted a training conference on campus and administered a day-long conference for students in POL 141 International Relations sections in both Fall and Spring semesters. An E-net story in December summarized the club’s activities in Fall 2018. In Spring 2019, the club continued its activities and recently concluded another successful semester.

In late February, Elon’s MUN sent a delegation to Model UN Emory, where Michael Keather ‘19 received a verbal commendation. In March, another delegation attended Virginia International Crisis Simulation (VICS) at the University of Virginia, where Emma Goering ’21 received a verbal commendation at VICS. The last intercollegiate competition in Spring 2019 was at the College of William and Mary, where Matt Kimball ’19 received a verbal commendation.

The club’s biannual International Crisis Conference at Elon is its simulation designed and administered by its active members. This spring, the conference drew 54 students and focused on Latin America and Africa with the UN Security Council, Organization of American States, African Union, and UN Human Rights Councils.

消消犯 examined the strengths and weaknesses of the organizations while responding to relevant issues like the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela, the return of Ebola to the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and long lasting UN peacekeeping missions, among others. Dr. Michael Matthews, Associate Professor of History, offered the opening remarks at ICCE this semester.

MUN’s activities and success were recently recognized by bestdelegate.com, which ranks Model United Nations teams across North America. According to the webpage, Elon’s MUN was one of the top 50 MUN clubs in the rankings.

Baris Kesgin, assistant professor of political science and policy studies and associate coordinator for the International & Global Studies Program, is the faculty advisor for the MUN.

Crockart is a career member of the Senior Foreign Service. The Department of State has 16 DIRs around the United States, and are tasked to provide guidance and advice on careers, internships and fellowships to students and professionals in the communities they serve.

Crockart��returned to the United States in August 2018 from her most recent overseas assignment, at the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan (2017-2018), where she served as the Minister Counselor for Public Affairs. In this role, she led American public diplomacy efforts in Pakistan through robust outreach, exchanges and media engagement conducted by the Embassy and our three Consulates.��

Her other assignments include the U.S. Embassy in London (2014-17), where she was the spokesperson and director of the Press Office. She served as principal officer at the U.S. Consulate in Medan, Indonesia from 2011 to 2014, leading all American diplomatic efforts on the island of Sumatra. She has also served in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia; Belize City, Belize; and both Frankfurt and Munich, Germany.��

Crockart��received her bachelor’s degree��with honors from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She speaks German, Indonesian, and Malay, and has studied French.

As a public diplomacy-coned foreign service officer, Crockart discussed the practice and significance of public diplomacy during her visit to Assistant Professor of Political Science Baris Kesgin���s Comparative Foreign Policy class. Her talk after this visit covered the different career paths within the U.S. Department of State, and explained the hiring process for both interns and full-time employees. Crockart���s presentations raised interest��and appealed to many students.

The Global Education Center, the Department of Political Science and Policy Studies, and the International & Global Studies sponsored Crockart���s visit.