November 2009: Professors to Release Book on Human Rights along the U.S.-Mexico Border
Dr. Kathleen Staudt, Dr. Tony Payan, and Dr. Z. Anthony Kruszewski will release Human Rights along the U.S.-Mexico Border: Gendered Violence and Insecurity (University of Arizona Press) in mid-November.  The book addresses "gender-based violence, security, and human rights from the perspective of women who live with both violence and poverty," but is as much about immigration and poverty as it is about women, thus providing a new contribution for transforming security debates (Read the full publication release announcement here).

October 14, 2009: Professor honored as outstanding graduate of Austin High School
Dr. Joseph Graves was honored by the Austin High Alumni Association as its 2009 Outstanding Ex at ta dinner reception at Austin High School (Read announcement here).

October 2009: Graduate Student Wins Prestigious Cotton Memorial Scholarship Award
Doug Block was announced the winner of the prestigious Cotton Memorial Scholarship awarded by the Graduate School at UTEP.

September 2009: Professor Payan Publishes Pieces for Newsweek and the New York Times
Professor Tony Payan published his recent work, "A Tale of Two Cities," comparing life in El Paso and Juárez in the September issue of Newsweek (Read more here), as well as his work, "A Modest and Gigantic Shift," on Mexico's drug war for the New York Times (Read more here).

September 24, 2009: Graduate Student Presents Work at the IUPLR SIGLO XXI Conference
Sergio García presented his paper based on his forthcoming thesis entitled, "Political Participation and the Link to Home Countries in Latino Communities" at the Inter-University Program for Latino Research's Third Biennial Siglo XXI: The State of Latino Studies Conference, held in Chicago, Illinois. Employing quantitative methods, Sergio uses two indexes of political participation (one for electoral participation and the other for organizational participation) created from the Latino National Survey as well as proxy indexes for assimilation and attachment to country of origin to examine how attachment to one's country can increase political participation. Challenging previous scholarly assertions, Garcia finds that Latino immigrants and their tendency towards strong country of origin attachments help increase political efficacy in the U.S. and are key to achieving a truly pluralistic America. UTEP is part of the IUPLR Consortium, which sponsors the conference in its efforts to expand the pool of Latino scholars and leaders and increase the availability of policy-relevant Latino-focused research (Read more about IUPLR here).

September 21-22, 2009: UTEP Hosts Global Public Policy Forum on the War on Drugs
Professor Kathleen Staudt was chief organizer for the Global Public Policy Forum on the War on Drugs, which was the first conference of its kind to incorporate a diverse set of viewpoints from a variety of distinguished speakers over the need for key drug policy reforms (Read summary here, see website here, and view event photos here and here).

September 15, 2009: Professor Staudt Wins ISA Human Rights Best Paper Award
Professor Kathleen Staudt wins the Best Faculty and Practitioner Award for the International Studies Association Human Rights Section for her work, "Explaining the Persistence of Femicide Amid Transnational Activist Networks: Where Did Human Rights Theory Go Wrong?"

September 5, 2009: Professor Villalobos Wins National Dissertation Award
Professor José D. Villalobos' dissertation work was chosen for the 2009 George C. Edwards III Dissertation Award by the Presidency Research Group of the American Political Science Association for best dissertation on the U.S. presidency (Read more here).

September 2009: Professor Villalobos Publishes Work on Presidential Vacancies
Professor José D. Villalobos and his coauthor, Justin S. Vaughn, published their recent work, 
"Obama's Empty Cupboard: Contending with Vacancies and the Threat to Neutral Competence," in the 9th 2009 issue of the International Journal of Public Administration. Their work focuses on the public administration challenge concerning the rising number of politically motivated administrative vacancies with which President Barack Obama must contend. They argue that the hyper-politicization of personnel decision-making during the presidency of George W. Bush left many parts of the federal bureaucracy understaffed, yet more densely populated by staffers chosen more for ideological and political congruence than administrative competence.

September 2009: Professor Staudt Named Faculty Advisor for SSDP
Professor Kathleen Staudt was named faculty advisor for the Students for Sensible Drug Policy (UTEP Chapter) organization for the 2009 academic year.  Dr. Staudt is also faculty advisor for other UTEP student organizations, including the Students for Reform and Amnesty International (UTEP Chapter).

July 2009: Professor Genna Publishes Work on Public Support for European Integration
Professor Gaspare Genna published his recent work, “Positive Country Images, Trust, and Public Support for European Integration,” in the July 2009 issue of the journal Comparative European Politics. Findings indicate that the European public is more likely to support European integration when they have a positive image of, and have trust in, the actions of the German government due to its economic influence. The study also finds that trust in the other major powers in Europe, France and Britain, are not significant in explaining public support.

July 2009: Professor Villalobos Publishes Work on Presidential Staffing and Public Opinion
Professor José D. Villalobos and his coauthor, Justin S. Vaughn, published their recent work,
"Presidential Staffing and Public Opinion: How Public Opinion Influences Politicization," in the July 2009 issue of the journal Administration & Society. They argue that presidential concern with agency output is dynamic and is in part conditioned by the president's relationship with the public. Findings indicate that public opinion bears a marginal, yet statistically significant, influence on presidential efforts to manage the bureaucracy.

June 2009: Professors Sirin and Villalobos Join Political Science Department
Professors Cigdem V. Sirin and José D. Villalobos joined the political science faculty and began teaching Summer I classes on June 1, 2009.