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January 23, 2013

• The newest ASPECT Newsletter has been published. The newsletter can be found here.

January 22, 2013

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Charting the Policy and Democratic Perils of Ideological Extremism .
• VTIPG faculty member Mary Beth Dunkenberger has been featured on OIA's Employee Spotlight. Congratulations Mary Beth!

January 17, 2013

• Two members of Dorje Kasung (Shambhala practitioners of nonviolent crisis prevention and intervention -- http://www.shambhala.org/kasung.php) are going to present the following: "Working with Protection and Building Community" March 1st, 7-9 PM, at Virginia Tech! Location: Surge Building 104-B (on Turner Street across from the New Town Center). For more information please contact Amy Splitt

January 15, 2013

• The newest VTIPG quarterly newsletter has been posted! Newsletter Volume 2, Issue 1.

January 14, 2013

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Charting the Policy and Democratic Perils of Ideological Extremism .

January 7, 2013

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Pondering The Travesty of [Mis]Representation .
• This week there is also a guest Soundings commentary by Elizabeth Grant. Considering the Promise and Challenge of International Adoption.

January 2, 2013

• Congratulations to VTIPG affiliated Dr. Damion Blake (ASPECT) on his interview with the Social Science Research Council. Through them, Damion was a 2011 Drugs, Security and Democracy dissertation fellow. To listen to the interview please click here.
• Congratulations to Max Stephenson, VTIPG Director, on the recent publication of his article entitled "Unforeseen and Unaccounted: the European Union, the Community Foundation for Northern Ireland, Peacebuilding, and Accountability" in European Security. The article can be found here.

January 2, 2013

• Max Stephenson's new quarterly Tidings commentary just posted! A Modest Précis on “Cliff Diving”.

December 21, 2012

• Congratulations to VTIPG Director Max Stephenson, Laura Zanotti, Marcy Schnitzer and Yannis Stivachtis on the acceptance of their paper “Theorizing Sport and Peacebuilding in Post-Conflict Societies: Challenges and Possibilities for Governance,” for 7th Sport and Politics Conference to be held February 2, 2013, in Bath, England.

December 17, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! In Praise of Critical Reflection.

December 14, 2012

• Congratulations to VTIPG affiliated doctoral candidate Emily Barry who will be starting a new position as a Refugee Asylum Officer with the United States Citizen and Immigration Services (USCIS). As a Refugee Asylum Officer, Emily will be representing USCIS in its dealings with applicants seeking asylum from all around the world. Her role will include interviewing and adjudicating asylum applications pursuant to the Immigration and Nationality Act and US responsibilities under international treaties. She will also take part in refugee processing at locations around the globe.
• VTIPG would like to welcome newly affiliated faculty member Tom Sanchez. Sanchez earned his PhD in City Planning from Georgia Tech in 1996 and has since taught at Iowa State University, Portland State University, the University of Utah, and is currently professor of Urban Affairs and Planning at Virginia Tech. Sanchez conducts research in the areas of environmental justice, technology, and the social aspects of planning and policy. He also serves as editor of Housing Policy Debate and is a nonresident senior fellow of the Brookings Institution. In 2012 he co-authored, Planning as if People Matter: Governing for Social Equity (Island Press) with Marc Brenman. In 2007 they co-authored The Right to Transportation: Moving to Equity (American Planning Association).

December 13, 2012

• VTIPG affiliated PhD candidate Brendan Brink-Halloran (Planning, Governance and Globalization) has an article that has been accepted to VT's Public Knowledge Journal. His article is entitled "AIDing Democratic Governance? Examining USAID Efforts to Strengthen Participatory Governance in Guatemala and Bolivia."

December 12, 2012

• Congratulations to Eric Hodges (Planning, Governance and Globalization) who did a fine job at his oral defense of his preliminary doctoral examination. His committee members are Max Stephenson (chair and Director of VTIPG), Karen Hult (Political Science), James Dubinsky (English), and Bruce Pancek (University Libraries).

December 10, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Imagined Slights and Disability Rights.

December 7, 2012

• Congratulations to VTIPG affiliated doctoral candidate Emily Barry. Emily presented her paper entitled "Endogenous NGOs - Vehicles for Mobilizing Protection Strategies Generated by IDPs" at the Refugee Studies Centre's 30 Anniversary Conference at St. Anne's College in Oxford.

December 5, 2012

• Smart Beginnings has made the local news for the $93,750 grant they have received from The Virginia Early Childhood Foundation. WSLS 10 covered the story.

December 4, 2012

• VTIPG would like to extend a warm welcome to Erica Titus, the new VISTA volunteer who is working with Smart Beginning NRV. Erica will be doing community outreach and public engagement for early childhood development and education. She is originally from New Orleans, LA and she hope to return there eventually to continue work with community organizing. She received a BA in International Studies and French from Hollins University and an MA in French Language Teaching from the University of Missouri. Working as a teacher got her interested in the causes of and solutions for poverty in the United States. She hopes to continue working to fight poverty for great organizations such as Smart Beginnings for a long time.

December 3, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! The Imperative Need to Rebalance a Political Economy in Crisis.
• Congratulations to Emily Barry who has won a scholarship from the Graduate Student Assembly's Travel Fund Program towards her trip to Oxford, England.
• Congratulations to Lyusyena Kirakosyan who has also won a scholarship from the Graduate Student Association travel fund towards her trip to speak at the Association of American Geographers conference in Los Angeles.

November 30, 2012

• Sabith Khan, VTIPG affiliated doctoral student, has been selected as a South Atlantic Humanities fellow for this year. The theme for the year is "Movement, Bodies, and Social Justice in the South Atlantic", and he will be working with Eli Jameson ( ASPECT) and Andrea Swenson (Human Development) to put together a colloquium and a workshop for next semester. The colloquium will address issues impacting the flow of migrant workers into South Atlantic communities and their access to health resources, experiences of racialised identities and the historic and contemporary broad social justice consequences.
• Congratulations to VTIPG faculty members Mary Beth Dunkenberger and Suzanne Lo for acceptance of their proposals American Society for Public Administration's 74th Annual Conference, which will take place March 15-19, 2013 in New Orleans, LA. Mary Beth will present her proposal entitled "Assessing the Hidden Resource: A Learning Organization Approach to LGBTQ Constituency Assessment and Evaluation". Mary Beth and Suzanne will present another proposal entiteld "Trends, issues and practices in broadband access: Implications for veterans’ healthcare planning and policy".
• Smart Beginnings New River Valley, a local school readiness initiative that works to improve the quality of early childhood care and learning, has received a grant of $93,750 from the Virginia Early Childhood Foundation (VECF). David Moore, VTIPG research faculty member and Regional Coordinator for Smart Beginnings will be among those present for a check presentation which is scheduled for Wednesday, December 5 at 10:30am at Narrows Center Head Start, located at 111 Mary St. in Narrows, Va.

November 29, 2012

• Tomorrow ICAT studio will host an experimental workshop Capturing Here and Now: An Audio History Project. The workshop will be held in Floyd, Virginia from 10am to 4pm at the Floyd County Store. For more information please see this handout.

November 26, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! A New and Sad Chapter for Torture in the United States?.

November 19, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Mr. Romney’s Profound Misapprehension.

November 14, 2012

• The latest issue of OIA's Inside Outreach is out. Max Stephenson and Laura Zanotti's book Peacebuilding through Community-Based NGOs: Paradoxes and Possibilities is featured.

November 14, 2012

• There will be an open lecture and discussion with world-renowned Peace Studies scholar, Johan Galtung, on the evening of 11-16-2012 at 7 PM. The event will take place at the Inn at VT & Skelton Conference Center's LATHAM BALLROOM C. This event is the keynote of the weekend’s Student Research Symposium, “Cultivating Peace: A Symposium on Violence Prevention” sponsored by the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention. This is truly a once in a lifetime opportunity to engage in person with the founder of modern peace studies, who has spent decades actively involved in studying and mediating global conflict.
• The Department of Theater and Cinema is presenting The Jo Carson Project: Chaos Memory and the Healing Power of Storytelling. This is a newly devised theater piece, conceived and directed by Vince DeGeorge, which explores and honours the writings and theories of playwright, storyteller, activist and healer Jo Carson. The Jo Carson Project will run in Theater 101 from November 28th to December 2nd at 7:30pm and on December 2nd at 2pm.
• A call for papers has been placed for the 14th Annual International Conference on Digital Government Research. The conference will be held at Laval University, Quebec City, Quebec, Canada from June 17-20. The deadline for submissions is February 1. Please see the conference website for more information.
• The first PGG seminar this Fall will be held on Friday, November 30th, from 2:00-4:00pm in the SPIA center room in Alexandria and in AA200 in Blacksburg. During the seminar, Jennifer LeFurgy (a PGG candidate in NCR) will present a paper entitled “Aging in Place in Suburbia: Senior Villages."

November 13, 2012

• Several VTIPG affiliated graduate students will present at the upcoming "Cultivating Peace: A Symposium for Voilence Prevention". The conference will take place this weekend from Nov 16 - 19 at the Inn at Virginia Tech. Emily Barry, Sabith Khan and Lyusyena Kirakosyan will present on various topics of violence prevention and peace research. For more information please see the Virginia Tech news article.

November 12, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! On American Unity and Individualism
• VTIPG would like to congratulate Damion Blake, who successfully completed his doctoral defense this past Friday. The title of Damion's effort is: "Violent Actors and Embedded Power: An Analysis of the Roles Played by Jamaican Dons in Garrison Communities: A Case Study of Brown Villa, Jamaica."
  
  Damion's committee members are Max Stephenson, VTIPG director and co-chair, Karen Hult, co-chair, Onwubiko Agozino and Robert Stephens. Damion is the fourteenth completed affiliated doctoral student since IPG was established on July 1, 2006. Congratulations, Damion!
• A presentation by Sylvie Kandé and the bilingual reading of her poetry will be held tomorrow (Tuesdsay Nov 13th) in 1040 Torgersen.
  3:30-5:00 PM: Conference: "On being equivocally African: metissage/hybridity and poetry"
  7:00-9:00 PM: Reading "La quete infinie de l'autre rive: epopee en trois chants" [The neverending quest for the other shore: epic in three cantos] in French and English.
• Smart Beginnings and New River Community Action have placed a call for participants for a focus group that is in need of perspective and suggestions on reaching out to families in the African American community on the importance of prenatal care, the development of babies, and how to get the support and resources that may be needed. This focus group will take place November 16th from 5:30pm – 7:00pm at the New River Community Action Administration Office - 1093 East Main Street, Radford, VA 24141. Dinner will be provided for participants and will start at 5:30pm. The focus group will begin promptly at 6:00pm. Please RSVP through email (outreach@nrcca.org) or phone (540-639-3159) to Terra Alagna, Outreach Specialist for New River Community Action, The Home Visiting Referral Center and Smart Beginnings.

November 9, 2012

• The story on VTIPG's Federal Reimbursement Unit in Fairfax VA has made the front page of Virginia Tech's website. For the video and article, please see the Spotlight.

November 8, 2012

• Cultivating Peace: A Student Symposium for Violence Prevention Presents
  “A FORMULA FOR PEACE:
  EQUITY x HARMONY / TRAUMA x CONFLICT
  AND THE USA”
  The symposium will be held November 16th at 7pm in Assembly Hall at the Inn at Virginia Tech & Skelton Conference Center. For more informaiton please see the flyer. This event is hosted by the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.

November 7, 2012

• Warm wishes to Damion Blake, VTIPG affiliated ASPECT PhD candidate, as he defends his dissertation this Friday at 2pm. Damion's dissertation is entitled Violent Actors and Embedded Power: Exploring the Evolving Roles of Jamaica's Dons.

November 5, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Portrait of a Statesman: Feeding on Dreams

October 30, 2012

• A call for Papers has been issued for the 2013 ASPECT Graduate Conference. Please submit information to Eli Jamison at Jamison_ASPECTconference@vt.edu no later than 5pm on Friday, November 30, 2012. For more information please see the ASPECT website .

October 29, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! “Is there any ‘there,’ there? How would we know?”
• 15 writers and scholars are coming to Virginia Tech for a symposium titled, "Writing & Reconciliation: Identity, Displacement, and Narrative in Sri Lanka." The event will take place at the Inn at Virginia Tech and is organized by Women and Gender Studies, Center for 21st Century Studies, the MFA in Creative Writing and the College of Liberal Arts and Human Sciences. The Symposium will take place November 5 - 7th. For more information please see the flyer.
• Scott Tate, Research Associate with IPG and Extension Specialist, is partnering with the EPA’s Office of Sustainable Communities to conduct train-the-trainer workshop sessions for a new educational module on Sustainable Communities at the New Partners for Smart Growth Conference in Kansas City, Missouri in February, 2013, as well as for the EPA’s national Local Government Advisory Commission Meeting in Washington, DC in December, 2012.
• Tate has also authored a contribution entitled “Eco-friendly city and community planning” on eco-friendly urban planning for the ABC-CLIO publication, America Goes Green: An Encyclopedia of Eco-Friendly Culture in the United States , published in November 2012.

October 25, 2012

• Lyusyena Kirakosyan, VTIPG affiliated PhD student, has had her article published in the 4th volume of Journal of Critical Disability Discourse. Her article is entitled "Disability policies and politics: A new perspective for Brazilian disability citizenship?". The article can be found here.

October 24, 2012

• MIT Press has announced a second printing of Environmental Inequalities Beyond Borders: Local Perspectives on Global Injustices. Max Stephenson and Lisa Schweitzer have a chapter entitled "Learning from the Quest for Environmental Justice in the Niger River Delta" on pages 74-112.

October 22, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! ‘Framing’ Democratic Deliberation.
• VTIPG affiliated graduate student Sabith Khan has been featured on the Graduate School website. Sabith is making quite an impression on his first year at Virginia Tech!
• Peacebuilding through Community-Based NGOs: Paradoxes and Possibilities, the new book by Max Stephenson and affiliated faculty member Laura Zanottiwill be showcased at the Columbia University event "Sustaining Peace" on November 7th.
• Morikeba Kouyate, born and raised in Senegal, hails from one of the oldest griot families in West Africa. Griots, or jelis, employ stories and songs to pass along centuries of history to each new generation. Kouyate is an accomplished performer, famed in Senegal and in the United States for bringing the six-stringed kora into conversation with jazz. At his performance he will be sharing his stories and his music. The event is sponsored by the College, the VT Center for the Arts, a CLAHS Departmental Diversity Award, and the following CLAHS departments and programs: ASPECT, English, Foreign Languages and Literatures, History, Political Science, Religion and Culture, & the School of Performing Arts and Cinema. This performance will be held on November 2 at 3pm in 31 Pamplin.
• VTIPG has a new mission and values statement. You can find it in the about us page.

October 18, 2012

• Mary Beth Dunkenberger and Holly Lesko are presenting at the Commonwealth of Virginia State Board of Social Services in Galax, VA today. Their presentation is entitled: "A Successful Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) - University Partnership in Action" and will focus on the long-standing working relationship VTIPG has with our local DSS agencies in the Partners for Self Sufficiency (PSS) program and the newly funded CoMPETE program that will compliment that work.

October 17, 2012

• Mary Beth Dunkenberger and Suzanne Lo attended the Virginia Rural Health Association Conference in Charlottesville on October 8th and 9th. The conference focused on the renewal of the Virginia State Rural Health Plan. There were a number of presentations surrounding the definition of rural, social determinants of health Virginia health equity and creative problem solving. Additionally, they participated in in-depth round table discussions around five broad categories as they impact public health of rural Virginians. Topics included economics, education, neighborhood, environment and lifestyle, governance and society, and health care.

October 15, 2012

• Congratulations to director Max Stephenson and affiliated faculty member Laura Zanotti on the acceptance of their workshop proposal on the European International Studies Joint Session of Workshops. The workshop will be held June 5 - 8 in Tartu, Estonia. Their workshop is entitled "Peacebuilding in an Era of Risk".
• A Call for Papers has been issued for The International Journal of Peace Studies, published by the International Peace Research Association. The International Journal of Peace Studies will consider papers of 6,000-8,000 words about relevant areas of peace and conflict studies using a peace studies framework. Critical Theory approaches are welcome. To apply please send a 300-400 word abstract and a two sentence statement of affiliation and research experience to Dr. David E. Toohey at dtoohey@hawaii.edu by December 30th, 2012.

October 15, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Human Dignity and Simple Acts of Joy.

October 9, 2012

• ASPECT will be hosting their first "Aspect on Geopolitics" event on Tuesday October 16 from 4:30 - 6:30. The event is titled Bosnia Remade Please follow the link to view the flyer.

October 8, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Voting Access Restrictions: Democracy in Choppy Waters.
• The Federal Reimbursement Unit in Fairfax, VA, which is part of VTIPG, was recently profiled for a future Spotlight on Virginia Tech's page. Watch the video here!

October 4, 2012

• VTIPG affiliated doctoral student Lyusyena Kirakosyan was selected to present her paper "Conceptions of Justice and Citizen Responsibility: Insights from São Paulo, Brazil" at the Annual Meeting and Conference of the Association of American Geographers in Los Angeles, California. The conference will be held April 9 - 13, 2013. Congraulations Lyusyena!

October 3, 2012

• Office of International Research, Education, and Development (OIRED) is hosting a Women and Gender in International Development discussion series. One of the discussions will be entitled "Design Thinking for Social Impact" and will be held with Akshay Sharma, Assistant Professor, School of Architecture and Design. The event will take place Thursday, October 11, 2012 from 1 - 2pm at OIRED (526 Prices Fork Road) Conference Room A. For more information please visit the website.

October 2, 2012

• The newest VTIPG quarterly newsletter has been posted! Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 2.
• Dr. Aaron Schroeder's paper "Pad and Chaff: Secure Approximate String Matching in Private Record Linkage" has been accepted as a regular paper at the 14th International Conference on Information Integration and Web-based Applications & Services (iiWAS2012). All accepted iiWAS2012 papers will be published by ACM International Conference Proceedings Series (ISBN: 978-1-4503-1306-3).

October 1, 2012

• Max Stephenson's new quarterly Tidings commentary just posted! Hard Questions at an Ugly Moment.
• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! “Policy-makers, Policy-making and the ‘American Dream’”.

September 28, 2012

• The Center for Gerontology will be hosting a Fall Research Forum on October 26th from 11am to 12pm. Dr. Eunkyung Kim will present on "The Hidden Population: Rural Female Elderly in Korea". The Research Forum will be held in Fralin Auditorium. For more information please see the flyer .

September 25, 2012

• VTIPG affiliated graduate student Emily Barry has been selected to present her paper "Endogenous NGOs as Vehicles for Mobilizing Internally Displaced Person-owned Strategies of Protection," as one of the scholarly works to be presented on the panel entitled, "Human Rights and Non-Military Types of Intervention," at the 2013 Southern Political Science Association meeting in Orlando, Florida.

September 24, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Musings on “Curating Consciousness”
• VTIPG affiliated graduate student Lyusyena Kirakosyan has had her abstract accepted to the upcoming Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention (CPSVP) Symposium. Her abstract is entitled "Exploring theater as a tool for peace and justice: the case of Serbia’s DAH Teatar". The paper will explore the case of the Serbian DAH Teatar, its conceptions of peace and justice, reflecting on whether the theater’s efforts are contributing to social healing and forgiveness in Serbia. The Symposium, Cultivating Peace:A Symposium for Violence Prevention, is organized annually by VT CPSVP and will take place on November 16-18, 2012 at Virginia Tech.

September 20, 2012

• MURP graduate student Patrick Burke has arrived in Macedonia for his assignment to do NGO development. We would like to share his blog where he is telling of his travels and recounting his experience.

September 18, 2012

• The Institute for Critical Technology and Applied Science (ICTAS) launched a seminar series entitled “The Black Swan and Disruptive Technology” with an enthusiastic and engaged gathering of individuals from many areas of the university participating. For more information on future events please take a look at their website.

September 17, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Reflections on Peacebuilding

September 14, 2012

• VTIPG is a sponsor of the upcoming "Veterans in Society: Changing the Discourse" conferece which will be held at the Inn at Virginia Tech on November 10th and 11th. VTIPG faculty members Mary Beth Dunkenberger and Suzanne Lo will be presenting at the conference. At the conference website , you can find information about the schedule, registration, travle information and speakers.

September 13, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings posting was published in the Roanoke Times today as the commentary Our nation's shameful immigration politics. In print, it appears on page A-15.

September 11, 2012

• Videos are up from the 2012 Ridenour Faculty Fellowship Conference in which scholars speak about various aspects of distressed cities and ideas triggered by the conference. One of the videos features VTIPG director Dr. Max Stephenson and VTIPG affiliated faculty member Laura Zanotti.
• On October 3 and 4, 2012, James Carpenter, renowned glass designer and technologist, and Davidson Norris, expert in daylighting in architecture (biographies below), will give lectures at Virginia Tech. On Wednesday, October 3, an interdisciplinary workshop with the two guests will be hosted by Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology (ICAT) in partnership with College of Architecture + Urban Studies (CAUS). Entries to this call for ideas will be presented and discussed over 3 hours of workshop on October 3. We are looking for innovative entries that provide students the opportunities to engage respected experts in the field of design. Students are encouraged to work collaboratively across disciplines: including architecture, design, visual arts, engineering, liberal arts, humanities, and sciences. Selected projects will be published on ICAT’s website. Questions should be directed to Aki Ishida

September 10, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! The GOP, “States’ Rights” and Self-Governance

September 9, 2012

• We are proud to announce the publication of a book written by Max Stephenson and VTIPG affiliated faculty member Laura Zanotti, entitled "Peacebuilding Through Community Based NGO's: Paradoxes and Possibilities", is being published by Kumarian Press in Sterling, VA.

September 8, 2012

• VTIPG Fellow Andy Morikawa is a Senior Fellow for the Virginia Tech Honors Residential College (HRC). This semester he is working with Rachel Montague, the STA, who designed and is leading a course for the Freshman Honors Residential College Seminar. Their course takes twelve freshmen on a journey of self-discovery, answering the questions, "Who am I?" and "What do I want to do and become?" Activities include readings, group reflection sessions, experiential learning opportunities, and blogging.

September 7, 2012

• The 2012 Governor's Technology Awards has announced VTIPG's Dr. Aaron Schroeder and agency partners from the Virginia Department of Transportation, the Virginia State Council of Higher Education, and the Virginia Employment Commission as Finalists for the multi-agency data integration project, the Virginia Longitudinal Data System (VLDS). The Technology Awards are presented in conjunction with Government Technology's annual Commonwealth of Virginia’s Innovative Technology Symposium (COVITS 2012). The VLDS provides qualified researchers, agencies and policymakers the ability to formulate and submit cross-agency requests for de-identified data sets.

September 5, 2012

• "Reimagining the Links between Graduate Education and Community Engagement", a book to which Marcy Schnitzer and Dr. Max Stephenson have contributed an article, is being featured at the Imagining America conference In New York City in October.

September 4, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! “Fear Mongering is Always Bad Policy”
• ICTAS will be hosting a Black Swan Seminar Series. "In the New York Times best seller, "The Black Swan", the author (Nassim Nicholas Taleb) defines a Black Swan as an event that has three characteristics; it is an outlier; it carries an extreme impact; it has retrospective predictability." For more information please take a look at their website.

August 31, 2012

• Pedagogy in Practice: The speaker series will be hosting a seminar entitled "Doctorial Advising: A conversation for Faculty and Students". It will be held on Monday, November 12 from 3:00 - 4:00pm at the Inn at Virginia Tech in Draper's Meadow room. For more information and to register please visit their website Center for Instructional Development and Educational Research
• Congratulations to Emily Berry on her 3rd conference acceptance this summer! Her paper was accepted to the Refugee Studies Centre's 30th Anniversary Conference on "Understanding Global Refugee Policy" at St. Anne's College in Oxford. Her paper is entitled "Endogenous NGOs - Vehicle for Mobilizing Protection Strategies Generated by IDPs"

August 27, 2012

• Lyusyena Kirakosyan, VTIPG affiliated PhD student, has had an article to the 4th volume of Journal of Critical Disability Discourse. Her article is entitled "Disability policies and politics: A new perspective for Brazilian disability citizenship?". Congratulations Lyusyena!
• Congratulations to director Max Stepehenson on becoming Affiliated Faculty for the Public Health Program at Virginia Tech!

August 27, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! “Neo-Liberalism and the Democratic Imperative of Empathetic Imagination”

August 24, 2012

• Mary Beth Dunkenberger, Senior Program Director, has been invited to participate as one of ten members, representing the Commonwealth of Virginia, in the Service Members, Veterans and their Families Policy Academy offered by the U.S. Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMSHA). The policy academy will be held in Alexandria, Virginia September 4th – 7th.
• Mary Beth Dunkenberger will participate as a Senior Fellow to the Residential College at West Ambler Johnston Hall. In its inaugural year, the residential college is an intentional community of scholars and leaders who make learning a way of life. Open to students of all majors, years, and interests, the residential colleges offer a diverse social and intellectual environment that allows members to learn from each other.

August 23, 2012

• Congratulations to director Max Stepehenson and VTIPG affiliated faculty member Laura Zanotti on becoming Affiliated Faculty for the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention!
• An article by Marcy Schnitzer and Max Stephenson entitled "Reimagining the Links between Graduate Education and Community Engagement" has been published in Collaborative Futures: Critical Reflections on Publicly Active Graduate Education by editors Amanda Gilvin, Georgia M. Roberts and Craig Martin. Their article appears on pages 275-290.

August 22, 2012

• We are proud to announce the upcoming publication of a book written by Max Stephenson and VTIPG affiliated faculty member Laura Zanotti. The book, entitled Peacebuilding Through Community Based NGO's: Paradoxes and Possibilities, is being published by Kumarian Press in Sterling, VA.
• The Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention has released a call for papers for their second bi-annual Student Research Symposium. The Symposium will take place at The Inn at Virginia Tech, November 16-18, 2012. Undergraduate and graduate students in all fields are encouraged to participate. Cultivating Peace: A Symposium for Violence Prevention.

August 21, 2012

• Congratulations to VTIPG affiliated faculty member Scott Tate! His dissertation was chosen by the ASPECT program stakeholders as the 2012 Outstanding Dissertation. Scott, whose committee included Dr. Max Stephenson, successfully defended his dissertation this past March.

August 20, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! “Mitt Romney’s Ethical Morass”
• Congratulations to Derren Rosbach on having his article, Building a Transdisciplinary Trading Zone, recently published in The International Journal of Science in Society! Derren finished his PhD in Planning, Globalization and Governance with Dr. Stephenson as his chair in 2010 and served as visiting faculty in Urban Affairs and Planning for two years. Derren has recently started as faculty at Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
• Also Congratulations to VTIPG affiliated PhD student Emily Barry on the acceptance of two of her papers for conferences. Her papers have been accepted to the International Organization of Social Sciences and Behavioral Research Fall 2012 conference in Las Vegas, Nevada and The Third International Conference on Local Government in Khon Kaen, Thailand. Both of her papers are co-authored with Dr. Stephenson.

August 13, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Musings on Art, Artistry and Aesthetic Imagination
• VTIPG would like to extend our deepest sympathies to the family of Ragaei Abdelfattah. Ragaei pursued a PhD in Urban & Environmental Design & Planning at Virginia Tech and most recently was working on a project with USAID as a Foreign Service officer in Afghanistan when he was killed. Dr. Stephenson had the honour of working with him while he was at Virginia Tech. "Ragaei was a son of Egypt; an architect, planner and community developer; a devout Muslim; a devoted American of choice; and a friend of the world." stated Jack Davis, Dean, College of Architecture.

August 6, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! “Debating the ‘Size’ of Government or Attacking Governance Itself?”
• Congratulations again to Lyusyena Kirakosyan, VTIPG affiliated PhD student, on her successful presentation at the Second ISA Forum of Sociology: Social justice and democratization in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Lyusyena's paper is entitled Is promoting disability rights conducive to a stronger democracy in Brazil?.

August 1, 2012

• Congratulations to Lyusyena Kirakosyan who has traveled to Buenos Aires, Argentina to present at the Second ISA Forum of Sociology: Social justice and democratization. Lyusyena will be presenting her paper entitled Is promoting disability rights conducive to a stronger democracy in Brazil? on August 4th. Lyuseyna is a VTIPG affiliated PhD student whose advisory committee is chaired by Director Max Stephenson.
• Alex Frane, a 2009 Master of Urban and Regional Planning graduate whose advisory committee was chaired by Director Max Stephenson, has been selected to serve as a Peace Corp Response Volunteer in Georgia. Alex will be designing and implementing environmental education programs. Congratulations and good luck Alex!

July 31, 2012

• ASPECT and VTIPG affiliated PhD. student Damion Blake presented at the second Drugs Security and Democracy conference/workshop in Bogota and Villa de Leyva, Colombia. Damion reports that his dissertation, supervised jointly by Max Stephenson Jr., Director of VTIPG and Professor, School of Public and International Affairs and Karen Hult, Professor, Department of Political Science, was the only one examining issues of security/drugs and democracy in the English speaking Caribbean. Damion's was offered an opportunity to report on his research at an upcoming conference of the Latin American Studies Association in Washington DC, and he was also asked to produce a policy brief concerning his work for publication by the Brookings Institution in Washington, D.C. Damion is currently working with Director Max Stephenson his Congratulations to Damion!

July 30, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! The Implications of the Political Economy of Olympic Ideals

July 27, 2012

• VTIPG affiliated PhD student Sarah Lyon-Hill was featured in a story on VT's front page. The story details her involvement with the Economic Development Studio.
• Congratulations to Director Max Stephenson and affiliated VTIPG faculty member Dr. Laura Zanotti for delivering their paper entitled “Theorizing the Roles of NGOs in Peace and Development: Liberal Myth or Route to Emancipation?” at the 10th International Society for Third-Sector Research Conference in Siena, Italy.

July 23, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! "Abandoning the Poor" as a Political and Social Strategy?

July 6, 2012

• CPAP Graduate Student Kate Preston Helps to Animate Democracy

July 5, 2012

• Congratulations to Sarah Lyon-Hill and Julie Erickson for presenting at the first graduate research conference held by the National Peace Corps Association titled "Bringing the World Home... to Grad School Engaged Scholarship Post-Peace Corps".

July 2, 2012

• Pictures are up from last week's Building Effective Collaboration Workshop that was held at the Floyd County High School library.

June 29, 2012

• The first VTIPG quarterly newsletter has been posted! Newsletter Volume 1, Issue 1.
• Max Stephenson's new quarterly Tidings commentary just posted! Aung San Suu Kyi: Lessons in Human Freedom and Democratic Possibility.
• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Musings on Fear and Govenance.
• Another article has been done on Healthy NRV, a VTIPG sponsored program in partnership with the New River Valley Planning District Commission and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation . Virginia Tech teaches high school students to become digital storytellers

June 25, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! Reflections on a Governance Failure.
• Have a look at the newly redesigned ASPECT website!

June 21, 2012

• An IPG sponsored project Healthy NRV (New River Valley), a partnership with the New River Valley Planning District Commission and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was featured on the local news this week. NRV students report on community health concerns.

June 18, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted - thank you for reading and enjoy! What Ails Public Higher Education?
• Max Stephenson's article "Pbulic/Private Housing Partnernships" was published on pages 574-576 in SAGE Publications' The Encyclopedia of Housing, 2nd ed.

June 12, 2012

• Congratulations to IPG Affiliated Faculty member Richard C. "Charles" Rich who has been honoured with the title of professor emeritus by the Board of Visitors.

June 14, 2012

• Congratulations to Holly Lesko who has been accepted to present a session entitled "Cultural Translation of Community Health Through Youth Digital Storytelling" at the 2012 Imagining America National conference.

June 11, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to - thank you for reading and enjoy! The Politics of ‘Back to the Future’ Economics
• Marcy Schnitzer, Max Stephenson, Laura Zanotti, and Yannis Stivachtis' new article Theorizing the role of sport for development and peacebuilding has been published in Sport in Society: Cultures, Commerce, Media, Politics.

June 8, 2012

• Melony Price-Rhodes, Senior Program Director for the National Capital Region has shared with us a collection of her photos. Please take a look at her wonderful art! Hawai'i: The Land of Paradise.

June 4, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog - thank you for reading and enjoy! Counting the Costs of Predatory Mobilization Politics
• A call for papers has been issued for the first annual Veteran Studies Conference which is to be held November 10-11, 2012 at The Inn at Virginia Tech and Skelton Conference Center. The theme for the conference is "Veterans in Society: Changing the Discourse". For more information please contact Eric Hodges.
  

June 1, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings posting was published in the Roanoke Times today as the commentary Partianship and the Public Trust .

May 28, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog - thank you for reading and enjoy! Pondering Political Brinksmanship and the Public Trust
• MURP graduate student Patrick Burke has received his Peace Corp assignment and will be heading to Macedonia to do NGO develpment in September. He will be the first MURP student assigned Macedonia!

May 25, 2012

• The latest edition of the Public Knowledge Journal, published by Virginia Tech graduate students, has been released. The focus in this issue is Public Health from an interdisciplinarity perspective.

May 21, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog - thank you for reading and enjoy! Learning from G.K. Chesterton: The Importance of Respect and Wonder

May 14, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog - thank you for reading and enjoy! Senator Lugar meets the new GOP: The Nation come the Cropper

May 7, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog - thank you for reading and enjoy! Can a democratic electorate be held accountable?

May 1, 2012

• MPIA graduate student Emily Barry has received SPIA's GIA Founding Faculty Award for Graduating Student demonstrating ideals of community engagement, public service, and social justice!
• MURP graduate student, Sarah Lyon-Hill, has received SPIA's C. David Loeks Award for Outstanding Second-year Graduate Students in Urban and Regional Planning!
• Congratulations to Scott Tate for his recent and upcoming conference presentations:

April 27 -29, 2012 Everyday tinkering and the urban imaginary presented at the "International Association for the Study of Environment, Space, and Place 8th Annual Conference: Spatial Inscriptions of Everyday Life" in Townson, MD

May 2012 Alternative approacheds to arts and culture-based development: Influencing livability through fringe arts, full participation, and civic tinkering to be presented at the "49th International Making Cities Livable Conference" in Portland, OR

July 21-25, 2012 Civic tinkering and marginal inclusion: Lessons from the small cities movement to be presented at the "Community Development Society International Annual Conference" in Cincinatti, OH

April 30, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog: Pondering the Nexus of Nature, Politics and Affection
• The Insitute for Policy and Governance would like to congratulate MURP/MIP Master's student, Julie Erickson, for the successful defense of her thesis this past Friday. Julie's committee included Ralph Hall (UAP), Yannis Stivachtis (Political Science), and Max Stephenson, Jr. (UAP, Chair), and her thesis is entitled Decentralization and Hospital Governance in Rural Paraguay. Well done, Julie!

April 26, 2012

• Click here to watch video from Bob Summer's Community Voices lecture April

April 24, 2012

• Affiliated instructor, Dr. Suchitra Samanta, has received the 2012 Sporn Award for Excellence in Teaching Introductory Subjects. Congratulations to Dr. Samanta!

April 23, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog. Thank you for reading and enjoy! A Villanelle for our Time
• A heartfelt congratulations to Nicole Sanderlin, affiliated doctoral student in Planning, Governance, and Globalization, who this morning successfully defended her dissertation, "Motivations and Enabling Factors for Faculty Engagement in Internationalization: Learning from Champions and Advocates." Nicole is the 12th completed affiliated doctoral student since IPG was established on July 1, 2006. Well done, Nicole!

April 19, 2012

• Don't miss tonight's Community Voices, featuring Craig Ramey at the Lyric Theater! 7:00 PM ~ free admission.

April 16, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog; thank you for reading and enjoy! "How shall we Define Freedom?"

April 9, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog; thank you for reading and enjoy! "A New Cyclone comes to Myanmar"

April 6, 2012

• Saturday, April 14 from 9:30 to 11:30 AM, please join us for a leadership seminar on community information management sponsored by Microsoft and the Institute for Policy and Governance. Speaker Jon Udell. RSVP required.

April 5, 2012

• "What Really Happened: Lessons Learned from the Egyptain Revolution" April 12, 2012 7:30 - 9:30 PM Torgerson 3100 and brown bag lunch discussion with guests from 11:00 - 12:30 Norris Hall 209. Come out to hear two key players in the Egyptian revolution speak: Ahmed Salah and Mahitab al-Gilani. Hosted by the Center for Peace Studies and Violence Prevention.

April 2, 2012

• IPG would like to extend its sincere and heartfelt congratulations to Scott Tate, who successfully completed his doctoral defense this past Friday. Scott is the eleventh completed affiliated doctoral student since IPG was established on July 1, 2006, the third ASPECT student to finish the program, and the first ever from the College of Architecture and Urban Studies. Well done, Scott!

March 30, 2012

• Max Stephenson's new quarterly Tidings commentary just posted! Health Policy Reform Redux
• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog! Argument by "Certain" Assertion: Today's New Public Policy Forum?

March 26, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog! "Captain Fantastic meets Democratic Politics"
• Don't miss tomorrow night's Community Voices event featuring speaker Bob Summers - 7 PM at the Lyric Theater

• The National Arbor Day Foundation is sponsoring a “Tree Campus USA Arbor Day Events Contest” similar to the one held last year.  Ten colleges and universities are in the competition this year, and the institution with the most votes wins $1,000  for trees to plant on campus. The contest will run through April 4, 2012 with the results announced the following day.  Cast your vote for Virginia Tech now!

March 23, 2012

• Video of the last Community Voices event on February 28th with Woody Crenshaw now available!

March 21, 2012

• The School for Public and International Affairs (SPIA) is pleased to announce the launch of SPIA On-Line, a publication to keep you abreast of the research, teaching and engagement efforts of our programs, faculty, and students, and the accomplishments and activities of our alumni.

March 15, 2012

• Congratulations to Derren Rosbach, a PhD graduate of our Planning, Governance and Globalization program and UAP Visiting Instructor, who has recently accepted a faculty post at Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, Massachusetts!

March 12, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog! The "Secret Garden" of Democratic Imagination

March 8, 2012

• Affiliated faculty member Dr. Bruce Hull recently returned from a trip to India and reflects on this remarkable experience in his blog. Part I - A Story is the Responsibility of the Traveler, Part II - Sustainability Warfare, Part III - India: A Reilient World Leader in 2050.

March 7, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog! "Observations on a Brief Visit to Nigeria"

March 6, 2012

• Max Stephenson's and Tracy Cooper's book chapter, "Networked Face of Organizations," published in The New Faces of Organizations in the 21st Century (Volume 4). The book is available for purchase through Amazon and the North American Institute of Science and Information Technology (NAISIT).

Feb 27, 2012

• ASPECT doctoral student, Damion Blake, published a piece related to his dissertation research this week in a local Jamaican newspaper ~ "Garrisons: Empires of the Dons".
• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog! Musing on Service and "Practical Idealism"

Feb 22, 2012

• Affiliated ASPECT student, Marc Thomas, has passed his preliminary examinations and has been named a Graduate Humanities Fellow for 2012. Well done, Marc!

Feb 21, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog! "Democracy's Enduring Tensions"
• Affiliated SPIA Master's student, Sarah Lyon-Hill, is lead speaker at the spring Women in International Development Discussion Series Wednesday, February 29, 2012
• Affiliated PhD student, Katherine Preston, has been accepted to the Public and Nonprofit Division's Doctoral Consortium at the 2012 Academy of Management Annual Meeting this August in Boston. Congratulations to Katherine!
• Damion Blake, ASPECT doctoral student, has been published in the Journal of Clinical and Diagnostic Research. His article, co-authored by Paul Bourne and Collin Pinnock, is entitled "The Influence of Violent Crimes on Health in Jamaica: A Spurious Correlation and an Alternative Paradigm." Well done, Damion!

Feb 13, 2012

• Max Stephenson's latest Soundings commentary posted to blog! "Torture and Politics in an Age of Anxiety."

Feb 10, 2012

• Click here for a bulletin of recent IPG affiliated student news! Well done to all those mentioned for their impressive and varied accomplishments!