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On September 29, 2021, students of The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) Political Science 480/580: Policies and Politics of International Child Abduction course traveled to Washington D.C. to participate in the iStand Parent Network’s 8th Annual International Parents Conference & Embassy Walk. The UAH students presented original research on this topic and met with Congress members, their staff, federal agency officials, and engaged in public demonstrations on the issue.

While attending, Dr. Noelle Hunter, Lecturer in the UAH Department of Political Science, testified on International Parental Child Abduction.

Follow their trip through the eyes of Hunter and the UAH students! The blog of the experience was created by Dr. Noelle Hunter. 

Wednesday – IPCA Day on Capitol Hill

Our first meeting of the day was the most productive. We had an in-person meeting with Senator Tommy Tuberville and his chief counsel. Christopher Alhorn presented Senator Tuberville with a very well-written IPCA reform bill and asked for his direct consideration to introduce it. The bill is his course service project.  

Hunter Ricketts shared information about North Alabama’s increasingly diversifying community and how Alabama can model good IPCA prevention by getting ahead of anticipated international abductions that may occur here. Joshua Greer made an actionable request for Senator Tuberville to contact the State Department to gain information about IPCA’s effects in Alabama, and I asked to be connected with the National Children’s Advocacy Center in Huntsville with hopes to forge a partnership between that entity and UAH on this issue.  Senator Tuberville and his staff spoke very highly of the students. 

We also participated in an informative meeting with senior counsel Seth Williford in Senator Thom Tillis’ office. This was a listening session for us on how certain members take up issues such as IPCA and how the bipartisan nature of this issue can be maximized to better help this constituency and bring abducted children home. We had read of Senator Tillis and Senator Feinstein’s bipartisan work on the issue prior to the meeting, so it was great to hear it come full circle. The students were also the first to know about forthcoming letters from Feinstein and Tillis to the Department of Justice!

Wednesday - Congressional Hearing – Tom Lantos Commission on Human Rights

Students got to experience how quickly things can change on Capitol Hill due to votes, the new covid realities, and a myriad of other reasons. As we left Sen. Tuberville’s office, I got a call from U.S. Rep. Smith’s office, by far this issue’s greatest champion on the Hill. He had scheduled a hearing on The Rights of Parents and Children: How to Better Implement the Goldman Act, for which I was honored to be an invited witness. (My testimony begins at 1:03:24).   I was invited to testify as a parent of a child who has come home from abduction and as a longtime advocate for the issue.

Initially, students were not going to be able to attend the hearing due to room restrictions, but with that call, we were all granted permission to attend.  

Although they could not stay for the entire hearing, which was delayed due to representatives needing to vote (on the debt ceiling), they got to witness the dynamics of a hearing and, importantly, understood the implications of the State Department’s not showing up, though invited, to give an account of its performance on this issue.  I took the State Department to task during my testimony, and the students would remember their absence from the Wednesday hearing when they met with State officials on Thursday!

Two students who opted not to attend the DC Practicum, also made a most significant contribution toward the hearing: Dawson Welch and Autumn Taylor submitted a very well-written Statement for the Record in support of this issue. Their work, and their UAH affiliation, now stands in the congressional record for all time!

Wednesday - U.S. Capitol Reflecting Pool Vigil for America’s Stolen Children

The students joined with parents, survivors, advocates, and others for a gorgeous moving tribute to abducted children at the Capitol Reflecting Pool.  We had a visit from Florida Congressman Bill Posey, a champion for our issue. A few students spoke about how their new knowledge of this issue will transform into personal action and engagement.  I imagine they will always remember this touching event.

Thursday – International Parents Conference - Roundtable and Challenge to the New Agency Director

On Thursday morning, prior to their opening plenary session, the students held a coffee roundtable with Allison Dilworth, the new director of the State Department’s Office of Children’s Issues, and Scott Renner, the former director.  I was not a part of this roundtable, as they were quite capable of managing it on their own. I don’t know what was said during that coffee roundtable, but it later prompted the students, via our graduate student Christopher Alhorn, to respectfully challenge her to greater responsiveness and transparency on this issue. 

Thursday - UAH Students’ Plenary Session

Their opening plenary presentation, The State of IPCA Research and Policy, begins at 28:50 of the livestream, a livestream planned and produced by two practicum students for their course service project. 

Their presentation was crisp, well-rehearsed, and held the audience’s rapt attention. It succeeded in setting the tone for the conference and the future direction for public advocacy on this issue—as we seek to build research and policy base to offer policymakers more comprehensive, research-based recommendations for public action. Right now, the State Department is the only contemporary source of information for Congress. The students’ research and presentation pointed how the limitations of outdated and single-sourced data for truly addressing the problem.  Throughout the rest of the conference, participants shared how impressed they were with the caliber of students and their work.

Importantly, each of them produced a 1-2 page white paper on an essential IPCA subtopic which formed the substance of their presentation, AND to which all attendees will have access to in the conference proceedings. These white papers were assembled into a Briefing Book which we gave to the congressional offices we met with. 

Thursday - New Partnership Affiliation

iStand Parent Network Inc. the conference host, entered into a partnership with iHOPE, a Lebanon-based civil society organization to work on this issue. We formalized the partnership at a signing ceremony during our awards luncheon. Our student, Sarah Hakim, will serve as the liaison between our organizations for this conference in fulfillment of her semester service project.  

Thursday - Evening Fun

Let’s just say what happens in DC, stays in DC, and there are no pictures to prove that some students may have electrified the dance floor at our post-conference mixer. There also may or may not have been a little belly-dancing, a quasi-soul train line, or dancing in the round, but suffice it to say our students mingled in fashion with parents, grandparents, youth survivors, and friends of abducted children.

Friday’s Embassy Walk and International Engagement

On Friday, the students joined ranks with parents and advocates to peaceably assemble and/or demonstrate in solidarity with parents of abducted children in front of the embassies of Saudi Arabia, Mexico, Greece, and India. Students participated in our First Amendment freedom to assemble and were probably amused that the Secret Service and the Metro Police followed us to each stop.

At the Saudi Embassy (which is across from the historic Watergate Hotel), our demonstration was eclipsed by a larger demonstration of people protesting the Kingdom’s treatment of  Ethiopian migrants, and some of our students joined right in their protest.

We witnessed a range of responses, with parents gaining access to Greek Embassy and being spitefully denied access at the Indian Embassy.  I entered the Greek Embassy with a father whose son is unlawfully held in Greece, and the consular’s first remark was about the volume of the group assembled chanting “Let August Go!”.   It made quite the impression. I’m happy that our students helped this father in such a memorable fashion. 

 The Indian Embassy was another story, and it was here that one of the students, Dylan Kirk, let loose a spontaneous and epic cry for freedom for children abducted to India. You can see a short clip here.  Dylan also planted a “Lotus Garden” with the faces of internationally abducted children in front of the Gandhi statue.  Shew!  Tissues were needed!

After the Embassy Walk, the students took a well-earned tour of some classic DC sights and everyone made it home safely on Saturday.

There was so much more that each of these students experienced and contributed. Our student Ashleigh Richardson documented the experiences in fulfillment of her service project and I cannot wait to see this exceptional experience played back for us in living color.

I could call each of them by name and relate what I witnessed—their individual and collective intelligence, empathy, flexibility, and earnest desire to contribute to meaningful advocacy and reform on IPCA. We must count ourselves very fortunate to have such high-caliber students who will truly change the world.  I've seen it with my own eyes!

Photos of the Trip:

Photo from Exhibition Paperscape at Philadelphia Art Alliance

Photo Credit Sun Young Kang & Sarah Lorenz

Sun Young Kang is a book and installation artist whose practice uses ephemeral materials such as paper and light, and mediums are known for both strength and delicacy to explore how antithetical ideas inevitably converge in our existence. Concerned with the philosophical ways in which absence coexists with presence, Kang’s works employ elements such as shadows and vessels and the processes of casting and cutting, all of which rely on the paradoxical interplay of what is there and what is not. As the 2021 UAH Contemporary Art Fellow, Kang has created the installation In Between Presence and Absence, where, among hundreds of hollow paper-cast containers, emptiness—conventionally unsubstantial in art—unexpectedly achieves both visibility and weight.

Sun Young Kang received her MFA in Book Arts-Printmaking from The University of the Arts in Philadelphia, PA in 2007, and BFA in Korean Painting from Ewha Womans University in Seoul, Korea in 2001. Kang’s work has been included in numerous solo and group exhibitions nationally and internationally. She is a recipient of numerous awards, including the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYSCA/NYFA) Artist Fellowship in Architecture/ Environmental Structures/ Design and a Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant Award.

In Between Presence and Absence
Installation by Sun Young Kang

On View:
October 18th - November 10th
UAH Wilson Hall Gallery

Reception and Artist Talk:
Tuesday, November 9th
4:30 pm - 7:00 pm
UAH Wilson Hall Lobby & Gallery 
Artist Talk will begin at 6:00 pm in Wilson Hall 168

Visit Sun Young Kang's Online Gallery

Teresa Dunn’s, Longing to Be, features her recent series of tondo (round) paintings. Her brightly colored works present a narrative seen through the eyes of a female character created by Dunn and play the role of both a stand-in for the artist and her independent design. Her paintings give a nod to nostalgic youthful memories creating realities that are calming yet disquieting, both mysterious and revealing.

On view in the Wilson Hall Gallery through September 30th.

VIRTUAL TOUR

Danaë Xanthe Vlasse followed her aspirations of composing music to Los Angeles, California, where she is experiencing a level of success many musicians only dream about.

Seven student research posters were selected for top Deans Award honors at the end-of-program Summer Community of Scholars (SCS) poster session on Sept. 15

Faculty members from the UAH Colleges of Engineering and Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences have devised a program called INCLUDE, an Interdisciplinary Undergraduate Experience tasked with the goal of “conceptualizing a space ecosystem” as a jumping-off place for a journey to the stars for everyday explorers.

UAH announces the newly established Endowment to Support the Performing Arts, which recognizes the importance of investing in the arts and provides perpetual funding to UAH’s performing arts programs.

Hey guys! Fall is almost here! (I would say fall’s in the air, but I’d be lying.) Going into the semester, we here at the UAH College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences want to share some tips for what will be your best semester yet! These tips aren’t just for our lovely CAHS students; they’re for every student here at UAH. Feel free to share with your friends and leave a comment below if you find these helpful!

STUDYING. I know, bleh. But, hear me out. Studying can be good; you just have to find your system. Let’s look at those two words real quick to make sure we’re on the same page.

Your:I even put this one in italics. Fancy, I know. The reason is, your system should be yours. To be able to study efficiently and consistently, it’s important to know what works best for you and tailor your system accordingly.

System: Because we’re at UAH, and there’s a lot of engineers. :) But in all seriousness, studying has several different components that need to work together to be functional and dependable. Thus, “system.”

So what are the different components of your system? I’ve highlighted four major ones below, so charge on!

• Let’s start at the beginning: note-taking. Note-taking styles vary, and it’s important to find the one that works best for you. Here’s a personal example. I think that multi-colored, carefully designed pages of notes are gorgeous. So I tried it. It didn’t work for me. I like fast-paced things, so taking the time to switch colors was already too much. That style of note-taking simply isn’t sustainable for me, and that’s okay. But, if you like the artistic value of that style and it makes taking notes (and reviewing them!) more fun, consider incorporating that into your system. Do you feel like typing information rather than writing it helps you focus better? Or, do you feel like you retain information better when you are pencil-to-paper? Ask yourself what styles have worked and not worked, and find your personal favorites!
• So now you’ve got your notes (and textbooks where applicable). What to do with those? Now’s the time to find your study buddy. And no, it doesn’t have to be a human (but that’s cool too!). You could be anything from flashcards to study groups to just your notes and textbooks. (I have to give a shout-out to my favorite study buddy here, Quizlet. We go way back.) Maybe you need another human to interact with as you study. Perhaps you prefer to fly solo. Perhaps you need both. Whatever it is for you, think about the different things besides your own brain that you’ll need to study effectively.
• Now, another component of studying is where and how you do it. That is the environment. Where do you study best? Where you study, and the environment, can help or hurt your studying tremendously. Do you like to study amid activity? If so, take a seat at our (very nice) Charger Union and stay awhile. Or, visit one of our many excellent coffee shops here in Huntsville (seriously, they’re all uniquely fantastic). But, maybe you can focus better in a quieter environment such as your room or the library. If you’re alone, do you prefer music or silence? Find what works best for you and where you’re able to focus and retain information the best. For me, it’s outside. Fall is coming, and UAH has so many beautiful outdoor areas. Just a thought.
• The last component I’ll talk about here is the when. Establishing a routine provides consistency, which is crucial to successful studying (and avoiding cramming!). And, here’s the good news. If you follow all the tips above, establishing a routine and studying consistently will be easy-peasy (because you’ve got your fabulous system now). So, find times where studying fits into your schedule. For me, this isn’t as structured as you might think (especially for my super-scheduling personality type). I like to study in the morning and at night. The afternoon is a no-go. So, I’ll usually look at the things that need studying at the beginning of a week and write what days I’ll study what subjects, chapters, or topics. That’s my personal routine, but something entirely different may work for you. Again, the important thing is establishing a routine that you can stick to this Fall.

And that’s a wrap! I hope these tips are helpful to you as we enter the fall semester together. Exams may seem far off right now, but they’ll be here before we know it! I encourage you to think about your study system. What components work right now, and what could be adjusted to suit your style and improve your studying game? Good luck and Go Chargers! 

Blog by: CAHS College Ambassador Sarah Gronberg, Communication Arts.

Photo Credit: CAHS

The Department of Psychology at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) would like to congratulate Hannah Barr (Master of Arts Psychology Graduate Student) and Emily O’ Hear (Senior B.A. Psychology) for their first accepted publication in IEEE Transactions on Human-Machine Systems. The manuscript is titled “Is My Siri the Same as Your Siri? An exploration of Users’ Mental Model of Virtual Personal Assistants, Implications for Trust.”  The project is under the direction of Dr. Nate Tenhunfeld, Assistant Professor of Psychology.

Abstract: Virtual Personal Assistants (VPAs) are becoming so widely available that considerations are being made as to whether to begin including them in self-driving vehicles. While research has been done exploring human interactions with single VPAs, there has been little work exploring human interactions and human mental models with interconnected systems. As companies like Amazon consider whether to integrate Alexa in their self-driving car, research needs to be done to explore whether an individual’s mental model of these systems is of a single system or if every embodiment of the VPA (e.g., echo) represents a different VPA. Knowing this will allow researchers and practitioners to apply existing models of trust, and predict whether high trust in the Siri that exists in an iPhone will carry over into high (and potentially miscalibrated) trust in Apple’s Siri-directed self-driving vehicle. Results indicate that there is not one consistent mental model that users have, and provides the framework for greater exploration into individual differences and the determinants that affect users’ mental model.

For questions about our Department of Psychology, contact us at psychology@uah.edu 

The Department of Political Science and Philosophy at The University of Alabama in Huntsville (UAH) would like to congratulate Christopher Alhorn (MA Student in Public Affairs & Policy) for his award-winning paper recognized by the Pi Sigma Alpha National Office.

The Best Undergraduate Paper Contest is an annual Pi Sigma Alpha award meant to recognize outstanding academic work in political science by undergraduate students nationwide. There is a cash prize of $100 awarded to the runners-up each year. 

Alhorn’s paper “Fiscally Floundering or Credibly Conscientious? Are the States Living Within their Means?” was selected as a runner-up for the 2021 Best Undergraduate Paper Contest. 

The paper was created in Dr. Noelle Hunter’s spring political science course (PSC 580) and presented in the spring colloquium “Should the States Be Trusted: Critical Issues for Federal and State Governments.”

Brief Overview: This paper considers whether state governments are worthy of taxpayer confidence in the realm of fiscal policy by examining whether state governments are managing public funds in a responsible manner.

Abstract: In 1789, Secretary of the Treasury Alexander Hamilton asked Congress to consolidate the debt of all the states onto the federal level. His request was met with outcries that the states which managed their budgets most irresponsibly would reap the greatest benefits from the plan. Implicit in this argument was the notion that some state legislatures could not be trusted with public funds and would revert to irresponsible spending if they were relieved of their debts. Similar accusations are leveled in the public forum in the modern era, and scholars frequently investigate claims that individual state governments have failed taxpayers with overspending. 

What is often not considered is whether states, on the whole, use their authority over public funds in a responsible manner. This question has enormous implications for how much leeway the states should be granted in crafting their own budgets. A poor finding for the states would demand the imposition of structural constraints for state policymakers. An encouraging finding would imply the usefulness of legislative flexibility in state fiscal policymaking. Such implications can provide guidance to voters on how best to ensure that their funds are spent in a reasonable manner and their descendants are not left with an impossible burden. By determining whether the states have previously met promised outlays with revenue, fiscally prepared themselves for economic difficulties, and created means to pay for promised future spending, one may determine if states can be trusted with fiscal policy as well as whether taxpayers and the federal government must act to prevent states from mishandling public funds.