#psucupa

[portlandstateresearch]

Rebecca Miller, Education, and Jennifer Blakeslee, Social Work faculty, co-authored a brief, “Supporting College Student Success Through Connections to Mentors and Campus Champions: A Strategy Brief for Campus-Based Mentors and Other Student Support Programs” published by the Research and Training Center for Pathways to Positive Futures, Portland State University.

This brief shares best practices learned on the Project Futures research study being conducted at Portland State University and local community colleges in Portland, Oregon. The study is testing evidence-based mentoring strategies for underserved students, in this case college freshmen with lived experience in foster care and with mental health stressors. Campus-based mentoring is an increasingly popular strategy to better support under-represented students, who in addition to navigating the typical challenges of college life, may face additional barriers to student success, such as: • Homelessness or housing instability and/or financial insecurity with no safety net, • Mental health and trauma, • Starting college academically behind their peers, or • Lack of belonging or difficulty finding ways to engage with peers and community. To learn more about addressing the needs of these under-represented students, Project Futures provided one-on-one near-peer mentoring. This approach is based on previous research1 showing that such students respond well to coaching by near-peer mentors, with similar lived experience, who are trained to help them identify and work towards academic and social goals. 

[portlandstateresearch]

Shane Day, Public Administration faculty, wrote a book chapter, "How Unity and Diversity Affect Political Asymmetries of Indigenous Groups in Federations: Heterogenous Institutional Practices in Australia, Canada, and the United States,” published in Revisiting Unity and Diversity in Federal Countries: Changing Concepts, Reform Proposals, and New Institutional Realities, edited by Alain-G. Gagnon and Michael Burgess, Brill Publishers.

[portlandstateresearch]

Erna Gelles, Public Administration faculty, and Meg Merrick, Institute for Portland Metropolitan Studies, co-authored the chapter “The Role of Collaboration to Encourage Civic Engagement Through the Arts: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications,” in the forthcoming book Civic Engagement and Politics.

Abstract: Historically governments have used art's universal language to achieve various goals, including political engagement through cultural enrichment. Employing nonprofit/public sector relationships for the arts presents myriad governance challenges, but always with the promise of intrinsic and extrinsic benefits. This chapter presents two cases to illustrate such collaborative relationships. Applying various nonprofit theories, stakeholder discussions and Sherry R. Arnstein's still relevant community engagement work to explore relationships between sectors in arts funding, the first involves the passage of a local tax to provide funding for arts education and arts organizations. The second illustrates an instrumental relationship between a local government and nonprofit to provide art programs to promote tolerance in an increasingly diverse community. Both cases present imperfect policies but represent the continuation of an ancient practice wherein the arts are being used for more than arts' sake, but to serve a multitude of non-arts instrumental societal functions.

[portlandstateresearch]

With support from a grant by Oregon’s Department of Environmental Quality, PSU’s Community Environmental Services unit is partnering with Oregon Green Schools to pilot a wasted food reduction program with Title 1 schools in Multnomah County.

[portlandstateresearch]

Birol Yesilada, Professor of International Studies and Political Science, and Director of the Hatfield School of Government, was recently elected as one of three Vice Presidents of the International Studies Association.

[portlandstateresearch]

Evguenia Davidova, International Studies faculty, authored an article titled “Serving the State: Military and Public Health Practices in Bulgaria (1878-1908),” published in European History Quarterly, Vol. 48, No. 4.

[portlandstateresearch]

Richard Clucas, Political Science faculty, and student Skyler Brocker-Knapp authored a chapter on the Roberts family of Oregon in a newly-published book titled “Modern American Political Dynasties: A Study of Power, Family, and Political Influence.” The chapter focuses on former PSU professor Frank Roberts and family members, including former governor Barbara Roberts and former Oregon Supreme Court Justice Betty Roberts. Published by Praeger in November, 2018. 

[portlandstateresearch]

Lindsay J. Benstead of Portland State’s School of Government wrote an article titled, “Differentiation and diffusion: shifting public opinion attitudes toward foreign policy in North Africa”, published by Journal of North African Studies in October 2018.

ABSTRACT

Drawing on Arab Barometer data, this article provides the backdrop for understanding continuity and change since the Arab Spring in national-level public opinion attitudes toward economic and political foreign policy issues in North Africa, inclusive of Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, and Tunisia. The article leverages the concepts of differentiation and diffusion to understand how international affairs shape public opinion in North Africa since the Arab Spring. Three findings emerge. First, public opinion about domestic and international issues are linked in the minds of North African citizens and foreign policy issues are more important factors underlying pre- and post-Arab Spring politics than are often recognised. Especially in the post-Arab Spring era, Arab citizens widely see external interference as a problem and this perception increased in every North African country between 2013 and 2016. Moreover, there is considerable variation across and within North African states in attitudes toward economic and political foreign policy issues, including the Arab-Israeli conflict and attitudes about economic and security relationships with Israel. Anti-Israeli sentiment increased substantially in the years leading up to and following the Arab Spring. Finally, since the Arab Spring, anti-Americanism, as measured by negative perceptions of U.S. culture, has declined in Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, but risen slightly in Egypt, even as North Africans demonstrate increased support for a U.S. role in resolving the Arab-Israeli conflict during this same time period. These trends suggest that anti-Americanism is highly dependent on specific domestic and international developments and is highly complex in the Arab world.