Past Nelson Institute Conferences
The first annual Nelson Institute Undergraduate Conference on Global Affairs was held in 2014. The upcoming Global Citizen Forum, featuring the Nelson Student Research Symposium, will be held March 3-5, 2021.
2017 Conference Highlights
April 5-8 activities included:
Student research panels:
Click on the student's name to see a video of the presentation. Click on the paper title to see a pdf of the paper.
The Status of Refugees
Historical Perspectives on Global Issues
Global Pressing Issue Grant Project: Assessing, Collaborating, and Empowering to Improve Water Quality in Rural Uganda
- Professor Cassity Gutierrez, Karli Kisch, Hayley LeBlanc, Megan Lindmark and Augusta Weide
Science, Health and Environment
- Megan Lindmark, Seasonal Variation of Fish Assemblage and Catch Per Unit Effort in the Prek Toal Core Area
- Ryan Wealther, Abigail Cowan, Sara Donovan, Carl Johannson, Study of Incidence and Socio-Biological Factors Associated with Low Birth Weight Babies Born at Pravara Rural Hospital, Ahmednagar District of Maharashtra, India
- Jennifer Vickers, Dry Season Demography of African Elephants in the Ngorongoro Crater, Tanzania
- Lauren Blum, Kacie Deavers, Joe Herba, A Socio-Epidemiological Study of HIV Patients at a Tertiary Care Hospital in the Ahmednagar District of Rural India
Perspectives on Human Rights
Drake Simulation League
- Mollie Clark, Rachel Gray, Isabelle Barrett, Ryan Wiskerchen
2016 Conference Highlights
April 8-9 activities included:
- Crisis simulation supervised by former U.S. Ambassador Ken Yalowitz and former White House Director of Global Engagement Brett Bruen
- Dinner social featuring international appetizers
- Keynote "National Security and Women's Insecurity" by Valerie Hudson, University of Texas A&M
- Closing luncheon address by visiting Global Practitioner Peiqin Zhou, Nanjing University
Student research panels:
The 2016 Best Presentation Award was given to Haley Barbour, Drake University.
Problems and Cases in Political and Economic Development
- Haley Barbour, “Societal Implications of Bare Branches: China and India”
- Greg Gonzalez, “Mexican Economic Policies and the Underlying Forces of Corruption”
- Cecilia Panella, “When the Statesman Surpasses the State: Gamal Abdel Nasser, Realism, Liberalism, and the Evolution of the Significance of Pan-Arab Sentiment, 1952-1970”
Issues in the Contemporary Middle East and North Africa
Facets of Globalization
2015 Conference Highlights
April 10-11 activities included:
- Group simulation in U.S. foreign policy facilitated by Ambassador Joseph Mussomeli
- Keynote address "Political Islam: What the West Can Learn from Its Own History" by noted scholar John Owen
- Closing luncheon with Iowa Representative Zachary Nunn, formerly Director of Cybersecurity Policy at the National Security Council, White House. Nunn's topic was "Inside the National Security Council."
Student research panels:
Click on the student's name to see a video of the presentation. Click on the paper title to see a pdf of the paper. The 2015 Best Presentation Awards were given to Allison Smith, Beloit University, and William Heaston, Drake University.
External Intervention and Political Change
Corruption, Political Institutions and Civic Identity
Transnational Flows of People and Ideas
2014 Conference Highlights
The first annual Nelson Institute Undergraduate Conference on Global Affairs was held April 11-12, 2014. Activities included:
- Friday keynote speaker Todd Sechser, University of Virginia, on "Crisis Bargaining and Nuclear Blackmail: Should We Be Afraid of an Iranian Bomb?"
- Saturday keynote speaker Jerry Gallucci, Diplomat-in-Residence, Former Foreign Service Officer and UN Peacekeeper, on "U.S. Policy on Russia and Ukraine"
Student research panels:
Globalism, Nationalism and Identity
- Amanda Lawnicki, Beloit College, “Papa, should I tell you what I think of this exhibition, I would cry.” An Analysis of Visitor Impression Books at the Bosnian Historical Museum in Sarajevo.
- Danny Hodorowski, Beloit College, The Faces Behind the Flags: Football-Hooliganism's connections to Civil-Society in Moscow
- Joshua Duden, Drake University, The Changing Citizen in a Globalized World
- Emily Grant, Central College, Finding a Balance Between the Old and the New: The 2nd Generation’s Struggle to Understand and Preserve the Tai Dam Culture
International Political Economy
Nation, Gender and Human Rights