{"id":13838,"date":"2015-11-03T13:58:51","date_gmt":"2015-11-03T18:58:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/news.cos.ucf.edu\/?p=13838"},"modified":"2015-11-03T13:58:51","modified_gmt":"2015-11-03T18:58:51","slug":"security-studies-students-shine-at-conference","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sciences.ucf.edu\/news\/security-studies-students-shine-at-conference\/","title":{"rendered":"Security Studies Students Shine at Conference"},"content":{"rendered":"

The weekend of October 23-25th,\u00a011\u00a0students and 4 faculty and staff members represented UCF at\u00a0the International Studies Association <\/a>(ISA) South annual conference in Tampa, Florida. Christopher Faulkner<\/a> and Rebecca Schiel<\/a>, two second-year Ph.D. security studies students, not only represented UCF at the conference, but they also\u00a0took home the Jim Winkates Graduate Student Paper<\/a>\u00a0grand prize and runner-up awards.\"ISA<\/p>\n

The\u00a0ISA-South\u00a0strives\u00a0to create communities of scholars dedicated to international studies. They work to encourage and promote research in international studies, while maintaining\u00a0relations with disciplinary societies and other professional and specialized organizations.<\/p>\n

The Jim Winkates Graduate Student Paper Award, named in honor of Dr. Jim Winkates, judges graduates papers\u00a0on\u00a0mastery of the field, originality, logic, organization, good writing, and proper documentation.<\/p>\n

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\"20151024_131952<\/a>Chris Faulkner won the Grand Prize\u00a0Jim Winkates Graduate Student Paper Award for his paper on “Money and Control: Rebel Groups and the Forcible Recruitment of Child Soldiers.\u201d His\u00a0paper investigates why certain groups choose to forcibly recruit children as soldiers and why other groups refrain from doing so.<\/p>\n

This paper originated as a course paper for\u00a0his Qualitative Methods course in the fall of 2014 with Thomas Dolan, Ph.D.<\/a>\u00a0 Faulkner\u00a0states that “Dr. Dolan was instrumental in assisting me in developing a strong theoretical argument and drafting a quality research paper.”<\/p>\n

Jonathan Powell, Ph.D.,<\/a> graciously read\u00a0his paper multiple times, offering invaluable constructive feedback that was key for improving the paper.\u00a0“I am very thankful for both Dr. Dolan and Dr. Powell for their guidance, encouragement, and dedication to student success.”<\/p>\n

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Rebecca Schiel\u00a0won runner-up (2nd place) for\u00a0her paper, “Ungoverned Spaces: A Subnational Study of India.” Her paper examined ungoverned space from a public goods provision standpoint; specifically the provision of security through the presence of police.<\/p>\n

Rebecca’s paper also began as a course project with Dr. Dolan. He helped her conceptualize the project and begin her research.<\/p>\n

Rebecca states that “The data gathering process was incredibly time consuming, but ultimately afforded me the opportunity examine the issues of interest at a much lower, and thus more detailed, level.”<\/p>\n

Barbara Kinsey, Ph.D.<\/a>, helped Rebecca through the methods portion of the paper, while Dr. Powell reviewed\u00a0her paper several times and provided critical feedback “that no doubt advanced the work considerably.”<\/p>\n

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Chris and Rebecca’s excellent methodological skills and training were noted and mentioned by the presenters of the awards and others attending the conference.<\/p>\n

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The following graduate students represented UCF at the ISA-South\u00a0annual conference:<\/p>\n