Michael Gorham

The internet age presents serious challenges to authoritarian governments by democratizing political discourse. Citizens now have the means to speak directly to each other without the filter of the official media. To explore the impact of the new media on Russian public life, the Russian Studies Program at Stetson University will host a symposium, #Politics: The Social Media Revolution in Putin’s Russia on Wednesday, April 3, at 4 p.m. in the Rinker Auditorium of the Lynn Business Center, 345 N. Woodland Blvd., DeLand. The speakers for the event are Professor Michael Gorham of the University of Florida and Professor Sarah Oates of the University of Maryland. Professor Eugene Huskey of Stetson will moderate the symposium.

Michael Gorham is associate professor of Russian Studies at the University of Florida and an associate editor of The Russian Review. Originally a specialist in language and politics in early 20th century Russia, he has worked in recent years on the media revolution in contemporary Russia. Among his recent articles is “Medvedev’s New Media Gambit: The Language of Power in 140 Characters or Less.”  He has just completed a book manuscript entitled In Newspeak’s Wake: Language, Culture, and Politics from Glasnost to Social Media.

Sarah Oates

Sarah Oates is professor and Senior Scholar in the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland. Before moving to Maryland in 2012, she had taught for many years in the Politics Department at the University of Glasgow, Scotland. A widely published scholar on democratization and communications, she serves as an expert for the European Commission’s Digital Futures project. Her latest book, Revolution Stalled: The Political Limits of the Internet in the Post-Soviet Sphere, will be published next month by Oxford University Press.

The Vis competition includes more than 290 teams from over 65 countries around the world. The Jessup competition includes student advocates from 550 law schools and more than 80 countries.

“In a few weeks, our students will showcase their advocacy skills on the international stage,” said Stetson Law professor and moot court advisor Brooke Bowman. “These competitions give students opportunities to present their arguments before top international judges and attorneys.”

Stetson’s Vis team of Paul Crochet, Meagan Foley, Michael Rothfeldt, Lisa Tanaka and Alex Zesch won the Florida Bar International Law Section Willem C. Vis International Commercial Arbitration Pre-Moot in Miami, Fla., on March 2. Foley was named the best oralist in the competition, for an unprecedented second year in a row. The team travels to Vienna to compete in two weeks.

Stetson’s Jessup team of Sharon Galantino, Caitlein Jammo, Bradley Muhs and Carly Ross finished second at the South Super-Regionals of the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition in New Orleans, La., on March 1-3, and won the runner-up memorial award. The team heads to Washington, D.C., in a few weeks to compete in the international finals with law students from around the world.

To learn more visit http://www.law.stetson.edu/advocacy/.

Wm. Reece Smith III, left, and Stetson Law Dean Christopher Pietruszkiewicz, right, pose with John T. Berry, this year’s recipient of the Wm. Reece Smith Public Service award.

John T. Berry, legal division director of the Florida Bar, was presented with this year’s Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Public Service Award. Stetson established the prestigious public service award for Wm. Reece Smith Jr. more than two decades ago.

Berry is an expert in judicial education, ethics and professionalism who established professional development programs for the Florida Bar and State Bar of Arizona. He served as liaison for the State Bar of Arizona to the ABA Ethics 2000 Commission and ABA Multijurisdictional Practice Commission.

Stetson Law students and faculty attending this year’s Inns of Court Banquet on Feb. 13 in St. Petersburg celebrated the life of Wm. Reece Smith Jr., the lecture’s namesake and a legendary lawyer, who died on Jan. 11.

Smith, a longtime distinguished professorial lecturer and member of Stetson’s Hall of Fame, left behind a legacy of service to the legal profession. Smith founded Florida Legal Services and advocated for legal representation for the poor, served as president of the International, American and Florida Bar Associations, and was a member of the Carlton Fields law firm since 1953.

“A great attorney and an even greater human being, William Reece Smith Jr. embodied the values of Stetson University College of Law as much as any of our legendary leaders,” said Stetson Law Dean Christopher Pietruszkiewicz.

Nationally recognized trial lawyer Bruce Ross, of Holland & Knight LLP, presented the Wm. Reece Smith Jr. Distinguished Lecture at the Inns of Court Banquet. Ross is spearheading his law firm’s efforts to assist the Mickey Rooney Elder Abuse Project in providing free legal assistance to elder clients who have been exploited. Ross is included among the Best Lawyers in America for Trusts and Estates and among the Top 100 Attorneys by Worth Magazine and Who’s Who in Law.

The Annual Inns of Court brings together prominent lawyers, experienced teachers and law students to exchange ideas, experiences and education. The adopted Stetson Inns of Court tradition has its roots in England.

Read this release and more news from Stetson University College of Law.

Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) comes to Stetson March 15!

Through the efforts and hard work of Michelle Vergara, Benjamin Trigani and other Stetson students, Stetson University will host a TEDx event on Friday, March 15. The theme for Stetson’s TEDx event will be Significance in Action: Inspired Learning. The application process for potential presenters is open to the public. All proposals for presentations are due by Wednesday Feb. 13. The speakers selected will be notified on Friday, Feb. 22.

TED, a nonprofit organization with a mission to spread ideas, brings together three different realms of society: TECHNOLOGY, ENTERTAINMENT and DESIGN to discuss a broad range of ideas for topics and conversations. Stetson’s TEDx event will give the Stetson and DeLand communities a chance to engage in thought-provoking presentations, comprised of short talks, demonstrations and performances on a variety of topics relating to the theme.

Significance in Action: Inspired Learning spans a broad base of topics and interests so that the potential speakers have as much freedom in their presentation as possible. The central theme, however, is about how we are able to learn from all kinds of places and life experiences and how learning takes place through opportunities to experience the beauty and complexity the world has to offer. Stetson’s theme centralizes around the ability to learn outside the classroom, and outside books. Applicants have a freedom to share their stories, their ideas, their inspirations, their insights into life.

Significance in Action: Inspired Learning also is meant to inspire the speakers to find their passion and drive for experiencing life to its full potential. The goal is the satisfaction of starting intellectually stimulating discussions and sharing ideas. All speakers will be treated equally; there will be no highlighted keynote speaker. It will give the speakers a chance to voice their articulated ideas and experiences as they relate to the theme.

As the TEDxStetsonU Speaker Proposal Form reads, “Learning takes all kinds of forms, but the lessons that rise above the rest are those which propel our lives forward. These lessons can spell the difference between a significant life and a mediocre one. From where do you draw inspiration? And how does it help you be significant?”

The Stetson TEDx event will be held on March 15, in Allen Hall from 2:30 to 7:30 p.m. Tickets will go on sale Friday, Feb. 22 to both the Stetson community and the public. Only 100 tickets will be available for purchase due to space and TED regulations.

For more information, contact the TEDxStetsonU Organizing Team (Michelle Vergara, Dr. Emily Richardson and Dr. Lua Hancock) at tedxstetsonu@gmail.com<mailto:tedxstetsonu@gmail.com.

By Lauren Robbins, SUM student intern

Stetson’s Community Partner and Study Abroad Fair will be combined for the first time Jan. 31. Students can discover the many opportunities to study abroad or become engaged to serve in the local community. The fall 2012 Community Partner Fair is pictured above. 

Want to learn more volunteer and study abroad opportunities?

Stetson’s “Community Partner and Study Abroad Fair,” the first of its kind to be co-hosted jointly for students by the Center for Community Engagement and WORLD (International Learning), is scheduled from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., Thursday, Jan. 31, in front of the CUB. Students will have the opportunity to learn about local community non-profits that are service sites, as well as discover the many exciting opportunities to study abroad in the upcoming academic year. Students who attend will be eligible for raffles and door prizes.

This new coordinated partnership is  a direct result of the synergy created by the university’s new values commitment to Global Citizenship, Intellectual Development and Personal Growth.

Community Partners & Volunteer Sites

“We are always looking for ways for students to become more engaged and to challenge themselves,” said Kevin Winchell, assistant director of Community Engagement. “By meeting community partners and learning of volunteer and service-learning opportunities near Stetson, students become more engaged in our community. And, by choosing to study abroad, students challenge themselves to learn and grow in ways they never thought possible. These experiences make a Stetson education truly significant.”

Stetson students volunteer with over 50 different local community partners, and many of those partners will be available at the fair to answer questions and get students connected to volunteer and internship opportunities.

Students wanting to learn more about community partners and volunteer opportunities can visit the Center for Community Engagement at 609 N. Bert Fish Drive, or log in to OrgSync for a full list of partners and opportunities at www.stetson.orgsync.com.

Studying Abroad

“Approximately one-third of all Stetson students study abroad before graduating,” said Paula Hentz, Study Abroad Coordinator at WORLD. “Because of this high demand, WORLD has significantly increased the number of options for studying abroad. Between exchanges, faculty-led programs, and the programs offered by affiliates, WORLD offers hundreds of study abroad options available across six continents.”

WORLD now offers 14 exchange programs, including locations in France, Korea, India, England, Scotland, Spain, Russia, Austria, Hong Kong, Thailand, United Arab Emirates and Germany. There are also faculty-led programs, which are short-term visits to places such as Peru, Brazil, South Africa, China and Innsbruck.

Students wanting to learn more about study abroad options can visit WORLD’s new office on 635 N. Bert Fish Drive, or WORLD’s new website at www.stetson.edu/world.

Students participating in the Summer Freiburg Program pose in front of the Reichstag building in Berlin, Germany, June 12, 2012.

Participating in Stetson University’s Summer Freiburg Program was one of the most rewarding experiences of my college career. You don’t have to major or minor in German to take part in a program that combines academically rigorous study with several field trips and group excursions. Most importantly, we gained invaluable insight into German cultural and everyday life.

Whether just walking through downtown Freiburg, taking the local train to the Black Forest, spending an afternoon in Basel, Switzerland or Strasbourg, France, or crossing borders into other European countries on long weekends, you can learn much about how people in other cultures organize their daily lives and deal with current social and political questions. Our minds were opened to questions of environmental sustainability, consumer culture, educational opportunities, and of how Germans deal with their most recent history and much more. Germany is one of the most culturally rich nations with a wealth of historical and religious landmarks, art, music and theater, philosophy, literature and architecture. Freiburg itself is not only home to the only cathedral finished in the Middle Ages, but also known as the environmental capital of Germany where bicycles and pedestrians outnumber cars by far in downtown.

The educational experience provided by the Summer Freiburg Program is outstanding. Students take two courses taught by Stetson professors. Knowledge of German is not a prerequisite; nevertheless students can learn some German phrases and expressions as they engage with native speakers at the University of Education (Pädagogische Hochschule) where the program’s courses take place. Every class session had a purpose and provided insight into our cultural experiences. The majority of instructional time was spent in productive class discussions that were prompted by either a film, literary or other cultural text, or an experience a class member shared.

“The program seeks a solid balance between academic rigor and ‘hands-on’ cultural learning,” said Stetson German Professor Elisabeth Poeter, director of the SFP. “Students should be able to relate what they’ve studied and discussed in class to what they experience and observe in their immediate surroundings. By doing so, they can engage in intercultural comparisons that highlight similarities between students’ own culture and that of the foreign country while at the same time, become aware of notable differences.”

One of the highlights of the Summer Freiburg Program is the five-day trip to Berlin, the capital of Germany, and Weimar, the so-called “cultural capital.” This excursion provides a unique opportunity to gain better understanding of Germany before and after re-unification.

In Berlin, we saw the Reichstag, home of the German parliament, visited several museums on the Museumsinsel, explored Humboldt Universität, birthplace of classical liberal arts education and walked through the famous Alexanderplatz, the center of East Berlin and the location of the peaceful demonstrations leading up to the fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989. Remnants of the formerly divided city are noticeable everywhere, bringing to life much of what we may have encountered in textbooks on German language, history and culture in films or a novel. With its myriad of coffee and teashops, Weimar is one of the most enchanting places in Germany.

We visited Johann Wolfgang von Goethe’s home, the Anna Amalia Library, the archives of the philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, and the famous statue of Goethe and Schiller in front of the Weimar Theatre that has made history since German classicism. We attended a cutting-edge production of “The Coronation of Poppea” by Monteverdi, staged in the former power plant of Weimar, a most memorable experience.

The contradictions in German political and cultural history came to life as we visited the infamous Stasi prison in Hohenschönhausen (Secret Service of the former GDR) in Berlin and the concentration camp of Buchenwald near Weimar. The depth of academic and cultural learning in this five-week program was truly unique. Students who really embrace what the program offers return with greater awareness of the cultural richness of Germany and Europe and have made a significant step towards becoming a citizen of the world.

By students Shannon Abelson ’13 and Nikki Holtzer ‘14

PLEASE NOTE: Because space is limited for the summer 2013 SFP program, students interested in participating should contact Dr. Poeter at epoeter@stetson.edu, or contact Stetson’s World: International Learning Office at studyabroad@stetson.edu for more information.

Students can also learn more about their study abroad options and community engagement opportunities, including more information about the Summer Freiburg Program, by attending Stetson’s Study Abroad and Community Partner Fair on Thursday, Jan. 31, from 11 a.m. -2 p.m. at the CUB Circle.

Works from Stetson University’s Vera Bluemner Kouba Collection

January 25 – April 29, 2013

OPENING RECEPTION 6-8 P.M., FRIDAY, JAN. 25 

Oscar Bluemner’s Jerichow, c. 1887-92, ink and ink wash on paper, is on display Jan. 25-April 29, at Hand Art Center.

Since its opening in 2009, an important mission of the Hand Art Center at Stetson University has been the exhibition and interpretation of the artwork of Oscar Bluemner (1867-1938) that was bequeathed to Stetson University by the artist’s daughter in 1997. Bluemner emigrated to the United States in 1892 and became an important American Modernist painter at the beginning of the 20^th century. Oscar Bluemner’s Germany: Juxtaposing Jerichow is the first exhibition to focus on works created by the artist in his native Germany. The exhibit, curated by Dr. Susanne Eules, concentrates on images Bluemner made in and around the town of Jerichow before his emigration and on a return trip to Germany in 1912. Bluemner’s original artworks are accompanied by contemporary photographs of the locales he portrayed.

During a research trip to Germany in the summer of 2010, Eules traced Bluemner’s footsteps in Jerichow and surroundings. This trip also yielded new insights into the artist’s family history. A surprisingly high number of works in the Vera Kouba Bluemner collection – more than 160 – feature scenes in the towns of Jerichow, Tangermünde, Stendhal and the surrounding countryside. The sketches document the transition from Bluemner’s more traditional style towards a late impressionist one. The works of cubist, futurist and German expressionist artists  that he saw in many avant-garde exhibitions in European museums and galleries during his 1912 trip impacted Bluemner’s work only later, after his return to America. Today, Jerichowisa town of about 7460 inhabitants located in the Jerichower Land district in the state of Saxony-Anhalt, Germany. The most prominent feature of Jerichow is the fully restored, oldest brick church in Romanesque style in Northeast Germany. Before his emigration to America in the fall of 1892, Oscar Bluemner often visited the small town to see his paternal grandparents and other relatives living in nearby villages. The Jerichow sketches rely on direct observation; some are annotated, specifying names, places and professions some of which no longer exist.

The people of Jerichow were very surprised to learn that one of their great “grandsons” had become part of the American modernist movement in art. This fact brought a sense of pride to the inhabitants of this small town that still suffers from the aftermath of economic and cultural neglect under the former East German regime from 1949 -1989.

On Wednesday, March 13, 2013, 7 p.m. exhibition curator, Dr. Susanne Eules, will present a public lecture about the exhibition in Room 25 of the Instructional Media Center of the duPont-Ball Library (reached from the courtyard on the north side of the library), 134 E. Minnesota Ave.

Gary Oliphant, left, with students in Beijing, China’s Tiananmen Square in 2012. 

Two adventurous Stetson University business professors have embarked on a round-the-world voyage aboard a sea-going university campus in the company of extraordinary global leaders. Rebecca and Gary Oliphant are now in the Eastern Pacific spending their sabbaticals as sea-going faculty on the 590-foot MV Explorer. They and their 635 students on board will call at 16 ports in 12 countries over 106 days.

It’s just the kind of international experience that the School of Business Administration encourages for students and faculty. In the last three years, the school’s study opportunities abroad increased sharply as student groups visited more than 15 countries in Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and the Americas, some multiple times.

Both Oliphants joined the voyage with great eagerness.

“Very, very excited,” said Gary, just before leaving DeLand. “How many times do you get to go on a voyage around the world? How neat is that?”

“I’m excited more than anything,” said his wife, Becky, sweeping aside anxieties. “I know nothing about ships, but I am constantly looking for new experiences and this definitely fits the bill.”

Gary joined Stetson’s faculty in 1995, a year before his wife. While at sea, he will teach classes on emerging markets, consumer behavior and project management. Becky’s classes will be on organizational behavior and international marketing.

Both professors are especially enthusiastic about meeting government and business leaders from so many countries who spend time with MV Explorer passengers. They’ll also work with a remarkable array of international entrepreneurs — such as the founder of Priceline and WordPress, a Google vice president and especially South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu — who mentor the students on board.

A man of immense moral authority, Tutu was a leading figure in the fight against Apartheid, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984, and has been recognized with many of the world’s highest humanitarian honors. Tutu, who lectured at Stetson in 1991, will lecture and mentor for more than half the voyage.

The Semester At Sea program seeks to instill greater global understanding through experiencing the perspectives, similarities and interdependence of humanity’s communities and cultures. The Oliphants embrace that notion.

“I believe in a borderless world and global citizenship,” said Gary, who chairs the Decision and Information Sciences Department. “What happens in one country has an impact on other countries. My biggest joy is to go somewhere I have never been and to immerse myself in that culture and customs. This trip will bombard my senses.”

Experiences during this voyage will enrich their future classroom lessons in innumerable ways, the two said.

“Unless you actually experience that which you think you might know, you can’t really know,” said Becky, a marketing professor who leads the International MBA Program. She has organized and led student groups to dozens of destinations on three continents and is a dedicated advocate for student travel.

“When you visit another country you see what we have here that we take for granted, but you also see how happy and great other places and people are as well,” she said. “That is perhaps the biggest thing I have learned from traveling. We don’t have the lock and key for everything in this country. Some of the poorest countries have the happiest people.”

International travel is a powerful catalyst to enrich students’ lives, said Gary.

“It expands your world view — you come back a different person,” he said. “It challenges your beliefs and value system, it increases independence and maturity and prepares you for this increasingly global world.”

Travel holds all those benefits for faculty, too, he said, and helps them understand and relate to diverse and multicultural classrooms: “How can we ask students to be global when we are not?”

Vicarious voyagers can follow the Oliphants around the world by checking the blog, “Dr. Becky’s Travels,” being kept especially for two classes at Southwestern Middle School in DeLand. From the first entry: “I have all my shots (yes there are a lot of them). I have my malaria pills, my seasickness pills, my sense of adventure and my sense of humor and flexibility.”

The Semester At Sea program is administered by the Institute for Shipboard Education, an educational nonprofit founded in 1963 and based in Virginia. About 40 faculty members sail with the Oliphants from Ensenada, Mexico, to Japan before slowly skipping down the long edge of Asia then springing across the Indian Ocean to Africa, edging north around that continent, passing through the Gibraltar Strait and debarking in Barcelona, Spain, on April 25.

By Ronald Williamson

Haitian schoolgirls share a laugh at a school in the Dominican Republic. (Photo by Afia Donkor)

For most people, the Caribbean is a tropical paradise, a getaway destination where reef fish dart among sunken pirate gold in a boundless turquoise sea. For the people who live and work for equality and human rights in the Caribbean, a different picture emerges: one focused on the struggle for social justice.

Unemployment is rampant. Natural catastrophes like hurricanes have regularly struck the fragile islands. Hundreds of thousands of people died in Haiti in a devastating earthquake in 2010 and many of the survivors remain displaced and homeless, still living in makeshift shelters two years later.

Stetson University College of Law alumni Peterson St. Philippe ‘09, Genevieve Whitaker ‘07, and professors Dorothea Beane and Darryl Wilson are creating opportunities for people to learn about the importance of human rights in the beautiful but troubled Caribbean. Alumna Afia Donkor ‘08, is helping to make a difference for Haitian children in the Dominican Republic. Both Whitaker and St. Philippe have a special connection to the islands, because they are also home.

“I do think that the Caribbean faces very unique historical challenges,” said Whitaker, CEO of The Whitaker Consultant Group, who was born and raised in St. Croix in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Whitaker advocates for juvenile justice and women’s rights in the Caribbean.

“My passion and foundation for human rights were cemented during law school and my experience studying abroad,” said Whitaker who co-founded the Virgin Islands Youth Advocacy Coalition, Inc., where she is helping to educate young people about the importance of civic engagement and to research the oral and written history of social and political events in St. Croix.

“Growing up in Haiti was an experience like no other,” said St. Philippe. “Haiti has been a country cursed by political unrest for the better part of two decades,” with two political coup d’états, schools closing due to violence, and a severe embargo that created inflation of 60-70 percent overnight, St. Philippe recalls.

St. Philippe worked with Gulf Coast Legal Services after graduating from Stetson Law before starting his own immigration law practice in Miami, Fla. At Gulf Coast Legal Services, St. Philippe’s work focused on representing undocumented Haitian immigrants who had been victims of serious crimes. “The work I did at Gulf Coast was the most fulfilling work that I have ever done, and I can’t think of any better way to use my Stetson education,” St. Philippe said

Afia Donkor, now a lawyer in Ontario, Canada, is helping with a school in the Dominican Republic for Haitian refugee children who have no access to education.

“Because of the school, 80 school children have access to opportunities many of us take for granted. They are able to learn, to develop skills, and to understand how to implement their skills to build better futures for themselves and their communities,” Donkor said. “That is priceless.”

“You have to understand how the law can be used to help people including underserved groups like women and children,” said Beane, who co-directs Stetson’s Institute for Caribbean Law and Policy with professor Darryl Wilson. “You have to be clever, tenacious and creative.” Beane has worked extensively in The Hague, Netherlands, on matters involving international criminal law and human rights.

You can read the full story, written by Valeria Obi and Brandi Palmer, in SU magazine online.

Dr. Eugene Huskey has been named U.S. Embassy Policy Specialist for Kyrgyzstan by IREX.

Stetson professor of political science and Russian studies Eugene Huskey has been named a U.S. Embassy Policy Specialist by IREX. IREX is an international nonprofit organization, providing thought leadership and innovative programs to promote positive, lasting change globally. Huskey is one of 16 recipients worldwide to receive this honor. The scholars and professionals will serve as policy specialists at U.S. Embassies and U.S.AID Missions throughout Eurasia. After they complete their fellowships, their research findings will be posted on the IREX online resource library.

This competition awards grants to American scholars to assist U.S. embassies with governance and public policy projects overseas. IREX enables local individuals and institutions to build key elements of a vibrant society: quality education, independent media and strong communities by focusing on conflict resolution, technology for development, gender and youth.

Huskey will be working on a governance project in the Kyrgyz Republic from May through July 2013. In his abstract, which is summarized online, Huskey will examine the development of the recently established public monitoring councils attached to Kyrgyzstan’s ministries and local governments. Operating at the intersection between the state and civil society, these councils offer an opportunity to explore an experiment designed to enhance transparency and accountability in post-communist governance.

Although this is the first time Huskey has received the U.S. Embassy Policy Specialist distinction from IREX, this is one of multiple IREX awards that Huskey has received since 1979. He was awarded the IREX scholar distinction for the first time in 1979-80, and he conducted his doctoral research at Moscow State University at that time. Since that time, he has become an expert on Kyrgyzstan, and has traveled to the region more than 20 times.

Huskey has previously specialized in politics and legal affairs of the USSR and its modern successors. Huskey has contributed to more than 50 academic articles concerning Soviet and post-Communist affairs in publications including the Christian Science Monitor, the Wall Street Journal, Salon.com and others, and was the author or editor of four published books on the topic. In addition, he has given presentations to the U.S. State Department and other American government agencies, as well as to the OECD, and has been invited to give lectures at 24 universities in the United States and abroad.

At Stetson University, Huskey was awarded the William Hugh McEniry Award for Excellence in Teaching in 2007, the John Hague Award for Outstanding Teaching in the liberal arts and sciences in 2012 and he has also won Stetson’s Hand Prize for Faculty Research on two occasions. Since 1999, he has held the William R. Kenan, Jr. Chair in Political Science and Russian Studies at Stetson University.