Publication Type: Proceeding

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Zayed University, a U.S. Middle States Commission on Higher Education accredited institution in the United Arab Emirates (U.A.E.) provides educational opportunities for Muslim women aspiring to become leaders in their professions. Because of its focus on the American style of higher education, most faculty and instructional staff are from the United States and other western countries. As such, the western academic style is often used during classroom instruction.
Explored in this paper is the influence of culture on the learning styles of Emirati university students. With a particular focus on eastern culture, questions are raised regarding western academic pedagogy and Emirati students. Using data from classroom exercises and focus groups with 25 undergraduate students, the importance of understanding how the culture of the east, particularly in the U.A.E., can be used as a vehicle for developing culturally relevant pedagogy is discussed. Offered are suggestions for more effective teaching practices for western academics who work will encounter these students in the university setting.
This topic will become increasing more important as the education reform movement in the Middle East, particularly the U.A.E continues to develop and more western trained academics, particularly from the United States, serve in faculty roles at eastern universities.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Criminal trials of the former leaders or officials of authoritarian regimes are often considered an important part of ‘transitional justice,’ or reckoning with the past. Using case studies of such trials in post-communist Germany and Poland, I show that they are, but not in the way commonly understood. Intensity (breadth and depth) of trials has only an indeterminate relationship to variables important for democratic consolidation. It is the means of implementation of trials, instead, that determines their impact on the consolidation process. Using a framework that sees transitional justice as a part of the larger process of regime foundation, I conclude that Germany’s many thorough trials and Poland’s few and often incomplete trials have had surprisingly similar impacts on legal and political society. Differences in impact are better explained by how trials were implemented than by whether they were held or not.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: The expansion of the European Union has promoted democratization as a mechanism for ensuring peace and security in the region. By focusing on former Soviet Satellites and the newly independent states of Eastern Europe, the authors assess the primacy of institutional establishment, as required by the EU, versus the encouragement of civil society and political culture in the process of democratization. Considering the recent wave of democratization, a clear understanding of peaceful democratic consolidation is necessary given the volatility of transitional regimes. This paper explores the rationale behind the EU’s selection of certain newly democratizing states and the extent to which the selection process is influenced by state building and the promotion of civil society. This research examines the convergence of the democratic peace, political consolidation, and neo-liberal literatures to provide a more in-depth explanation regarding the EU’s promotion of stability through the enlargement process. Through the analysis of three logit model, the authors conclude that liberal political institutions and a democratic civil society are both prerequisites to be offered candidate country status from the European Union.