The Vienna Diplomatic Program: Goals and Outcomes in a Non-Traditional Study Abroad Program

The University of Illinois??? Vienna Diplomatic Program provides a nontraditional, semester-long study abroad opportunity for students interested in international organizations. It is grounded in a philosophy of experiential learning that combines study abroad and learning-by- doing in a capstone research project. The VDP is one of several programs using the administrative auspices of the University???s Austria-Illinois Exchange Program for its infrastructure. Students in the VDP may take English-language courses on international relations at our Vienna partner universities, or take German-language courses if their skills are sufficiently advanced. While in Vienna, each student writes a major research paper on one of the international organizations in Vienna. The Organization for Security Cooperation in Europe, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, the United Nations Commission on International Trade Law, and the European Union have been the most popular subjects for research. Students report very high levels of satisfaction with the program. Students tend to come from political science, economics, and history, and appreciate having a study abroad program with a social-science and public policy focus. Student satisfaction is evident in the important role of word-of-mouth in publicizing the program. Graduates have gone on to both research-oriented and policy-oriented positions. Another group seems to have benefited from immersion into the transnational community of the expatriate, leading them to careers based on cross-cultural exchange and globalized society. Because the program is less than ten years old, we do not yet know its effect on the long-term career paths of its alumni.published or submitted for publicationnot peer reviewe

"The Myths of Turkish Influence in the European Union". University of Illinois EUC Working Paper Volume 6, No. 2, 2006

Among the many objections to Turkish membership in the European Union lie claims that Turkey will be a powerful actor in the future EU, with a population as large as or larger than Germany. Many also claim that this power will have negative effects on the EU. We examine such claims analytically, influenced strongly by spatial models of EU policy-making. We find that Turkey's preferences lie sufficiently outside the EU mainstream so that it will have little influence in day-to-day policy-making under the assent, codecision, consultation, and cooperation procedures (or the common procedure in the rejected constitutional treaty). Its influence may be more evident in areas such as the CFSP or JHA, where unanimity remains the normal procedure. Still, Turkey's veto power here is no different from that of other, much smaller countries. Furthermore, veto power can only block changes and cannot be used to pull the EU into undesirable new directions. Even this veto power can be avoided if the EU-25 establishes whatever policies they desire prior to Turkish membership, forcing Turkey to accept a fait accompli. Despite these limitations to its power, Turkey may have some influence in purely intergovernmental settings such as negotiations over new treaties that might occur some decades hence

The Mid-Infrared Fundamental Plane of Early-Type Galaxies

Three observables of early-type galaxies - size ($r_{e}$), surface brightness ($I_{e}$), and velocity dispersion ($\sigma_{0}$) - form a tight planar correlation known as the fundamental plane (FP), which has provided great insights into the galaxy formation and the evolution processes. However, the FP has been found to be tilted against the simple virial expectation, prompting debates on its origin. In order to investigate the contribution of systematic stellar population variation to the FP tilt, we study here the FP relations of early-type galaxies in mid-infrared (MIR) which may represent the stellar mass well. We examined the wavelength dependence of the FP coefficients, $a$ and $b$ in $\log r_{e}= a\log\sigma_{0} + b\log_{e} + c$, using a sample of 56 early-type galaxies for which visible (V-band), near-infrared (K-band), and MIR (Spitzer IRAC, 3.6--8.0$\mu$m) data are available. We find that the coefficient $a$ increases as a function of wavelength as $da/d\lambda=0.11\pm0.04\mu m^{-1}$, while the coefficient $b$ reaches the closest to -1 at 3.6--5.8$\mu$m. When applied to the visible FP coefficients derived from a larger sample of nearby early-type galaxies, we get the FP relation with $(a,b) \simeq$(1.6--1.8,-0.9) at 3.6$\mu$m. Our result suggests that the stellar population effect can explain more than half of the FP tilt, closing the gap between the virial expectation and the optical FP. The reduction in the FP tilt is reflected in the dynamical mass-to-light ratio, $M_{dyn}/L$, dependence on $L$ which decreases toward 3.6--5.8$\mu$m, suggesting that the MIR light better represents mass than the shorter wavelengths.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, to appear in ApJ

RECONSIDERING NATIONAL PARK INTERPRETATION OF THE GREAT PLAINS AND TRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST

The National Park Service has generally interpreted its sites in the Great Plains in terms of a Eurocentric narrative of westward expansion. Though some sites are changing (e.g., Little Bighorn), others are not (e.g., Scotts Bluff). Even those sites that have changed still retain important elements of traditional narratives, which often date to the 1930s or to the Mission 66 period (1956-66). The newest sites, such as Washita Battlefield, tell newer stories that resonate well with today\u27s visitors. These provide a model for revising older sites. Giving greater attention to causes and consequences, aiming for a richer mix of disciplinary perspectives, including a wider range of historic and prehistoric peoples, and providing more balance in cases of war or cultural conflict will all improve interpretation. Exploring multiple meanings of resources such as wilderness will bring the National Park Service\u27s practices closer to modern academic literatures. Engaging both controversial histories and modern controversies over policy constitutes good pedagogy and should also be part of updated interpretative programs

RECONSIDERING NATIONAL PARK INTERPRETATION OF THE GREAT PLAINS AND TRANS-MISSISSIPPI WEST

The National Park Service has generally interpreted its sites in the Great Plains in terms of a Eurocentric narrative of westward expansion. Though some sites are changing (e.g., Little Bighorn), others are not (e.g., Scotts Bluff). Even those sites that have changed still retain important elements of traditional narratives, which often date to the 1930s or to the Mission 66 period (1956-66). The newest sites, such as Washita Battlefield, tell newer stories that resonate well with today\u27s visitors. These provide a model for revising older sites. Giving greater attention to causes and consequences, aiming for a richer mix of disciplinary perspectives, including a wider range of historic and prehistoric peoples, and providing more balance in cases of war or cultural conflict will all improve interpretation. Exploring multiple meanings of resources such as wilderness will bring the National Park Service\u27s practices closer to modern academic literatures. Engaging both controversial histories and modern controversies over policy constitutes good pedagogy and should also be part of updated interpretative programs

The Extremely Red Objects Found Thus Far in the Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey

We discuss the very red objects found in the first field of the Caltech Faint Galaxy Redshift Survey, for which the observations and analysis are now complete. In this field, which is 15 arcmin$^2$ and at J005325+1234 there are 195 objects with $K_s < 20$ mag, of which 84% have redshifts. The sample includes 24 spectroscopically confirmed Galactic stars, 136 galaxies, three AGNs, and 32 objects without redshifts. About 10% of the sample has $(R-K) \ge 5$ mag. Four of these objects have redshifts, with $0.78 \le z \le 1.23$. Three of these are based on absorption features in the mid-UV, while the lowest redshift object shows the standard features near 4000\AA. Many of the objects still without redshifts have been observed spectroscopically, and no emission lines were seen in their spectra. We believe they are galaxies with $z \sim 1 - 1.5$ that are red due to their age and stellar content and not to some large amount of internal reddening from dust. Among the many other results from this survey of interest here is a determination of the median extinction in the mid-UV for objects with strong emission line spectra at $z \sim 1 - 1.3$. The result is extinction by a factor of $\sim$2 at 2400\AA.Comment: 6 pages, Latex, with 2 figures. To be published in the proceedings of the conference "Infrared Surveys: A Prelude to SIRTF