Professor Michael Fauntroy will present “Racial Politics in a ‘Post-Racial’ America” on December 7 at Mason’s Center for the Arts as part of the George Mason University Vision Series.

Professor Janine R. Wedel will speak about her new book, Shadow Elite: How the World’s New Power Brokers Undermine Democracy, Government, and the Free Market (published by Basic Books, December 2009) at the following venues: New America Foundation on December 1 at 12:15 p.m., Politics and Prose on January 8 at 7 p.m., and Barnes and Noble in New York City on January 13.

Professor Wayne D. Perry and current SPP PhD student Robert V. Hamilton presented their paper, “Measurement of Foreign Science and Engineering Doctoral Attainment at American Universities” at the 31st Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management annual research conference held on November 7 in Washington, D.C.

Professor Mark Rozell presented “Election Results” to the Fairfax Committee of 100 on November 5 in McLean, Virginia. Rozell also will speak about the recent Virginia elections at Hampden-Sydney College in Farmville, Virginia, on November 16 and at the monthly meeting of Dulles Area Democrats in Herndon, Virginia, on November 19.

Professor Katrin B. Anacker presented "The Effectiveness of Technology-Assisted Learning and International Travel in Comparative Housing Education" (written with Hazel Morrow-Jones) at the 43rd annual Housing Education and Research Association conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, on November 2.

The School of Public Policy’s Terrorism, Transnational Crime and Corruption Center (TraCCC) and the Open World Leadership Center hosted the “Face of Human Trafficking in Ukraine: Assisting Victims and Diverting At-Risk Groups” at Mason’s Arlington Campus on October 28. A panel discussion was moderated by Professor Louise Shelley, TraCCC founder and director, and Sally Stoecker, TraCCC senior scholar and consultant. Learn more about the conference and the Open World Leadership Program delegations from Russia and Ukraine at the TraCCC web site.

Professor James Pfiffner testified at the Presidential Advice and Senate Consent: Past, Present, and Future of Policy Czars hearing before the Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs on October 22 in the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C. He was invited to testify by U.S. Senators Joseph I. Lieberman (committee chair) and Susan M. Collins (ranking member). The hearing focused on the history and current use of policy czars and how effective the structure is to manage the government.

TraCCC hosted the Drug Flows Out of Afghanistan and Pakistan conference at Mason’s Arlington Campus on October 21. Participants included SPP Professors Jack Goldstone and Louise Shelley, TraCCC founder and director; SPP PhD students Nazia Hussain, Bilal Wahab, and Mahmut Cengiz; visiting Fulbright professor at TraCCC Nikolay Naydenov; Victoria Greenfield, Crowe Chair Professor and Department of Economics, U.S. Naval Academy; and Professor Vanda Felbab-Brown, Brookings Institution. Learn more about the event on the TraCCC web site.

Adjunct Professor Bonnie Stabile convened and chaired a panel for the annual National Association of Schools of Public Affairs and Administration conference on October 16 in Washington, D.C. The panel, "Government Efficiency as a Public Value: How Schools of Public Affairs and Public Administration Prepare Students to Lead the Effort for Enhanced Efficiency" included University Professor Susan Tolchin from Mason and Professor Jed Kee from George Washington University. Stabile presented her paper, "Degrees of Efficiency? How MPA and MPP Degrees Prepare Students to Participate in Government Efficiency Efforts."

Professor Janine Wedel was the keynote speaker at the European conference "Anthropology of Europe," which was held in Poznan, Poland, on October 15.

Professor Louise Shelley presented "Human Trafficking" as part of the conference Redefining Central Asia, held at the Trudena Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Toronto on October 11. Professor Shelley also presented "Commodification of Human Smuggling and Trafficking" at the Commodification of Illicit Flows: Labour Migration, Trafficking and Business conference at the Center for Diaspora and Transnational Studies, which was held at the University of Toronto, October 9–10.

Current Master of Public Policy student Kelsey Willingham was funded by TraCCC and World Vision International to present her paper “The Dangers of Displacement: Vulnerabilities to Trafficking within IDP Populations” at the conference Protecting People in Conflict and Crisis: Responding to the Challenges of a Changing World, which was hosted September 21–23 by the Refugee Studies Centre at Oxford University. Willingham was a research partner with World Vision in Georgia where she participated in the new partnership between TraCCC and World Vision International.

Professor Jack A. Goldstone presented his ideas on future trajectories of global capitalism at a conference in Moscow sponsored by Expert magazine. The conference, which occurred September 10–11, brought together Russian, Western European, and American experts on comparative history and the sociology of capitalism to discuss the effect of the global financial crisis and the future of free markets.