WKU News

Three International Affairs students travelled to St. Louis the weekend before Thanksgiving with Professor Timothy Rich and presented their research, funded by Faculty Undergraduate Student Engagement (FUSE) grants, at the International Studies Abroad (ISA) Midwest Conference. Professor Rich says that "the ISA-Midwest conference for several years has been a wonderful conference for our undergraduates to present their original research and to network." 

International Affairs and German double major Erin Woggon presented the qualitative research chapter of her undergraduate thesis, Recruiting Women to Politics: Insights from German Politicians just days before her actual thesis defense. On her experience, she says that "it was a great opportunity to listen to the research work other undergraduates across the world are completing and connect with professionals in the political science field." International Affairs and Chinese majors Isabel Eliassen shared a similar experience. In addition to presenting her original research on Taiwan's English language policy and South Korean perceptions on North Korean refugees, she states that she had the opportunity to extend her professional network and gather information about different graduate programs.

The conference also gave the students a chance to receive feedback on their presentations and research. Kaitlyn Bison, who double majors in International Affairs and Economics, said that her research on South Korean public opinion on unification benefitted not only from the feedback given to her, but from the presenation itself as well. Woggon also said that presenting a the conference allowed her the opportunity to receive feedback on her research to use for her thesis defense. 

On the students' research, Rich commented that "the work by our students this year-- Erin Woggon, Isabel Eliassen, and Kaitlyn Bison-- highlight the type of methodologically rigourous and geographicaly diverse work capable of our International Affairs majors."