Constitution Day 2020: Keynote Speaker SEEU Prof Dr Besa Arifi: Presidential Pardons in Comparative Context

So pleased that our Keynote Speaker for our 2020 Constitution Day event will be Prof. Dr. Besa Arifi of South East European University.

Her subject -- Presidential Pardons

After her remarks, there will be Q&A, including conversation with students in my US Constitutional Law course, who will compare presidential pardons in North Macedonia and the US.

Please join us!

Thursday, September 17 from 1:00 pm to 2:00 pm EDT.

For more about SEEU: https://www.seeu.edu.mk/

Pre-Departure Orientation -- 2020 -- webinar for alumni presenters

I am delighted to be presenting (as a Scholar Alum) at the Pre-Departure Orientation for the outbound Fulbrighters again this year.

As a participant in this Fulbright Scholar Program -- the assistance of alumni was invaluable. I am honored to have been invited to mentor/participate in the Pre-Departure Orientation for those heading out in 2021.

This year, all of the meetings and conferences at the PDO will be virtual.

And our first meeting with fellow alumni to go over our roles and responsibilities was virtual as well.  A lot of creativity in the planning for this year's PDO -- to ensure that it is as helpful, interactive, meaningful and impactful as when we are all together.

The most difficult thing to recreate will be all those opportunities we had at the PDOs to socialize over meals, coffee breaks, after formal sessions to talk about the myriad of logistical questions.

This year we will be using Canvas (among other tools) in new ways to invite more collaboration in discussion boards, etc.

(The most disappointing news of this webinar: if we were in person this year, we would have been at the University of Oregon!! Experts there will still be leading sessions for the outbound Fulbrighters -- but -- it would have been fantastic to be back in Eugene!)

The North Macedonia Country session is not for another 6 weeks. My plan is to get this blog updated with projects and activities (still missing posts from 2020, 2019 and 2018 that could provide helpful info for those planning to move to MK) before our session.

I was traveling and not in a place where I could join by laptop -- but I was able to join by phone

presentation "The Impact of COVID-19 on the US Presidential Election," Global Summit COVID-19, May 2020

At the invitation of Professor Gjyla Celiku (with whom I worked at University of Tetovo), I was honored to speak about the "Impact of COVID-19 on the U.S. Presidential Election" at a Global Zoom Summit, organized by Northern Illinois University and the International Women's Club.

Presenters included a diverse array of experts -- including speakers from the US and from throughout the Balkans.
 

In addition to speaking about the ways in which COVID-19 will impact the election and voting, the way the candidates campaign, and the political landscape in the US, Dr. McLauchlan (in response to audience questions) shared information about the Road to the White House 2020 curriculum and the New Hampshire presidential campaign internships.

 

Ambassador James Pardew

Professor Gjylia Celiku, conference organizer and moderator

Kevin Lampe, Chicago-based political consultant

Here is an article about the summit:

https://ina-online.net/zoom-summit-covid19-ne-organizim-te-profesoreshes-se-njohur-gjyla-celiku/

Zoom Summit “Covid19”, në organizim të profesoreshës së njohur Gjyla Çeliku

Personalitete të rëndësishme të diplomacisë, shkencës dhe politikës janë pjesë e një samiti ndërkombëtar që do të mbahet online ditën e hënë.

Ky eveniment organizohet nga profesoresha e njohur Gjyla Çeliku, e cila do ta udhëheq të njejtin. Në fokusin e këtij debati do të jenë tema mbi shëndetësinë, politikën, ekonominë dhe arsimin. Pjesë e debatit do të jetë edhe diplomati dhe ish-ambasadori amerikan Xhejms Perdju, diplomatë dhe ekspertë të njohur ndërkombëtar, personalitete politike të vendit si dhe nga diaspora. (INA)

Editorial Board, International Balkan University Faculty of Law JOURNAL OF LAW AND POLITICS

I was delighted to be invited to serve on the Editorial Board of International Balkan University Law Faculty's new peer-reviewed Journal of Law and Politics.

 

And I look forward to continued cooperation with the law faculty, especially my colleague Professor Natalija Shikova (fellow Fulbrighter -- she was a researcher at George Washington University).

See  https://www.ibu.edu.mk/jlp/ for more information about the journal. And for more about International Balkan University, see  https://www.ibu.edu.mk/

USF St. Petersburg - University of Tetova - Comparative Legal Research Assignment -- SCOTUS and ECtHR

During the Spring 2020 semester, students in my US Constitutional Law 2 (Civil Liberties and Civil Rights) course at the University of South Florida St. Petersburg and Prof. Jusuf Zejneli's Constitutional Law course at the University of Tetova worked together in research groups, comparing decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States and the European Court of Human Rights on similar legal questions.

I have another blog --Comparative Legal Research: ECJ, ECtHR, and the SCOTUS-- where you can find more about the students' research projects, their partnership, and our global classroom.

See https://comparativelegalresearch.blogspot.com/

The Comparative Legal Research blog includes posts about the USFSP - SEEU (Skopje)  cooperation in 2018 as well as the USFSP - SNSPA (Bucharest) cooperation in 2015.  I wish to thank the Miami European Union Center for Excellence (MEUCE) for the faculty curriculum development grant that supported the development of this project.

Profs Zejneli and McLauchlan have drafted a law review article about this research project, expected to be published in September.

For now, here are links to a few of the posts about the USFSP - UT collaboration during the Spring 2020 semester.

The USFSP - UT Research Posters (Spring 2020)

Our International Research Symposium

USFSP - UT Student Collaboration Outside of Class

USFSP - UT -- 2nd Joint Videoconference

USFSP - UT Joint Videoconference (pre-pandemic)

University of Tetova facebook post about the collaboration

The Tetovo Youth Council participation in the International Research Conference

Our Research Partner at the University of Tetova -- Prof. Jusuf Zejneli

USFSP - UT Collaborative Research Project -- 2020 Project Description

students "meeting" their research partners for the first time

group picture of the USFSP and the UT participants in our "global classroom"....this was before Spring Break, when we were still meeting on campus

Video of Skopje in the Midst of Stay at Home during the COVID-19 Pandemic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ZX9ebV3sLI

I just saw this video posted on facebook -- of what the streets of Skopje look like, now that the COVID-19 pandemic is keeping us all inside.

UKIM Law Review Article Published December 2019: "Presidential Correspondence During the Clinton Administration: Staying in Touch with the American People"

As I was completely consumed with planning for my Road to the White House 2020 course (a course about US Presidential Campaigns and Elections that includes a presidential campaign internship in New Hampshire in advance of the first-in-the-nation primary -- this year I brought 29 students who were working on 8 campaigns in 3 cities!) -- I was pleased to learn that my article

"Presidential Correspondence during the Clinton Administration: Staying in Touch with the American People"

was published in the UKIM law review (Годишник на Правен факултет Јустинијан Први (Journal of the Faculty of Law Iustinuanus Primus) in December 2019.

For more about the Road to the White House 2020 course, see our website: https://www.usfsp.edu/road-to-the-white-house/

You can see photos and more about our adventures in New Hampshire on our course blog here:https://rtwh2020.blogspot.com/

For more about UKIM's Law School, see http://www.ukim.edu.mk/

Thank you to the editor (Prof. Karolina Ristova-Aasterud) and to the reviewers for including this article about the Clinton Administration.

(I was delighted to deliver a guest lecture at the law school based on the research in this article when I visited UKIM in November 2019....more pics of that visit in a forthcoming post)