The University of Central Arkansas Department of Political Science is hosting upcoming events to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the United Nations (UN) and the 50th Arkansas Model United Nations (AMUN) conference.
On Friday, Oct. 30, the department is hosting a commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the founding of the UN in October 1945. The “United Nations Day” commemoration will begin with a workshop in the Student Center for several area high school teachers and students from 9:00 a.m. to noon. During the workshop, Dr. Mark Mullenbach, associate professor of political science, and Dr. Mark Elrod, visiting assistant professor of political science, will give presentations on the “Historical Roots of the UN” and “Learning about International Politics through Model UN.”
From noon to 1:30 p.m., a UN Day luncheon in the Student Center will feature keynote speaker, Dr. Karen Mingst, a professor in the Department of Political Science in the Patterson School of Diplomacy and International Commerce at the University of Kentucky. Mingst, who earned her doctorate in political science from the University of Wisconsin, has written several books and academic articles on the UN, international organizations, and international law.
“Dr. Mingst is one of the world’s most prominent experts on the UN and other international organizations,” Mullenbach said. “Her visit to UCA is quite an honor as she has lectured and taught at universities around the world, including Vietnam, Senegal, Taiwan, Albania, Ghana, Japan, and Kyrgyzstan.”
On Friday, Nov. 20 and Saturday, Nov. 21, the department is hosting the 50th AMUN conference on the campus of UCA. The opening session of the conference will take place in Ida Waldran Auditorium in Main Hall at 1:00 p.m on Nov. 20. Dr. Mullenbach, the coordinator of the AMUN program since 2001, has arranged for Mr. Bernd Georg Reindl, Deputy Consul General from the German Consulate-General in Houston, to give the keynote address during the opening session. More than 500 high school students from Arkansas, Mississippi, Oklahoma, and Tennessee are expected to participate in the two-day AMUN conference.
A reception and dinner honoring several alumni of the AMUN program at UCA, including several former secretaries-general of AMUN conferences, will take place in Brewer-Hegeman Conference Center starting at 6:30 p.m. on Nov. 20. Robert B. Andrew, a U.S. Foreign Service Officer in the U.S. Department of State and Diplomat-in-Residence at the University of Oklahoma, will be the featured speaker during the dinner. Andrew has previously served in U.S. embassies and consulates in Sweden, Costa Rica, Russia, and Mexico.
The AMUN program was founded by the late Professor Simms McClintock on the campus of Arkansas State Teachers College, now UCA, in 1966. The first AMUN conference was held in January 1967. McClintock, who coordinated the AMUN program through the mid-1990s, died in December 2008. The UCA Foundation’s AMUN Fund was recently renamed the “Simms McClintock Fund” in honor of the AMUN’s founder. Contributions to the fund will continue to provide financial support for the AMUN program and the students who participate in AMUN at UCA.
For more information about these events, contact Mullenbach at markm@uca.edu or 501-450-5693.
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