The Department of Political Science hosted the 56th Arkansas Model United Nations (AMUN) conference on November 19-20, 2021. Due to the Covid-19 Pandemic, the conference was held virtually for the second year. Delegates from more than 20 high schools in Arkansas, Missouri, and Texas, as well as one high school in Bolivia, participated in the virtual conference. Sarah Fulmer served as Secretary-General of the conference. Dr. Mark Elrod, Lecturer in the Department of Political Science, served as AMUN Conference Coordinator. Dr. Mark Mullenbach, Associate Professor of Political Science, served as AMUN Faculty Advisor Liaison. Dr. Houston Davis, UCA President, gave the welcoming address to the participating delegates during the Opening Session. The Opening Session also featured a speech by Sarah Fulmer, AMUN secretary-general.
The delegation representing Ukraine (Rockhurst High School) won the Outstanding Delegation award. The delegations representing Japan (Bentonville High School) and Kenya (Haas Hall Academy) won the Outstanding Delegation-Runner Up awards. Nine additional delegations won Outstanding Delegation-Honorable Mention awards, including Australia (Little Rock Catholic High School), Bangladesh (ASMSA), Jamaica (Rogers Heritage High School), Lebanon (ASMSA), Mexico (Conway High School), New Zealand (Brookland High School), Panama (ASMSA), People’s Republic of China (HarBer High School), and United Kingdom (Rogers Heritage High School).
Outstanding Delegate awards were presented to the top delegates in each of the committees, including Daniel Hiles (Ukraine) – First Committee; Nicholas Esarte (DPRK) – Second Committee; Pete Mandacina (Ukraine) – Third Committee; Veera Unnam (Guinea) – Novice General Assembly Committee; Arindam Deb (Vietnam) – Joint Security Council (SC) – Peace & Security Council (PSC) Emergency Session; Breck Tyler (Australia) – Historical Security Council; Miceala Morana (Switzerland) – Economic and Social Council; Gabriel Guerra-York (Ukraine) – Human Rights Council; and Addu Minton (Japan) – Model International Court of Justice.