Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is pleased to announce that Ms. Ourania S. Yancopoulos' presentation on gender equality in the UN leadership was selected as the winner of the Council's second annual Student Research Conference.
"We launched this event for the first time last year, and, since then, the interest in participating has quintupled!" said Carnegie Council Senior Fellow Devin Stewart, who organized the conference. "A half dozen universities were represented this year, and the quality of each presentation was extraordinary. We heard insights from research on a variety of topics, including robotic warfare, gender equality, and the portrayal of Muslims in the U.S. media."
The paper's title is "Gender Equality—and the Lack Thereof—in International Politics: An Evaluation of Gender Balance in the Leadership of the United Nations Secretariat." Ms. Yancopoulos is an undergraduate who is studying political science and statistics at Columbia University.
"I am so grateful to Carnegie Council for inviting me to this research conference," said Yancopoulos. "It was a great time and place to share my research, and a great opportunity to learn from some brilliant students—from not only the New York area, but the whole world! I especially loved the breadth and range of topics, as well as the academic experience of the other finalists. It was wonderful to talk to masters students like Sophie, and PhD candidates like Srishtee, who have already been in the place I am now, and shared with me their experiences and their advice on where to take my research next, and graduate programs to explore."
To read an interview with Ms. Yancopoulos, click here.
The Student Research Conference, which took place on May 4, 2016, consisted of a networking session followed by 10-minute presentations on topics related to ethics and international affairs. The students came from universities across the New York metro area—with the exception of Srishtee Sethi, who travelled all the way from Mumbai, India, to participate.
"This research conference brought together an amalgam of papers with an overlapping global research focus," said Sethi. "I am grateful to Carnegie Council for giving me the opportunity to present my ongoing doctoral research with borderland communities in western India and to participate in such a global and relevant dialogue."
The other presentations are listed below.
Azizjon Azimi, New York University, "Press Freedom and Inflation in a Democracy: Modus Operandi for Protest?"
Sarah Calderone, Columbia University, "Integration for Migrants: A Human Rights Issue." Margaret Desmond, Fordham University, "Are We Ready?: The Ethical Dimension of the Preparation Process for International Medical Volunteer Work." Sophie Giscard d'Estaing, New York University, "Engaging with Women in Preventing Violent Extremism: Deconstructing Risks and Concerns."
Anna Ikeda, Rutgers University, "Ethics of Civil Resistance and Nonviolent Action." Yeji Kim, Columbia University, "From Human Rights to Neoliberal Peace: Perspectives on Korean Reunification in South Korean Social Studies." Marina Kumskova, Columbia University, "The Portrayal of Islam and Muslims in The New York Times and the Washington Post in the aftermath of the 2013 Boston Marathon Bombing." Elad Popovich, Columbia University/University of Haifa, Israel, "Terminator's Salvation: Ethics of Lethal Autonomous Robotics and Weapon Systems." Srishtee Sethi, Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, India, "Contested Citizenship at the Western borderlands of Rajasthan: Understanding Displacement amongst the Pakistani-Hindu."
Founded by Andrew Carnegie in 1914, Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs is an educational, nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that produces lectures, publications, and multimedia materials on the ethical challenges of living in a globalized world.
