Dr. Shelley A McConnell
St. Lawrence University News
Submitted by smcconne on Sun, 08/30/2009 - 21:54.
Assistant Professor
Courses I teach regularly:
Introduction to Comparative Politics, Latin American Politics, U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Latin America
My research interests:
Inter-American relations, democratic development in Latin America, Nicaraguan politics.
Sample student projects I have supervised:
Summer research on El Salvador's transition from an authoritarian military regime involved in civil war to a democratic regime that elected a former guerrilla fighter to the presidency. The student conducted research and interviews in San Salvador.
Supervised an Honors Thesis on Plan Colombia, which is the largest US aid package ever given to a Latin American country. Telephone interviews with experts in Washington DC and Colombia conducted by the student showed that after the 9/11 attacks the policy aims shifted from anti-drugs aid to anti-terrorist aid.
Took 9 Spanish-speaking students to Nicaragua to observe presidential and legislative elections as members of The Carter Center's election observation mission.
Examples of presentations, exhibitions, performances and published work:
Shelley A. McConnell, "Nicaragua's Turning Point," Current History, Vol. 106 no 697 (February 2007) pp. 83-88 which explains why the Sandinista National Liberation Front won elections in Nicaragua in 2006, coming back into power 17 years after their revolutionary experimented ended in 1990.
Shelley A. McConnell, "Ecuador's Centrifugal Politics," Current History, Vol. 100, No. 643, (February 2001) pp. 73-79.
"Democracy in Central America," panel presentation at the United Nations in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Esquipulas Peace Accords, June 13, 2007.
Aspects of my teaching that students find most effective and interesting:
I base my courses around controversies, and invite students to discuss them and write about them. For example, in Latin American Politics we discuss: Was the Spanish Conquest of Latin America a result of superior military technology and training, diseases that decimated the indian populations, or indigenous belief systems that suggested gods might favor the Spanish? Is Venezuela's democracy eroding into authoritarianism? Did neoliberal policies cause corruption? In Comparative Politics we discuss questions such as: Under what conditions does nationalism spawn violence? Should ethnic minorities be judged by separate judicial systems? Is globalization hurting the poor? Is democracy a luxury good that poor countries cannot afford? In the process of answering such compelling questions, students learn the vocabulary of political science and explore their own values.
Some ways I connect with students outside the classroom:
Coffee Coffee Buzz Buzz! Meet me for an afternoon perk-me-up.
Examples of connections between my research and my teaching:
In 2001 I organized an election observation mission to Nicaragua for The Carter Center and invented a course at Emory University to accompany that event. We studied the socialist revolution and democratization in Nicaragua, as well as electoral systems, and I took 9 Spanish-speaking students to Nicaragua as assistant election observers. Afterwards I published about that election.
I also conduct research on inter-American relations and the role of the Organization of American States in fostering democracy in the Western Hemisphere. In a course on U.S. Foreign Policy Toward Latin America, students learned about the OAS General Assembly held each June, and as a final group project they developed recommendations to the U.S. Mission to the OAS suggesting what the United States should propose at that meeting.
My teaching philosophy:
Teach the student, not just the course. Students come into my classroom with a wide variety of backgrounds, so i try to be an active listener, and mentor the individual student in office hours as they write papers. I create a classroom environment where students feel they can safely articulate evidence-based opinions and where they address one another and not just the professor. I like to introduce eclectic texts because students learn in different ways. I use films, poetry, testimony, science fiction, Soviet satire and Latin American novels along with the usual textbooks. I have taught experimental courses that sparked the students' imaginations, including a single-text first-year seminar on Rousseau's The Social Contract, an activism course on Central American politics, and a Spanish-language course on inter-American relations.
Ways I offer service to my discipline and/or the University:
For nine years I served as Senior Associate Director of the Americas Program at The Carter Center where I helped to promote democracy and peace with former President Jimmy Carter and 34 other former presidents and prime ministers from the Western Hemisphere. As an empowered individual I am committed to translating thoughtful political analysis into policy changes that can improve life for millions of people.
I served as Co-Chair of the Central America section of the Latin American Studies Association, which is the most important professional association in my field.
I have organized and chaired many conference panels, and most recently served as a discussant for a panel on "The Interactive Classroom" where presenters explored how to connect our students to communities, be they local or international, to deepen learning by making course content relevant to "real life".
Examples of my work as a visiting scholar or guest at another institution:
As a Visiting Assistant Professor at Hamilton College, I brought guest speakers from Cornell University and American University to speak about Latin American politics.
While conducting policy work at The Carter Center, I helped plan former President Jimmy Carter's historic trip to Cuba, and accompanied him there in his meetings with top officials, including Fidel Castro. I was privileged to be assigned the task of traveling in advance to the island to meet with the Cuban human rights activists struggling to change the regime, in order to invite them to meet with President Carter and learn what topics they would like to discuss.
While teaching at Bard College, I helped students to engage with the Sister Cities movement and several students went to Nicaragua to live in rural poverty in our sister community and carry out programs to engage youths there in planting trees and playing soccer.
My hobbies and/or personal interests:
Bunnies!!! I look after bunnies at no-kill shelters and participate in fostering house rabbits. I'm also crazy about knitting, especially with funky hand-spun yarns. I ride dressage, and sometimes go cross-country. In my copious free time I write poetry, plant my garden and hang around San Francisco as much as possible.
My current projects:
I just published a chapter on Nicaraguan elections for a volume to be published in Spain. Yikes-- Iberian Spanish is odd for a Latin Americanist.
I am preparing a journal article on the use of the Inter-American Democratic Charter in Nicaragua's 2005 constitutional crisis.
I am planning a new research project on the role of former Latin American presidents in promoting international norms of democracy in Latin America through so-called "presidents' clubs" such as the Club of Madrid and Council of Presidents and Prime Ministers of the Americas.
Other:
True confessions -- I don't know how to ice skate or ski. It's not my fault! I spent my childhood in South Africa where there is no snow.