The SU-HSE was established in 1992 for the purpose of developing new economic and social knowledge and a new generation of researchers and practitioners in order to aid reforms in the Russian Federation. The university is one of three major centers in Russia for applied research in public administration on topics such as e-government, privatization and government accountability.

“I'm delighted with the opportunity to be at one of Russia’s centers of public administration innovation,” said Dezendorf.

In the course “Public Relations and American Government,” Dezendorf’s Russian students will explore the development and practice of public relations in the United States and the role that public relations plays in American local and federal governments. This course parallels one Dezendorf will teach this summer for Western Carolina University titled “Government and Press Relations.”

In “American Social Welfare,” his SU-HSE students will examine the development of American social welfare policy. “The course will help Russian students understand the social and cultural forces that shaped American public policy and resulted in the present system of social welfare,” said Dezendorf.

In addition, Dezendorf will conduct research comparing how graduate courses in e-government – the evolution toward the “virtual state” where most government activities are conducted online – are taught in the United States and in Russia. He will gather information from Russian schools in the fall and American schools in the spring of 2010. The research project will be carried out under the auspices of the National Association of Schools of Public Administration and Affairs and the newly formed Association of Schools of Public Administration of the Russian Federation.

While in Moscow, he will teach a distance education course for WCU regarding the growing role of e-government in the United States that will include material from his Fulbright research.

“I am very pleased with the strong support of the department of political science and public affairs in helping me win this award,” said Dezendorf. “The experience in Russia will be a significant benefit to my students as well as to my research.”

Dezendorf first went to Russia in 1999 to visit friends. He proposed that East Carolina University, where he worked, assist the Russian school Urals Academy of Public Administration in launching the first master’s degree program in public administration in the Russian. To support the project, he co-wrote a winning application for a $240,000 grant from the U.S. State Department.

As part of that grant, Dezendorf made nine trips to Russia during which he developed a relationship with staff at the Higher School of Economics in Moscow, where he was invited to present at an annual international conference in 2007 and then was invited back in 2008 and 2009. The conference draws more than 800 participants, including more than 100 foreign scholars. At this year’s event to be held in April, Dezendorf will present “Risk Visualization and Analysis in Local Government Decision Making.”

“I will discuss the value of improving curriculums throughout the social sciences to take into account e-government technology,” said Dezendorf. “I use visualization as an example, and point to the value of the contributions by higher education to Western North Carolina governments and to federal agencies such as the U.S. Forest Service.”

At WCU, Dezendorf teaches courses including “Grant Writing and Proposal Development for Governments and Nonprofits” in the master’s degree program in public affairs. He also is a lecturer at the University of North Carolina – Asheville in the department of mass communication where he teaches public relations and advertising as well as assisting nonprofit organizations with resource development and grant writing.

For more information, contact WCU’s political science and public affairs department at (828) 277-7475.

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Last Modified: Thursday, March 19, 2009