Research Activity - June 2018

Foppiani Presents at the 38th Session of the UN Council of Human Rights

On June 20, 2018, Dr. Oreste Foppiani, Head of the Department of International Relations and Associate Professor of International History & Politics, participated in and spoke at the “SOS Rule of Law” side-event at the 38th Session of the UN Council of Human Rights. The Webster University scholar highlighted the “importance of the rule of law in those countries experiencing a new generation of populists who undermine human rights using patriotism as a pretext to justify their actions.” The rule of law and the respect of fundamental human rights – continued Foppiani – “go on a twin-track and are indissoluble.”

Among the invited speakers were Amb. Massimo Bellelli, Permanent Representative a.i. of Italy to the UN Office in Geneva and other International Organizations, Dr. Gianni Magazzeni, Chief of the Universal Periodic Review Branch of the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Ms. Laura Harth, Representative to the United Nations Institutions, Nonviolent Radical Party Trans-national Trans-party, and Mr. Matteo Angioli, Secretary of the Global Committee for the Rule of Law Marco Pannella. The panel discussion was also corroborated by a video contribution by Dr. Benjamin B. Ferencz, former Chief Prosecutor for the United States in the Einsatzgruppen Case.

Saral Invited to Give Research Seminars In Geneva, Lyon, and Copenhagen.

Krista J. Saral, Associate Professor of Economics in the George Herbert Walker School of Business and Technology at Webster University Geneva, was invited to give research presentations during the Spring terms, 2018 in Geneva, Lyon, and Copenhangen.

In March, she presented her research on group decision making under costly communication at the CNRS laboratory GATE (Groupe d'Analyse et de Théorie Economique Lyon-Saint-Etienne). In April, she presented her research on the welfare role of teaching in teams of differing ability at the University of Geneva and in May, she presented her research on using experiments to characterize entrepreneurs at Copenhagen Business School.

The seminars were attended by faculty and graduate students from the respective institutions. The presentation at Copenhangen Business School was part of a workshop funded by the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation with invitees from research institutions who specialize in the study of entrepreneurship using experiments.

Grosso presents at Gender Equality Conference, University of Sussex

Dr. Sarah Grosso, Researcher and Faculty in the Media Communications Department, presented her research on gender equality in Tunisia at the international, multidisciplinary conference Towards Gender Equality: Clashes in Law organised by the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex in the UK. Her talk focussed on the tensions between the law and practice, notably the potential for laws that appear to support gender equality to promote gender inequalities through the operation of the law. The seminar was attended by legal scholars and social scientists who explored the concept of gender equality in law from an interdisciplinary perspective.

Boon Presents Paper Based on Student MBA Thesis at the Sinergie-SIMA

Dr. Edward Boon presented a paper at the Sinergie-SIMA 2018 conference at the Ca' Foscari University in Venice, Italy. The paper is based on the thesis of the recently graduated MBA student Laura Bougary, and was also co-written by Dr. Alessandro Bigi (Verona University) and Dr. Michelle Bonera (Brescia University). In the paper the authors propose a method for the qualitative analysis of online consumer reviews. The proposed method is based on the Critical Incident Method, a technique that is widely used in services and hospitality research. The authors illustrate the viability of this method with a study of 600 TripAdvisor reviews for 15 restaurants in three English-speaking cities. A short outline of the paper is available here.

Webster Geneva Invited to Seminar at the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China

Professor Dominique Jolly was one of the 20 experts, professors, and ambassadors invited to the Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of China to the United Nations Office. Webster University Geneva was amongst the three universities invited (Webster, Université de Lausanne (HEC), and Université de Lugano). The workshop took place at the Chinese Mission in Geneva on June 5th, 2018. It was initiated and lead by Ambassador Yu Jianhua. The seminar has been a unique opportunity to exchange views on the recently issued book "Xi Jinping and the governance of China". Four of our business students (Charles Danville, Marc Dessibourg, Luka Dacic, Marc Kenel) joined Professor Jolly to listen to the rich exchanges which took place during this event.

Polic Presents at CISO360 Congress in Lisbon

On the 20th of June Dr. Viktor Polic, Faculty in the Computer Science Department at Webster University Geneva, presented at CISO360 Congress in Lisbon on creating a security coordination center. This important meeting of Chief Information Security Officers, Academics and IT Professionals provides a community base for creative thinking on emerging technological risks and on how companies are strategically using cybersecurity as a significant business enabler. More about Dr. Polic's Presentation can be found here.