Submitted by John T. Spence, Ph.D., AICP, professor, political science

Jake Perkins and Stas Beresford, both senior political science majors, made presentations at the 2023 Kentucky Political Science Association Conference held at Western Kentucky University over spring break. Perkins’ research project is a comparative analysis of two “planned” communities in the Cincinnati metropolitan area: Mariemont and Green Hills. “Political Pragmatism and the Search for the Utopian Community” examines key elements of these communities and how they fail to achieve the utopian ideal. Stas Beresford’s research, “House Bill 33, Going Backwards?” is a policy analysis of legislation adopted in 2010 and 2016 by Kentucky to support sustainability in school construction and academic programming and how, with the recently adopted HB 33, the state appears to have changed course, challenging the implementation of these sustainable practices. Both Perkins and Beresford also presented at the 13^th Thomas More Student Research Forum.