ICYMI: The UN High Seas Treaty entered into force on Jan. 17th, 120 days following the 60th ratification. This is a landmark treaty on environmental protection of the oceans and sustainability. Who committed? I was curious and thought others might be, too.

New publication to share🥳Pleased that "Human rights treaty derogation& COVID-19: WHO guidance & state response" is out &Open Access thanks to ASU agreement with CUP! The takeaway: States seemed to listen to the WHO about COVID severity & derogated restricting assembly & movement to address risk

Cambridge University Press Political Science & IR@cambup-polsci.cambridge.org · 7mo ago

#OpenAccess from @globcon.bsky.social - Human rights treaty derogation and COVID-19: WHO guidance and state response - https://cup.org/45bjZ6o - @audreycomstock7.bsky.social #FristView #COVID19

The helpful and painful editing tool of Word Read Aloud strikes again

Bit by bit our standards of human rights are implicitly and explicitly wearing away. "The State Department...drastically reduce(d) the types of government repression and abuse that the United States under President Trump deems worthy of criticism." www.npr.org/2025/08/12/n...

State Department slashes its annual reports on human rights

Required by Congress, the reports no longer single out things like rigged elections or sexual violence against children as human rights violations.

npr.org

Proud of ASU's work on the UN SDGs! "For the sixth year ...ASU is the No. 1 institution in the US & in the top 10 globally for work toward the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, Times Higher Education announced today in its 2025 University Impact Ranking." news.asu.edu/20250617-uni...

ASU leads the US for impact with UN Sustainable Development Goals | ASU News

For the sixth year in a row — and bucking a downward trend among American universities — Arizona State University is the No. 1 institution in the U.S. and in the top 10 globally for work toward the Un...

news.asu.edu

Digging back into email after traveling and glad to find an R&R waiting for me there

How's everyone here feeling about APSA and ISA travel (and other major conferences) these days? I plan at this point to go to both but am in a privileged travel situation - though my uni has reduced travel approval and funding at least in some parts, so that will be a factor.

International students belong. My employer (ASU) and grad school (Cornell) have great charter/mottos about the importance of inclusion at universities. #anypersonanystudy #includenotexclude

Happy to share I am tenured& promoted at ASU. I feel very privileged as a human rights scholar, particularly in this current climate, to have my work recognized in this way at a university championing inclusive education. I'm grateful to do what I do where I do & looking forward to what lies ahead.

4 more days to apply for the 2025 New Era Workshop! NEW is an annual three-day training program for PhD students in international affairs and related disciplines, held September 25-27, 2025 at the University of Denver! Applications can be found on our website. Share with your networks!

University center/initiative/program/etc. directors, what social media (if any) are you finding effective for those accounts these days?

An important thread to read and share

Human Rights Watch@hrw.org · last yr.

In just 100 days, the Trump administration has inflicted enormous damage to human rights in the United States and around the world. To mark the first 100 days of President Trump's second term, Human Rights Watch has cataloged 100 of the administration’s human rights harms 🧵⤵️

"It is only the second time in the WHO's 75-year history that an international agreement of this type has been reached – the first being a tobacco control deal in 2003." Looking forward to reading more into the completed agreement today www.bbc.com/news/article...

World Health Organization agrees legally binding pandemic treaty

The agreement is designed to ensure more cooperation between nations in the event of another pandemic.

bbc.com

just finished submitting my ISA reimbursement forms to my uni and got my APSA acceptance. Let's hope that there will be some better news for uni funding, reserach, etc. come APSA time for us all :)

Hey! Latest paper by @suparnac.bsky.social and @audreycomstock7.bsky.social and me is live at the Journal of Human Rights: "Derogations, democratic backsliding, and international human rights during the COVID-19 pandemic" doi.org/10.1080/1475... Preprint here: www.andrewheiss.com/research/art...

"The vote against the Ukrainian and European-backed resolution saw the US at odds with its longtime European allies and instead aligned with the aggressor in the war on the three-year anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine." www.cnn.com/2025/02/24/p...

US joins Russia to vote against UN resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine | CNN Politics

The United States joined Russia to vote against a UN General Assembly resolution condemning Russia’s war against Ukraine Monday in a stunning shift from years of US policy.

cnn.com

Sick kiddo at home, midterm grading, and an ISA paper that. . .

Finally booked my ISA trip, looking forward to seeing folks in Chicago!

not sure if it is AI or just lack of attention, but students have incorrectly cited a chapter I wrote so far as by S. Comstock, M. Comstock, being a journal article in Law&Policy (& there were even made up page#s!), being published by Oxford Univ Press (was CUP),& being published in 2002 & 2006

I never learn - working on my annual review submission on the last day. Turns out I prefer researching, teaching, and committee work to writing about my researching, teaching, and committee work and entering it into a clunky system

Got univ approval to use a univ seed grant to travel to NYC in Feb for UN archive &interview research (abuse &accountability in peacekeeping).Looking forward to it & LMK if any tips, contacts, etc. come to mind. Might have time for coffee/ talk too if interest to you/your prog🙂

For Grad IL/IO class this week the theme was why states work (and don't work) through IOs. Always relevant sometimes depressing

with a lot going on the last week, just submitted my APSA proposal (still one day early!). LMK if you have any panel proposals needing a last min chair or discussant added in my general areas of HR, IL, peacekeeping, gender, etc. Glad to help

woohoo end of the year article acceptance 🎉 Forthcoming at the Journal of Human Rights w/ @audreycomstock7.bsky.social & @suparnac.bsky.social we look at pandemic-era democratic backsliding & treaty derogations Quarto site: stats.andrewheiss.com/lemon-lucife... OSF preprint: osf.io/preprints/so...

Andrew Heiss@andrew.heiss.phd · 2y ago

R&R submitted!

What is your favorite final assignment type to assign? For my intro to human rights class, I've had them do reserach projects/posters for the last couple of years and I like that. Some one asked if they could submit a poem instead. I did not like that.

ASU v Iowa State game on while entering some grades🏈

Job Ap reminder: Assistant Teaching Prof in American Politics at ASU School of Social and Behavioral Sciences deadline 12/6 (This Friday!) apply.interfolio.com/158545

Grading the first batch of final projects with Christmas jazz playing in the background 🎵

weird time to advertise jobs I guess, but this just got approved to post: Assistant Teaching Prof in American Politics at ASU apply.interfolio.com/158545 LMK if you have any questions

Is there ever a semester where one doesn't feel behind on everything? Asking for me.