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Students in Visiting Professor Stella Santana's Environmental Justice class, as well as others interested in the work, are taking part in a research project for the U.S. Department of State's Diplomacy Lab. The group is conducting research on the topic of pollution and national security.

It's part of a joint effort on the part of IU McKinney and IUPUI undergraduate students. Professor Gabriel Filippelli, director of the Center for Urban Health at IUPUI is working with undergraduate students on the topic of air quality and national security.

Professor Santana's students are researching marine plastics pollution. They are looking at domestic and international policies in relation to national security, both for the United States and other nations.

Taylor Carpenter, Quentin Collins, Logan Gilbert, Riley O'Neal, Alexandra Sumner, and Erica Tyson of the J.D. program; Adeola Abatan of the LL.M. program; and Master of Jurisprudence student Jennifer Latimer are taking part in the project, along with Joe Brinkman of the Conservation Law Center.

The effort is part of the State Department’s Diplomacy Lab, a program in which faculty and students develop ideas and solutions to policy issues identified by the federal agency. The program was launched by Secretary of State John Kerry in 2013.

Students have a variety of reasons for taking part in the work.

"I feel a sense of fulfillment contributing to the process of policy making​ that will ultimately improve the quality of people's life," said Abatan, who is from Nigeria. "The knowledge gained will also be exported to my home country and used to tackle the same problem."

Gilbert, who has a background in environmental sciences and works as a research assistant for Professor Santana, said he was immediately interested. "This project gave me the perfect avenue to combine my passion for the environment to my studies in the law," Gilbert said. "Water is such an important aspect of everyone's life; however, we don't pay enough attention to our treatment of this resource. Projects like this one help us understand our anthropocentric impact on water resources and infrastructure and how we can alleviate the issues that come from them,"

Sumner agreed. "By examining the connections between marine plastics and water pollution, we will be better equipped to understand the national security consequences of our actions, and ensure that America has stable natural resources for decades to come," she said.

As an avid outdoorsman, Collins said he has seen the impact of marine pollution firsthand. "I am excited to be investigating marine plastics on the west coast and in the Great Lakes region for this project and hope that our research may spark conversation about remedial efforts for our nation's affected waters," he said. "I think it will be key to identify ways in which we can incentivize industries to increase their environmental consciousness."

This isn't the first time that IU McKinney has taken part in the State Department's Diplomacy Lab work. Students researched the role of the public defender during the Fall 2015 semester. The current students researching for Diplomacy Lab have been invited to present their research to the State Department in late November 2018. The earlier group of students had the opportunity to do that in Spring 2016.

In the photo from left are Erica Tyson, Riley O'Neal, Quentin Collins, Taylor Carpenter, Logan Gilbert, Adeola Abatan, and Professor Stella Santana.