Congrats to CU �鶹ӰԺ political science Ph.D. candidate Rachel O'Neal, who has been awarded the 2023 Kenneth Sherrill Prize! This prize "honors the best doctoral dissertation proposal for an empirical study of lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT) topics in political science." Rachel's dissertation offers a novel cyclical interpretation of queer rights movements within the context of LGBTQ+ legal challenges and victories. Please, show Rachel some support and learn more about their dissertation and award here:  

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Our department absolutely benefits from our graduate students and their interactions with our undergraduates. They influence them, they help focus them on their education goals, and they bring enthusiasm while becoming important role models. 

Though teaching while one is also a graduate student is an intense balancing act, those that succeed positively advance their professional development while supporting the achievement and wellbeing of their students.

We absolutely would not be successful as a department without them and are delighted that the following graduate students have been acknowledged for their incredible contributions to teaching:

Graduate Part-Time Instructor (GPTI) Teaching Recognition Award (sponsored by The Graduate School)

• Fall 2022 Recipient - Courtney Nava   
• Spring 2023 Recipient - Ken Stallman    

Graduate and Professional Student Government (GPSG) Teaching Excellence Award

• Mohammad Rezwanul Haque Masud    

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Congratulations to Marija Verner (�鶹ӰԺ, Ph.D. 2002) for successfully defending her dissertation, "What makes a Green Citizen: Pre-Existing Belief Systems, Vulnerability, and Environmental Attitudes in the Americas." As Marija ends her graduate career with CU, she will start a postdoctoral fellowship at the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication. This Yale program conducts scientific research on voters' knowledge, attitudes, policy preferences, and behaviors on issues of climate change. The program also engages the public on climate change science and solutions in partnership with governments, media organizations, businesses, and civil society. It even has a daily national radio program, called "Yale Climate Connections." 

Well done, Marija! 

Learn more about:  

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Congratulations are due to Dania Arayssi, for her receipt of the Figueroa Family Fellowship. This fellowship is awarded to Dania in recognition of her commitment to the achievement of a diverse student body and her work in improving the state of our world and its people. In offering this award, the Graduate School expresses their admiration for the impact she has made and will continue to make in the community – both at CU and beyond.

Dania will use these fellowship funds to support the Gleam of Hope organization in Lebanon, particularly their skills-building program for women and girls from disadvantaged communities and those impacted by the current humanitarian and economic crisis in Lebanon. She is committed to advancing women’s rights, human rights, inclusivity, and diversity to overcome discrimination and injustice and reduce tension in our communities through her research, teaching, and civic engagement activities.

For more information on the Gleam of Hope organization in Lebanon, please see:

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PhD Candidate Adriana Molina Garzón is lead author of the article, “Decentralization Can Increase Cooperation among Public Officials“ published in the American Journal of Political Science and recently featured in the Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine.

ABSTRACT

Collective action among public officials is necessary for the effective delivery of many social services, but relatively little is known about how it can be fostered through policy reforms. In this article, we compare cooperation among public officials within decentralized versus centrally-administered municipalities in Honduras. Leveraging a quasi-experiment in health sector reform, coupled with behavioral games and social network surveys, we find that decentralization is associated with greater cooperation. When they are able to communicate, health sector workers in decentralized municipalities contribute more to a public good than their centrally-administered counterparts. This increase in cooperative behavior results in part from the decentralization reform engendering greater numbers of interactions and stronger ties across different levels of government. These findings indicate that institutional reforms like decentralization can favorably reconfigure patterns of social interactions across public organizations, which is an important component of administrative capacity in developing countries.

Learn more at: 

Colorado Arts and Sciences Magazine

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Congratulations are due to Zoe Moss for her receipt of the Summer Fellowship through the Center for Humanities & the Arts. The CHA Summer Fellowship is designed for graduate students conducting research in the humanities and the arts during the summer months who do not already receive university-sponsored funding.

Excellence of the project was the main criterion for selection and Zoe will be using the fellowship to support her in completing her prospectus, particularly studying feminist jurisprudence as it relates to sexual assault and consent.

Well done, Zoe!

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FOR UNDERGRADS: Students can now . A flyer is attached, and the application is due Tuesday, June 1st for students to start participating in fall 2021. Students with federal work study awards are encouraged to apply (but work study is not required). No prior research experience is necessary.

FOR FACULTY & ADVANCED PHD STUDENTS: We're looking for proposals from faculty & Ph.D. students (at the dissertation stage) who are conducting research on diversity, equity, or inclusion and would like to work with undergrad research assistants at no cost to them. STUDIO is run in the political science department and we are specifically looking for some proposals outside of the political science department that address diversity, equity, or inclusion. See more info and apply here (target deadline is Tuesday, June 1): 

MORE INFO ABOUT STUDIO: The STUDIO Undergrad Research Lab in political science is looking for undergrad students interested in being part of our lab community in fall 2021. Undergraduate students are paired with faculty or Ph.D. students and are paid to be research assistants. STUDIO also hosts professionalization and socialization events.  See examples of  and more about . We are prioritizing diversity, equity, and inclusion in the lab and we fully support the political science department's statement of anti-racism. 

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PhD Candidate Adriana Molina Garzon and Dr. Krister P. Andersson have had their article "Decentralization Can Increase Cooperation among Public Officials" published in early view for the American Journal of Political Science.

ABSTRACT

Collective action among public officials is necessary for the effective delivery of many social services, but relatively little is known about how it can be fostered through policy reforms. In this article, we compare cooperation among public officials within decentralized versus centrally‐administered municipalities in Honduras. Leveraging a quasi‐experiment in health sector reform, coupled with behavioral games and social network surveys, we find that decentralization is associated with greater cooperation. When they are able to communicate, health sector workers in decentralized municipalities contribute more to a public good than their centrally‐administered counterparts. This increase in cooperative behavior results in part from the decentralization reform engendering greater numbers of interactions and stronger ties across different levels of government. These findings indicate that institutional reforms like decentralization can favorably reconfigure patterns of social interactions across public organizations, which is an important component of administrative capacity in developing countries.

Learn more at: 

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PhD Candidate Pavel Bacovsky has had his article, “From xbox to the ballot box? The influence of leisure activities on political engagement and vote choice“ published in the Journal of Information Technology & Politics.

ABSTRACT

How does engagement in leisure activities, such as playing videogames, affect political behavior and preferences? Are young adult gamers just a group of basement-dwellers who are disengaged from politics, or are there specific political issues that gamers care about? Analysis of panel data of Swedish young adults suggests that avid gamers are more likely than non-gamers to care about issues that fall under the umbrella of Pirate politics, and therefore support the Swedish Pirate Party. Avid gamers are also more likely to use the Internet to engage in political behavior. These findings help explain the political attitudes of the ever-growing number of young adult gamers, and the effects of seemingly apolitical leisure activities on political behavior more broadly.

Learn more at: 

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Congratulations to Matthew Harvey, Brendan Connell, and Hannah Paul on their GIPS Paper Prize awards!

The Graduates in Political Science (GIPS) Paper Prize is a department-level prize designed to provide graduate student participants with funding and feedback on their ongoing research projects. The goal of the GIPS Paper Prize is to recognize the development and encourage the publication of scholarly research by graduate students in the Political Science department.

• First Place: Matthew Harvey, “The Sublime and The Pale Blue Dot: Optimism in an Era of Ecological Crisis”
• Second Place: Brendan Connell, “A ‘Diplomatic Advantage?’ Diplomacy, Ideas, and State Access to Capital”
• Third Place: Hannah Paul, “Personalizing Politics: An Experimental Examination of the Effects of a Refugee’s First-Person Narrative on Political Attitudes”

Thank you to everyone who participated! We had several very good submissions and hope for even more next year!

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