10 Graduate Students to Present at 2012 MPSA Conference
10 Graduate Students to Present at 2012 MPSA Conference
10 graduate students in the Department have been accepted to present at the 70th Conference of the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA) in April, 2012 in Chicago, IL. Abel Amado, Alejandro Avenburg, Chien-Kai Chen, Anshul Jain, Aki Nakai, Alexander Oliver, June Park, Abram Trosky, Jeremy Weiss and Dominic Zarecki will all be presenting papers on a variety of topics that collectively encompass the disciplines of American Politics, International Relations, Comparative Politics, Political Theory, Political Economy and History/Historiography. The MPSA’s annual conference is one of the premier events in the field, attracting more than 5,000 scholars each year and serving as a venue in which scholars from across the social science spectra showcase innovative research and ideas.
“The Illegible State: Language Policy as a Political Tool”
Examines how diglossic language policy, the adoption of an exclusive “high” language by state institutions, may be instrumentalized by the ruling elite for the purposes of rendering the state unreadable, and inaccessible, to the masses. This hinders, or at least minimizes, attempts at oversight by the monoglossic citizens, who are fluent in the “low” language.
“Corruption, Accountability and Citizen Participation in Protests in Latin America”
Argues, using data from the Americas Barometer database and Transparency International, that popular perceptions of corruption and corruption victimization have been major determinants of participation in protests in Latin America.
“The Effect of China-Taiwan Economic Ties on the Formation of Political Coalitions in Taiwan, 1990-2008”
Answers the question of how international economic exchanges among countries affect these countries’ domestic politics by examining the effect of growing China-Taiwan economic ties on the formation of political coalitions in Taiwan in the period from 1990 to 2008.
ANSHUL JAIN & SATGIN HAMRAH (Frederick S. Pardee Center; International Relations ‘10):
“The Arab Spring, Food Security & Regional Stability”
Explores the phenomenon of food prices as a major catalyst in helping galvanize the revolts of the Arab Spring, and argues that ongoing international supports must specifically engage four avenues of improved food security in North Africa: short-term subsidization of staple foods, transfer of agricultural skills and technology, agricultural diversification, and the development of sustainable urban farming.
AKI NAKAI:
“Capabilities Shifts, State Leadership Change, and Alliance Dissolutions”
Further explores initial evidence from past empirical works, testing the effects of relative changes in capabilities and changes in state leadership on alliance dissolutions at the individual state level around the world from 1945 to 2007.
ALEXANDER OLIVER:
“Democratic Pessimism and Republican Optimism Toward the War in Afghanistan”
Argues that Democrats interpret information about the War in Afghanistan pessimistically, while Independents and Republican interpret such information optimistically, using evidence from a survey experiment.
JUNE PARK:
“Resorting to International Institutions to Resolve Trade Imbalances? U.S. Protectionism via GATT/WTO Dispute Initiation”
Demonstrates that changes in trade balance levels provide political pressures and domestic demands on policy makers to resolve trade imbalances by resorting to trade disputes in international institutions.
ABRAM TROSKY:
“Moralizing Violence? Social Psychology versus Just War Theory In Public Opinion Research on War and Intervention”
Evaluates the impact of social cognitive theory’s moral disengagement framework on international relations public opinion research and its policy implications, and suggests changes that reconcile peace studies and the just war tradition’s conceptions of moral engagement.
JEREMY WEISS:
“E.H. Carr, Norman Angell, and Reassessing the Realist-Liberal Debate”
Examines the debate between E.H. Carr and the “utopians” he critiqued in The Twenty Years’ Crisis with an emphasis on Nobel peace laureate Sir Norman Angell. By examining Carr’s theoretical contribution in the light of his policy recommendations, it argues that the “Great Debate” between realists and liberals was really a debate between streams of realism, and the Carr did not win as handily as his legacy suggests.
DOMINIC ZARECKI & PROF. JOHN GERRING (Dept. of Political Science Faculty):
“Diversity and Democracy”
Argues that different types of social diversity have different effects on regime type—specifically, ethno-linguistic diversity has a positive relationship with the health of democracy, while religious diversity has a negative relationship with democracy.