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Phone: (202) 885-2940
Graduate programs: spagrad@american.edu
Undergraduate programs: aupublicaffairs@american.edu
Public Affairs, School of
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20016
United States
David Lublin, Inclusion by Design
David Lublin, Department of Government
Description
We are attempting to estimate support in elections by different ethnic groups for political parties as well as governments for many different democracies around the world in order to assess what sorts of electoral systems and institutional designs lead to greater minority inclusion and democratic stability.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
An undergraduate research assistant could help scrape electoral and census data off the web for a country and then match the two together. If the student has the skills, he or she could also learn how to do the statistical analysis to calculate support by different groups for political parties in elections.
TaLisa Carter, Colorblind Language & Racism
TaLisa Carter, Department of Justice, Law & Criminology
Description
As a result of their work on this project, an undergraduate research assistant will build/strengthen a wide variety of research skills that can be applied within the criminal justice system and other social science disciplines. Duties of the research assistant include the following:
• Reviewing literature on relevant topics
• Training on how to analyze qualitative data using the statistical software program NVivo according to human-subject protocols.
• Analyze interviews for the verbal and nonverbal ways individuals communicate about race and racism to either credit, extend, or discredit Bonilla Silva’s theory.
Colorblind ideology poses that individuals who deny, downplay and/or avoid racism often engage in similar behaviors. These behaviors include how they rationalize and discuss issues related to race and racism. Bonilla-Silva states that these specific language styles allow White people to “talk nasty about minorities without sounding racist” and signal extreme discomfort with a topic such as stuttering, pauses, and other nonverbal cues. This project examines colorblind language and racism by analyzing 100 interviews with students across the United States. Qualitative analysis will allow for the empirical support, extension, and/or divergence from Bonilla Silva’s Colorblind framework.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
As a result of their work on this project, an undergraduate research assistant will build/strengthen a wide variety of research skills that can be applied within the criminal justice system and other social science disciplines. Duties of the research assistant include the following:
• Reviewing literature on relevant topics
• Training on how to analyze qualitative data using the statistical software program NVivo according to human-subject protocols.
• Analyze interviews for the verbal and nonverbal ways individuals communicate about race and racism to either credit, extend, or discredit Bonilla Silva’s theory.
• Working with the faculty member in preparing reports and presentations that are appropriate for a range of audiences including academics and the public.
Depending on progress, the assistant may have the opportunity for authorship on a peer-reviewed publication.
Karen O'Connor, A True Pioneer: Margie Pitts Hames
Karen O'Connor, Department of Government
Description
Ms. Hames was the lead attorney on Doe v. Bolton, the companion case to Roe v. Wade. She was also among the founders of NARAL and was one of 4 general counsels for the ACLU. This project will require a deep dive into the cases she argued and her multiple contributions to civil rights law as the founding partner of the first all-female law firm in Atlanta, Georgia.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
* locating all of her cases in federal and state courts
* locating news stories about her accomplishments
* using the USSC library
Robert Johnson, A Concise Definition of Rehabilitation
Robert Johnson, Department of Government
Description
My goal is to develop a concise definition of rehabilitation, along with clear metrics, grounded in the dynamics of adjustment to prison. Hundreds of thousand prisoners come up for release in any given year. There is also a sizeable number of prisoners serving very long sentences—life terms, but also terms of years in excess of 50 years, even 100 years—that come up for review to determine whether they are eligible for early release. In all of these cases, records of adjustment are limited to behavior in prison. I’d like to (a) conduct a comprehensive review of the definitions of rehabilitation offered by experts in the field and (b) assess a range of prison narratives to determine patterns of prison adjustment that portend successful adjustment upon release from prison. Findings would be of general interest to all students of prison reform.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project
A research assistant would help identify relevant research for review and would assist in the evaluation of prisoner narratives--articles, essays, art, letters, stories, poetry--relating to rehabilitation.
Khaldoun AbouAssi, Refugee Camp Management - Phase II
Khaldoun AbouAssi, Department of Public Administration and Policy
Description
The world has more refugees today than at any other point in modern history. In 2022, the number of people forced to flee their homes surpassed 100 million worldwide. Over 26 million left everything behind, including their native countries, in the hope of finding safety and security. With 20 people newly displaced every minute (that’s 30,000 displacements per day) and a projected 150-200 million individuals displaced by climate change by 2050, the problems and challenges of creating and coordinating effective multilateral humanitarian response programs for refugees will only grow. There are 6 million refugees living in camps worldwide in which decisions are made and services are provided by a complex, multi-organizational network of actors (governments, nonprofits, international organizations). Studying these arrangements are the bread and butter of Public Administration. However, the topic of refugee camp management is not explored. The purpose of my research is to study refugee camps management by applying public administration concepts and frameworks. At this stage, I need to develop a dataset of organizations operating in refugee camps around the world and code articles that have academic publications that mention the management of refugee camps.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
The student will work with me on coding articles that refer to refugee camp management (around 150). Coding texts in articles involves systematically analyzing and categorizing textual data to identify patterns, themes, or concepts within the content. We will use open coding (create categories as we read through the text). Using a spreadsheet, we will highlight or tag relevant text passages (or sentences). As we do that, we will look for patterns, repetitions, or variations within the coded data. We will then group related codes together to form broader patterns, analyze the patterns to identify overarching themes. The student will then write a comprehensive report that discusses the identified themes, providing examples from the coded texts to support the findings. The student will also work on building database of organizations (public agencies, nonprofits, transnational NGOs or international organizations) serving or operating in refugee camps in different parts of the world (Asia, Middle East, Africa, and Europe). These organizations will be categorized based on their type and role and will then be contacted in a later stage of this research project to participate in a survey.
Derek Hyra, Effects of Rent Control on Rental Cost Burdens, Gentrification, and Evictions: A Multi-City Analysis Across California
Derek Hyra, Department of Public Administration and Policy
Description
As the cost of renting a home in the U.S. continues to climb, many states and municipalities are revisiting a policy last popular in the 1970s and 80s: rent control. However, there is broad disagreement among economists and housing scholars over how rent control actually affects affordability and housing security, especially for the low-income communities and communities of color that often have the highest proportions of cost-burdened households. SPA Professor Derek Hyra is conducting a multi-level study of rent control and tenant protection regulations in California cities with the aim of determining their impacts on important housing outcomes. The project focuses on the California Tenant Protection Act of 2019, which caps rent increases at 10% annually statewide and introduces restrictions on certain kinds of evictions. The research aims to estimate the state law’s impact on median rental prices, cost-burdened households, and eviction rates against states that do not have rent control. It will also assess how local conditions within the state might moderate the effect of the statewide law. The project will also include a study of the 59 local governments within California that have enacted their own rent control and/or tenant protection ordinances above and beyond what the state requires.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
We are looking for a student to help advance this project. Over the summer, we seek help capturing and coding local rent control laws. We aim to measure the intensity of these local laws and then will test to see how these ordinances impact various housing outcomes of interest. We will task a student with conducting literature reviews on affordable housing and collecting descriptive housing statistics in many California cities. We desire a bright and motivated person with a keen interest in housing policy. The student selected for this research opportunity will work over the summer with Dr. Derek Hyra at the Metropolitan Policy Center.
Michelle Engert, Bob Dylan and Civil Rights
Michelle Engert, Department of Justice, Law and Criminology
Description
I am currently doing research on Bob Dylan (singer, songwriter, musician, Nobel laureate) and his participation and connection to the Civil rights movement between 1963-1964. Asking about what it meant then for a Jewish person to sing a Black story. I am am seeking to learn more about how about how his collaboration with civlil right and social justice organizations was perceived or documented by them. When he began composing and performing these songs that earned him the accolade of "voice of his generation" he was not yet famous, he was a white kid from the midwest writing and singing stories of oppression and asking questions about why. What I want to know is what people working in the movement thought about his work and participation at that time through what might have been documented. To discover this I am looking for assistance locating additional documents and/or stories regarding the circumstances of his performance at the March on Washington and generally on the nature of his brief involvement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), the Congress of Racial Equality and Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC). Much of what we know has come from anecdotal sources from Bob Dylan scholars, we know the fact of these collaborations and what Bob Dylan himself has said or written. I am looking for possible new sources and documents from inside the movement to help piece together and better understand the nature of these relationships through what might be found in the King and SNCC collections and various Civil Rights archives and interviews and beyond.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
I am looking for a research assistant who would access digital archives (and possibly physical archives in Washington, DC) to uncover information about the connection between Bob Dylan and Civil Rights leaders and organizations. I would like my researcher to look through the interviews undertaken in the last ten years for The Civil Rights History Project Collection through the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution's National Museum of African American History and Culture. Also to explore what can be found in Civil Rights Digital Library Archival Collections and Reference Resources, the King Center Archives and the The SNCC Legacy Project. The student who takes this on has to be willing to look for information that might not be plentiful or even exist in places we seek to find it. What the student will get is experience in archival research. The student will get the collateral benefit of reading and learning from civil rights archival sources while looking for mentions of Bob Dylan. This will not be a research project on Bob Dylan for the student who might be selected. The ideal student is extremely self motivated, detail oriented, determined and interested in gaining experience in finding primary sources.
Matt Collinson, Color in the Court – Policies to Reduce Disparities in Treatment Courts.
Matt Collinson, Department of Justice, Law and Criminology
Description
For nearly three-and-a-half decades, treatment courts have been part of the criminal justice system. Treatment courts are credited with promoting criminal justice reform, as they offer a rehabilitative approach to justice, as compared to historical punitive models. However, as treatment courts are assessed, one topic of concern has been racial and ethnic disparities (RED). Disparities have been found in lesser instances of access to treatment court programs and lesser rates of program completion for minorities compared to their white counterparts. To assist treatment courts in identifying and rectifying RED in their programs, American University (AU) developed the Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Program Assessment Tool (RED tool). The RED tool is an automated web-based survey that has a series of closed and open-ended questions to capture information about treatment courts’ operations and procedures, with an emphasis on examining areas where RED may exist. Upon completion, courts are given specific recommendations to implement in their programs. The RED tool is a resource to help treatment courts adhere to the evidence-based strategy of monitoring and evaluating drug treatment courts, including examining admission rates, treatment services, and outcomes of racial and ethnic minorities. AU provides training and technical assistance to local courts to support them in implementing the recommendations from the RED assessment and monitoring their progress towards equity in their programs. The goal of this project is to use data from the RED tool to uncover policies and practices that contribute to reducing RED in treatment courts. Additionally, AU will use aggregate data gathered from the RED assessment to report on trends in disparities, develop resources, issues briefs and webinars to assist local courts, statewide offices, and the Department of Justice in ensuring best practices to reduce disparities and promote equity in treatment courts are effectively communicated and implemented across the country.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
AU has gathered over 250 unique responses (from over 200 treatment courts) to our Racial and Ethnic Disparities (RED) Program Assessment Tool (RED tool). We are now beginning to analyze the data to look for trends in policies and practices across courts who have lower disparities in access and outcomes. This project would be an opportunity to conduct exploratory analysis of the dataset to identify policies which have strong correlations with improved outcomes or higher scores on the assessment. The limited research into disparities in treatment courts has struggled to identify key areas of policy and practice which have a statistically significant impact on disparities, and the RED tool’s sizeable dataset could support the field by identifying policies correlated with improved outcomes. A student may also conduct thematic coding of open-ended responses from the RED tool. Conducting a literature review including peerreviewed articles and “gray” literature will be another key task. This project would be ideal for a student with experience in SPSS or Stata who is curious about policy implementation and racial equity. Our goal is to identify policies which can inform our training for courts and states, as well as publish peer-reviewed article(s) highlighting policies which reduce disparities.
Julie Baldwin, Military Veteran Peer Mentors: Examining the Experience of VTC Mentors and Mentees
Julie Baldwin, Department of Justice, Law & Criminology
Description
The purpose of this study is to understand the experiences of offenders with a history of military service with the mentor component of veterans treatment court (VTC) programs, as well as the experience of the veteran peer mentors in these programs. Veteran peer mentor programs are intended to provide mentees with the support they need to not only graduate from these court programs but to become fully re-integrated into society and lead fulfilling and productive lives. In this study, we focus on the overlap or differentiation of military experience, criminal justice experience, deviant and criminal behavior, and mental health, as well as other factors, between the mentors and mentees. We will also examine the dynamics and impact of these mentor-mentee relationships and how these relationships or aspects of these relationships have affected both the veteran mentors’ and veteran mentees’ lives in areas such as physical, mental, and behavioral health, including substance use and misuse; transition from military to civilian society; social and familial relationships; and criminal justice contact. Additionally, we will examine the experiences of both the mentors and mentees in VTC programs. We seek to identify pivotal events and experiences and how those have affected these military veterans throughout the life course. This study utilizes primary data collected from interviews with justice-involved veterans and their mentors across several larger studies. Locations of these programs include Arkansas, Colorado, Florida, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oregon, and Texas.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
Undergraduate research assistants (URAs) are paramount to the success of this project. For this project, URAs will become acquainted with the purpose and function of mentor programs and then assist with qualitative analysis, reading portions of transcripts from one-on-one in-depth interviews these veterans treatment court mentees and peer mentors to identify themes within individual interviews and across interviews. The URAs will be able to note areas that they find interesting and have the opportunity work with Dr. Julie Baldwin on research publications. Benefits to the URAs who participate in this project include gaining qualitative research experience, expanding their research networks, and having the opportunity to co-author research publications and potentially work on future funded research.
Bill Davies, Case 1/54: The First Decision of the European Court of Justice
Bill Davies, Department of Justice, Law & Criminology
Description
This research project focuses on retelling the history of the first decision reached by the European Court of Justice in the early 1950s. The decision - Case 1/54 - involved a French Republic complaint about the steel price regime established by the European community. The story touches on themes of French decolonization of Vietnam, post war economic reconstruction in Europe, and the beginning of judicialization of international politics in the Cold War era.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
The project uses primary sources found in the archives of European Union, France and other private actors. The research assistant would learn how to read and interpret archival materials, work on translations of sources, and learn about the functioning of the EU's legal system and its supreme court
Thomas Merrill, American Political Thought
Thomas Merrill, Department of Government
Description
Professor Thomas Merrill is the Co-Editor of American Political Thought. American Political Thought is an interdisciplinary journal published by the University of Chicago Press and features articles and book reviews by political theorists, political scientists, historians, literary scholars, and others bearing on the American political tradition. The journal is published quarterly, and the editorial team meets bi-weekly to discuss the articles and publishing schedule.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
The APT research assistant will work closely with the editorial team on the review process for new manuscripts. They will learn how to write “intake memos” assessing new submissions for journal editors and they will learn about all stages of the publication process from initial submission, external review, revision, and (possible) publication. Students should have a strong background in writing, political theory, and American Political Thought. Students applying should have great organization skills and dedication to learning the academic processes of a journal.
Todd Eisenstadt, Failure to Adapt: Local Vulnerability and National Problems
Todd Eisenstadt, Department of Government
Description
This project seeks to understand the need for more attention to how countries, particularly vulnerable nations in the developing world, need policies to prepare their citizens to accept the consequences of climate change. The PAPL students will be asked to help research issues in the US, like the debate over construction of an ocean embankment in Miami, and abroad, such as the success of the Caribbean Catastrophe Risk Insurance Facility (CRIFF). The faculty member would like to have students to help research climate adaptation "successes" as well as failures to plan for the long term.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
The faculty member is initiating research for a book, but also hopes to "break out" pedagogical case studies for classroom use. The student will help the professor formalize these case studies and, where the student demonstrates capability and effort, the student could generate a writing sample from the experience.
Karen O'Connor, Analysis of Supreme Court Decision Data Sets
Karen O'Connor, Department of Government
Description
In the last several decades, the creation of a data set detailing every Supreme Court decision, the parties involved, and votes at various stages of the process along with issues, etc. have been coded by a team of researchers. In turn, many scholars have published a prestigious amount of research in most major social science and law journals using what is called the Spaeth Data Set. Others have attempted to use the data and discovered all sorts of coding errors and other significant problems. Most recently, an article in the Buffalo Law Review pointed out many more flaws. This data, still, however, is widely in use although it is fraught with errors shedding doubt on many of the findings using this data.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
I hope to have a student interested in the law with access to WestLaw. Research will involve finding all of the articles written about the USSC using what is commonly called the Spaeth Data Set. Once the articles are located, and the use of data analyzed, I will work closely with the student to produce a law review article on our findings. Great for someone planning on going to law school.
Andrea Vilan, Monitoring Treaty Incorporation at the UN: The Determinants of Recommendation Precision
Andrea Vilan, Department of Justice, Law and Criminology
Description
Many human rights treaties establish committees of experts to monitor how states implement treaty obligations. These committees receive information on human rights practices from states and civil society organizations, and then offer recommendations to address implementation gaps. The conventional wisdom is that these committees are unable to improve compliance with human rights standards. Critics of the monitoring system point out that committees rely on the reports produced by member states, which are often late, of poor quality, and likely to underreport non-compliant behavior. Furthermore, the recommendations issued by the committees are not enforceable. Yet recent work has challenged the prevailing wisdom that monitoring is ineffective by showing that states that participate in the reporting process improve their human rights practices. How does monitoring improve human rights outcomes? In this project, I argue that when monitoring committees receive high quality information, they offer recommendations that are more precise. This higher precision, in turn, leads to improved compliance with human rights obligations. I test this argument by collecting data from the United Nations monitoring process, particularly for issued related to women and children’s rights. This project will shed light on the indirect effects that the ratification of human rights treaties can have on rights practices.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
I have been collecting cross-national, time-series data on the recommendations issued by different United Nations committees that monitor compliance with children’s human rights. Last summer, a PALP student assisted with these data collection efforts, and part of the remaining work will be completed this summer. These tasks include reading state and civil society reports submitted to the United Nations and coding it along several dimensions. In addition, I will be collecting qualitative data, including newspaper articles and advocacy reports, to understand how the precision of committees’ recommendations influences how different groups pressure policymakers to improve their respect for human rights. Collaborating on this project will offer students a model of how qualitative data can be codified systematically to compare variables across time and space. Students interested in international law, the United Nations system, and the rights of women and children are especially encouraged to apply.
Ali Valenzuela, Latino Identity-Targeted Advertising Data Source (LITADS)
Ali Valenzuela, Department of Government
Description
The Latino Identity-Targeted Advertising Data Source (LITADS) project includes on-going near-term data collection and data management/archive-building components, as well as longer-term student-centered analysis, research, and public dissemination components. In the near term (Summer and Fall 2024), undergraduate and graduate student workers will content analyze and code all televised [and online] political advertising from the 2020 and 2022 U.S. election cycles. These efforts would build on our already-completed content analysis and coding of all available televised political advertising aired during presidential elections from 2000 to 2016. Ads from 2020 and 2022 will be analyzed and coded for the presence of Latino identity targeting defined in terms of explicit references to the Latino community and its national-origin subgroups, identifiably Latino actors and candidates featured in the ads, Spanish language use, and explicit discussions or mentions of the issue of immigration. Auxiliary data about each ad (party, candidate, or interest group airing the ad, when and where it was aired, etc.) are provided by the Wesleyan Media Project (WMP). LITADS intends to build on WMP to create a public archive focused specifically on Latino identity targeting in election-year political campaign ads. LITADS includes plans for on-going data collection with content analysis and coding work conducted every summer and fall prior to election years (soon after WMP data from the previous election cycle are typically released). These on-going LITADS data collection efforts would help to build a robust, comprehensive, and accessible archive of Latino-targeted political advertising in the United States. Over time, LITADS data will allow researchers, students, and practitioners to catalogue and analyze trends in Latino political targeting by candidates, parties, and interest groups across geographies, media markets, and other relevant characteristics.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
A student working on the LITADS project would watch the political ads, content analyze them, and code (enter into an Excel spreadsheet) information about the ads. The RA would be exposed to the methods and process of research based on televised political advertising. We plan to discuss the coding rules with our student workers and solicit their input to make the process of producing academic research more transparent and exciting. In these ways, LITADS will allow Latino and non-Latino students to contribute meaningfully to timely public-facing research. With appropriate interest and ability, the RA may have a chance to work together with a grad student or the PI to analyze trends in Latino-targeted political advertising by comparing results to data collected from prior years.
Lynn Addington, Learning from Older Adults about Ageism and Safety
Lynn Addington, Department of Justice, Law and Criminology
Description
Discussions of diversity, equity and inclusion tend to ignore the need to address ageism and related biases against older adults. This omission is problematic as research indicates that up to 93% of older adults regularly experience ageism. In addition, individuals experiencing ageism can suffer negative physical and mental health repercussions comparable to harms attributable to other forms of discrimination. As with other groups subjected to explicit and implicit biases, older adults are often “talked at” rather than “listened to” in terms of their perceptions of these biases and other issues of concern. This pattern results in disregarding the valuable contributions older adults could make to policy interventions. This project will conduct an original data collection in Washington DC to learn about issues of ageism and safety from older adults in their own voices via a photovoice/narrative study.
How could an undergraduate research assistant contribute to this project?
The undergraduate research assistant (RA) for this project will receive hands-on research experience and build a variety of research skills. Anticipated duties of the RA include:
• reviewing literature on relevant topics • training on photovoice/narrative research approach
• working with study participants
• assisting with the analysis of photo/narrative contributions
• assisting with organizing events to report findings back to the community and relevant local leaders.
Interested RA applicants should feel comfortable working with older adults from various communities in DC.