Over the past six years, both as an undergraduate and graduate student at Florida State University, summer experiences have become a pivotal component of my academics. Leaving the classroom and immersing myself in a variety of projects showcase the importance of hands-on learning, and I could not stress how important it is to leave one’s…
Category: graduate students
Research: Trump, Masculinity and the Presidency
Pierce Dignam uses interview data to reveal how masculinity mattered in the 2016 election, and how it may matter again in future contests.
From the Classroom: Engaging Statistics Students Who (Think They) Hate Math
Frankly speaking, most students don’t want to take math classes. I’m sure most of my students can recall vowing to never take another math class again after their Algebra 2 finals in high school. Imagine their disappointment when they learned that my Social Statistics course was a requirement needed to earn their undergraduate sociology degree….
How Labor Unions Increase Political Knowledge: Evidence from the United States
This work has important implications. Organized labor has declined dramatically over the past several decades, due in part to economic globalization, but also by the policy decisions made by the federal and state governments. Of all the factors that are correlated with political knowledge, such as: age, education, gender, race, income, and interest in politics, union membership is the only one that can feasibly be influenced by politicians. Policies that weaken labor unions may end up depriving people, particularly those with less formal education, not only of a source of political mobilization, but also an important source of political information.
Unexpected Impacts and Data Collection after Hurricane Michael
As much as we push to maintain objectivity and distance, we study what we do because it matters and we hope to have an impact through our research.
Lessons from the Classroom (Student Edition): Learning About the Voting Rights Restoration for Felons Initiative
For our final project in our Policy Development and Administration class, we were tasked with analyzing a policy. Having recently learned about Florida’s Amendment 4, Voting Rights Restoration for Felons from a different group’s presentation, we both decided this could be an interesting and suitable topic for our final project. Neither of us expected what…
Representation and the Oscars: The Conversation Is Just Beginning
ilms such as Moonlight, Hidden Figures and Get Out have demonstrated that stories centering people of color can have broad appeal and commercial success. With the 2018 nominees, the Motion Picture Academy has taken positive steps toward representing people of color and their stories. However, only time will tell whether or not the Oscars will continue it’s push for inclusion and diversity.
A Core COSSPP Value: Diversity
This brings me around to describing the two major thrusts of what I consider the college’s commitment to Diversity – People and Ideas. A college with a diverse population that holds a shared worldview is a failure. Similarly, a college with a diversity of ideas, but little demographic diversity is also a failure. Society is complex, messy, and contested; a lack of diversity of people or ideas will leave our students unprepared for the real world.
How a Reddit Forum Caught “Trump Fever”
To Red Pill users, Hillary Clinton would supposedly wage a “war on men,” so who better to stop this war than a man who bragged about the size of his genitalia during a political debate? When forum leaders cast Hillary as a dire threat to the Red Pill community, users responded by rallying around her enemy, casting aside years of reticence to participate in the political system.
