I am a PhD candidate in Geography at FSU. My research has taken a journey on its own. At Syracuse University, where I completed my Masters in Geography, my work was situated in the South Asian context, in rural South India to be exact. In my Masters work, I was studying the impact of corporate…
IOP@FSU Field-Advancing Research: Who Do You Trust? Public Opinion on Handling the Pandemic
On September 8, the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy (COSSPP) hosted the first of a series of webinars featuring research on civic engagement, funded by the Institute of Politics. This webinar features a study by Associate Professor of Political Science Amanda Driscoll and political science Ph.D. student Taylor Chewning, using a nationally representative…
Graduate Student Spotlight: Rachel Sparkman from the Department of Sociology
What department are you a graduate student in? I am a Doctoral student in the Sociology department, with a focus on Demography through the Center for Demography and Population Health. Why did you decide to go to graduate school? I graduated with a master’s degree in 2012 and worked at a university until 2019. At…
Honors Thesis Spotlight: Civil Wars, Ethnicity, and Intervention: Under What Circumstances Does Ethnicity Affect Intervention in Civil Wars?
Post World War II, the global community is experiencing a decline in cross-national conflicts and a rise in civil conflicts—the latter becoming extremely brutal. In cases like the Rwandan Genocide, conflict led to egregious violations of human rights. Approximately 800,000 Rwandans were slaughtered, most belonging to the ethnic minority in the country, the Tutsis. Due…
Where Are They Now? Meet COSSPP Alum Tatiana Castrillon
What is your degree and graduation year? I graduated in Spring 2021 with a BS in Political Science. What have you been up to since you graduated? Since graduation I have taken a full-time position at Van Horn Law Group working as a Legal Assistant. I am studying to take my LSAT in October and…
Research Spotlight: Preference Change in Competitive Environments
Competition is ubiquitous in human society. If competition affects the endogenous formation of political preferences, then it should in turn affect individuals’ values and attitudes towards candidates and policies. Therefore, participating in a competitive environment (i.e. institutional and/or social factors that affect incentives and behavior) should have considerable implications for how individuals behave politically. Competition…
In The Heights Celebrates First-Gen Americans
This article originally appeared in The Independent Institute. The unexpected and broad-based protests erupting in Cuba are a poignant reminder of the lost liberty experienced by people under authoritarian regimes. The opposite could be said for the movie In The Heights, the film adaptation of Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Broadway musical. If the dissent on Cuba’s streets show…
Graduate Student Spotlight: Metin Guven from the Department of Sociology
What department are you a graduate student in? Sociology Why did you decide to go to graduate school? When I was a freshman in the university, one of my professors inspired me about the value of learning, searching, and teaching as an academician. I decided to go graduate school at that time. Did your interests…
Honors Thesis Spotlight: Integration of Brazilian versus Other Lusophone Immigrants into Portuguese Economy and Society
The relationship between Lusophone countries—former colonies of Portugal that speak Portuguese—and Portugal is at the forefront of many studies. The relationship between these countries is fairly positive (Portugal retains economic and diplomatic ties with some of its former colonies) and many individuals in former Lusophone countries immigrate to Portugal to seek better opportunities. However, there…
Where Are They Now? Meet COSSPP Alum Jacob Cyrus
What is your degree and graduation year? I graduated in Spring 2021 with a BA in International Affairs. What have you been up to since you graduated? I’ve been awaiting entering active duty into the Air Force, where I’ll be working as a Special Agent in the Office of Special Investigations. For now, I’ve just…
