Summer Research College 2008
Paid Summer Research Opportunity
The Department of Political Science is pleased to announce summer research positions for undergraduates. Participants will work directly with a faculty mentor for ten weeks and receive a $5,200 stipend. The program, which is part of the Summer Research College, is designed to foster close intellectual exchange by involving students in the ongoing research of Stanford professors.
Eligibility: Participants must be current undergraduates at Stanford. Co-term students and seniors are eligible only if the bachelor’s degree will not be conferred before the end of the research appointment.
Expectations: Students will be expected to work 40 hours per week during the program. The program will run from June 23 through August 29, 2008. Students and faculty will present their collaborative research in a departmental colloquium.
Stipend: Each student will receive a stipend of $5,200 for ten weeks of full-time research work.
Restrictions: VPUE policy prohibits student from receiving both credit and pay for the same research activity. Students receiving full summer stipends may not register for more than 5 credits of coursework, nor may they work for more than 10 hours per week in addition to their research appointment.
Housing: (For students who want to apply for on-campus summer housing) Room, board, house dues, and other academic expenses are paid by the student. Students must purchase a meal plan. Students are responsible for paying their university summer bill, which will include any other academic expenses incurred. Students may review the summer room and board rates on the Housing Assignment Services website, which will be updated in mid-March.
All Stanford students residing in summer campus housing are required to pay for spring-summer interim housing regardless of whether or not they will live in interim housing. Students will also be required to pay for summer-fall interim housing if they remain on campus before the start of the fall quarter.
Summer house dues will be $45.
How to Apply: Faculty mentors and summer research opportunities will be available after February 8 . Download the Preference Form and use it to express your preferences regarding faculty mentors and research projects (you can type directly on the form and then print it out). Submit the Preference Form, along with a resume and cover letter, to Lindsay Quadara or leave it in her mailbox in Encina Hall West, 100. The Student Services Manager will contact you to schedule interviews with potential faculty mentors. Lindsay is no longer accepting applications via e-mail. Please deliver your application to her by hand, unless you are abroad.
Deadline: Students who submit applications by 5:00pm on Friday, February 22 will be given first consideration. Applications will be allowed on a rolling basis after this deadline, but are not guarenteed to be reviewed as professors can offer employment to any given applicant as soon as the last week of February.
Questions? Contact Lindsay Quadara, Undergraduate Program Administrator, Political Science, Encina Hall West Room 100, phone 723-1608, email quadara@stanford.edu.
2008 Project Descriptions
The Middle East and the World Economy
Professor Lisa Blaydes (blaydes@stanford.edu)
Why has the Middle East fallen behind in economic progress relative to much of the developing world? This project will investigate when and where the income gap emerged in the Middle East using both quantitative and qualitative methods.
By the end of the summer, the student should submit two written products. The first is a literature review describing the major economic trends in various sub-regions as well as the existing explanations for those trends. The second is a database of related quantitative variables. Successful applicants will have excellent library research skills and should have completed coursework in history, political science, or economics. Knowledge of Arabic or another Middle Eastern language would be helpful but is not required.
Back to Project list
Ethnic Conflict and Civil War
Professors Jim Fearon (jfearon@stanford.edu) and David Laitin (dlaitin@stanford.edu)
We seek undergraduate RAs to work with us on two projects.
(1) Updating and finalizing a cross-national dataset on civil war that we will use in the final analyses for our book project on the causes of civil war since 1945.
(2) Using Geographic Information Software to map the boundaries of ethnic groups in a large number of countries and to create a new dataset about terrain features, city sizes, proximity to capitals and borders, road network density, and so on using GIS data
Political Economy of American Tariff Policy
Professor Judy Goldstein (judy@stanford.edu)
This is an ongoing research program that examines the economic effects of America’s decision to open up its markets to foreign goods in the 1928 to 1968 period. Research focuses on tariff rates changes – political explanations for their depth and coverage and the economics shifts that they engender. The work seeks to understand whether or not joining the multilateral trade regime led to differences in the depth of tariff reduction as compared to earlier periods in which the US either signed bilateral agreements or reduced tariffs unilaterally. Students will collect and help analyze data.
Understanding American Attitudes on Trade, Immigration and Ethical Consumption
Professor Judy Goldstein (judy@stanford.edu)
This is an ongoing research project that examines data from a series of surveys conducted over the last two years. Students will help put together a survey instrument and code and analyze data from the previous two web surveys. We will be working on three projects: the effect of family situation on trade attitudes, the trade-off between immigration and foreign direct investment and whether consumption and ethics can be related through a survey instrument.
Back to Project list
Taxation Systems and Rentier States: An Empirical Investigation
Professor Stephen Haber (haber@stanford.edu)
Students involved in our research program will be assigned to:
- Gather the tax records of the country assigned to them by working closely with the library curator specializing in their country’s region of the world.
- Assemble detailed data sets on their country’s tax system going as far back as possible (typically from the late 19th century to the present).
- Work directly with me and my graduate students to learn how to turn the raw tax data into a set of consistent categories based on modern tax categories developed by the International Monetary Fund. This means meeting with me several times per week to review their progress and resolve problems in data retrieval and analysis.
- Students may also participate in running regressions that test the hypothesis that the discovery of natural resources in their country had an impact on taxation system by using the data they have gathered and standardized.
Students who work on this project will have an opportunity to learn about research design and proper causal inference. Specifically, they learn how to test political economy theories using counter-factual analysis of matched cases and historical data. They also learn the value of testing the empirical implications of a theory as a strategy to gain traction on theoretically-related outcomes of interest. Finally, they learn how important “reliability” is for statistical analysis, in the sense that they the standardization of native categories into IMF ones shows them how to make variables that are consistent/uniform across place and time. Students are encouraged to develop independent research projects out of the data they gather. Indeed, one current member of our group is writing her senior thesis based on the part of the data set for which she has been responsible.
We therefore seek members of our research team who have an interest in political economy, enjoy working with data and have experience with Excel. Knowledge of STATA is a plus, although not required. Knowledge of Spanish, French or Portuguese is also valuable, since the indigenous tax data is often in these languages. Finally, we are seeking students interested in working closely with a faculty member in order to learn, through hands-on-experience, what the actual data collection and analysis process is like.
The Politics of Prison Reform
Professor Karen Jusko (kljusko@stanford.edu)
Who speaks for prison inmates during processes of prison reform? This project considers the quality democratic representation from the perspective of inmate populations. Although the larger project will address this question in a broadly comparative context, at this preliminary stage, analysis is centered on prison reform within the United States. Undergraduate research assistants will work with faculty to identify the scope and dimensions of reform in contemporary and historical prisons, to investigate architectural features of prisons, and to map prisons using GIS software.
Interested applicants should demonstrate good data management and library research skills, and should have successfully compelted coursework in the Department of Political Science. Although not required, applicants with ArcGIS software experience are especially encouraged to apply for this position.
Back to Project list
Political Psychology and Voting
Professor Jon Krosnick (krosnick@stanford.edu)
Political psychology is an exciting interdisciplinary enterprise blending psychology with the study of politics. One of the most fruitful research enterprises in political psychology has been the study of voter decision-making. A great deal of research during the last 6 decades has taken scientific approaches to identifying the social and psychological factors that affect which candidate a citizen chooses to vote for and the citizen's decision about whether to vote or not. This research project will gather and review that literature in order to understand what we know and do not yet know about why people vote as they do and therefore to gauge the health of American democracy and it’s potential to be a workable form of government over the long haul. Your role will be to join a team of graduate students and undergraduates working with Professor Jon Krosnick (Professor of Communication, Political Science, and Psychology) to gather, read, discussion, and summarize this literature. No special background is necessary, although comfort with mathematical/statistical write-ups would help reading some of the articles. This job is just right for students interested in close collaboration with a faculty member and a fun and challenging summer.
Back to Project list
Secret Agreements in International Relations
Professor Phillip Lipscy (plipscy@stanford.edu)
The RA will provide assistance to faculty members in the department of political science on a project analyzing the use of secrecy in international relations. The goal of this project is the construction of a dataset of secret agreements among nation states. The RA would be expected to assist in data collection as well as coding of data. Some of the following qualifications would be a plus but are not required: previous experience with data collection; familiarity wtih Microsoft Excel and Access; introductory courses in international relations or political science.
Back to Project list
Blame Attribution in American Politics
Professor Neil Malhotra (neilm@stanford.edu)
One of the most important jobs of American citizens is to reelect government officials when they are effective stewards, and vote them out of office when they perform poorly. Most of the existing work on this topic has examined how voters reward and punish incumbents at the national level based on economic performance. This project expands this research into new territories: non-economic performance at the state and local levels. Among other topics, we will examine the impact of housing prices and crime in mayoral elections, the effect of natural disasters on gubernational elections, and whether voters irrationally reward politicians for local sports victories. The main job of the assistant will be to construct datasets, gather literature, and discuss research design. No special background is necessary, but comfort with numbers and Microsoft Excel would be helpful. Experience with STATA would be great, but is not necessary. Also, given that I am appointed in the Stanford Graduate School of Business, students with interests in business and politics may be especially interested in applying.
International Dimensions of Democratization
Professor Mike McFaul (mcfaul@hoover.stanford.edu)
The student hired to work on the “external dimensions of democratization” will collect data about strategies and budgets for all government offices and non-government organizations working on aspects of democracy promotion. The student will collect general data for all American actors in this business and coordinate with a team of individuals based in Berlin collecting data on European organizations.
In addition to collecting general data on external actors, I would like to have the student also work on the impact side regarding one and possibly two cases of transition. The cases to be examined this summer include two cases of success: USSR/Russia (1990-1991) and Serbia (2000), and three cases of failure: Iran (1978-1979), Angola (1974-1976) and Belarus (2006).
Back to Project list
Ethics, Public Policy, and Philanthropy
Professor Rob Reich (reich@stanford.edu)
The aim of the project is to examine the normative basis of private activity in the public interest. Questions about whether and how a state should regulate charitable giving and the operation of nonprofits have been almost exclusively the province, to date, of economists. This inquiry seeks to articulate and defend principles that ought to guide public policy concerning philanthropy. What kind of incentives, disincentives, mandates, and prohibitions ought a liberal democratic state put in place to regulate private activity in the public interest?
This summer, Professor Reich seeks to hire one undergraduate research assistant to help examine one of the most striking features about contemporary American philanthropy: the size and scope of foundations. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is the most obvious example, but older and newer foundations alike play an important role in American civil society, public policy, and even global politics.
Back to Project list
Geography and the Evolution of Voting Behavior in Interwar Europe
Professor Jonathan Rodden (jrodden@stanford.edu)
Professor Jonathan Rodden is seeking an undergraduate research assistant for the summer of 2008 for a project on electoral rules and political geography in early 20th century Europe. The RA will help collect and organize all electoral and census data for a variety of European countries between the late 1800s and the onset of World War II, wtih special emphasis in each country on the period during which electoral rules were chosen. The most competitive candidates will have some experience with data management and analysis, and the ideal candidate would be able to read one or more European languages (French would especially be helpful).
Back to Project list
Nuclear Latency
Professor Scott Sagan (ssagan@stanford.edu)
Back to Project list
The Resolution of Violent Interstate Conflict
Professor Kenneth A. Schultz (kschultz@stanford.edu)
Research assistance is needed for a project on the resolution of violent interstate conflicts. The project seeks to answer two key questions: (1) what conditions make it possible for rival states to reach agreements aimed at settling their disputes, and (2) why do some agreements succeed at preventing renewed conflict while others fail? To address these questions, the research assistant(s) will help to compile several databases on (1) agreements between states that have experienced violent conflict, (2) the political conditions within rival states, and (3) episodes of militarized conflict between states. In addition, assistance is needed in researching and writing case histories of specific episodes of attempted conflict resolution. Applicants should have strong library research skills and familiarity with spreadsheets (e.g., Excel) and/or statistical programs. Foreign language skills would be useful but are not required.
Back to Project list
Random Selection and Decision-Making
Professor Peter Stone (pstone@stanford.edu)
Undergraduate research assistant needed through PSPUR for summer 2008. Subfield: Political Theory. Research assistant will work with professor on research project concerning the relationship between random selection and decision-making. This project will culminate in a book. Work for the student will involve answering questions raised during the writing of the book. This may include 1) summarizing existing works from political science, philosophy, economics, sociology, psychology, law, and other fields dealing with random selection, including both individual works and segments of the literature; 2) tracking down source materials on the historical uses of lotteries; generalized "fact-checking." Some background in political theory (at least one course) desired, as well as good writing skills.
Courts, Politics and Human Rights
Professor Terry Karl (tkarl@stanford.edu)
Professor Karl would like to hire a team of research assistants for summer 2008. Each student researcher will work on one of two areas: the post-World War II Nuremberg and Tokyo trials; or the post-Cold War attempts to use international, regional, and domestic courts to enforce human rights. Applicants should have a background in human rights and strong proficiency in German, Japanese or Spanish.
Language proficiency is more important than the major of a student, and the assigned work will depend on the language skills of the students hired.
Back to Project list
Insurgent Movements and Post-Conflict Reconstruction
Professor Jeremy Weinstein (jweinst@stanford.edu)
A research assistant is needed for work on institution-building in post-conflict societies. The particular question of interest is the conditions under which victorious insurgent movements build stable, functional, and democratic states. The work will involve constructing detailed historical narratives of particular insurgent movements based on secondary source materials and the collection and analysis of quantitative data on the post-civil war economic, social, and political performance of governments. Needed is an undergraduate who loves to get down into the details of rich, textured secondary accounts of political life, but also one who has familiarity with techniques and tools of statistical analysis (ideally, STATA).