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Project Descriptions
Spring 2025

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Showing 32 projects out of 32 found. On page 1 out of 1.
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Superpower competition; middle powers in a world of superpowers

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

The Berkeley Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Study Center (BASC) brings together scholars from various disciplines, institutes, and centers from Berkeley and around the world to foster collaborative research on APEC and other trade-related issues. We are looking for students interested in working on the US-China superpower competition, particularly...

 Social Sciences

Inequality, International Tax, and Investment Incentives

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

In a world of rising inequality and globalization, international coordination on tax policy has increased in importance. In this project, I investigate how international tax coordination was formed between states and how changes to the global tax rules affect the international investment environment. I argue that the global minimum tax...

 Social Sciences

Assistant Managing Editor, Business and Politics

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

Business and Politics is an internationally ranked, peer-reviewed international political economy journal. This is a fantastic opportunity for students who desire social science writing and editing experience. This URAP also provides a unique inside look at the academic publishing process...

 Social Sciences

Scaling up solar: identifying renewable energy innovators in developing countries

Vinod Aggarwal - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

While most developing countries have adopted renewable energy policies, adopters vary widely in their success to kickstart a renewable energy industry. Some have installed a lot of renewable energy like Thailand and Vietnam, while others like Indonesia struggle to sustain investment. This project leverages firm level data to understand how...

 Social Sciences

Tracing the History of Polarization in Congress

David Broockman - Professor, Political Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Scholars and commentators argue that Congress is broken because both parties' politicians take increasingly extreme positions on issues, failing to listen to voters. However, these claims are based on assuming that politicians of both parties don't adjust which proposals they make as voters' demands and the world change. In other...

Public Support for International Cooperation and Economic Policy

Ryan Brutger - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: Off Campus

My research studies international negotiations, international organizations, and domestic public support for international cooperation and economic policies. This includes a range of substantive issues, such as the negotiations surrounding the Iran-nuclear deal, the World Trade Organization, climate-change talks, and the Trans-Pacific Partnership, and antitrust policy. My research...

 Social Sciences

Constituency Service and Political Performance in India

Jennifer Bussell - Professor, Political Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project will evaluate the relationship between the responsiveness of politicians to individual requests for assistance and their future political performance. Specifically, we will merge previously collected experimental data on the response, or lack thereof, of politicians in India to requests for help accessing government services, with subsequent data on...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

The Political Economy of Global Clothing Production and (Re)Use

Jennifer Bussell - Professor, Political Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project examines the character of global clothing production and (re)use. At this stage of the project we will be collecting descriptive qualitative and quantitative data on (1) the political economy of clothing production and distribution, with an emphasis on fast fashion; (2) patterns of secondhand clothing trade, (3...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

The Political Economy of Textiles in India

Jennifer Bussell - Professor, Political Science, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project seeks to understand the dynamics of the textiles industry in India, with special attention to the political economy of production. In this stage of the research, we will be focused on collecting background materials about the industry, including statistics on both small-and large-scale production, documentation of...

 Engineering, Design & Technologies   Social Sciences

Conflict Anticipation and Prevention

Susan Hyde - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

On November 9, the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations (CSO) launched a new national academic partnership initiative focused on conflict anticipation and prevention. Through the Academic Centers of Conflict Anticipation and Prevention (ACCAP) initiative, universities will collaborate with CSO on research, analysis, and data that...

 Social Sciences

Using Stories in Experimental Political Science

Marika Landau-Wells - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

People are exposed to stories of all kinds in their daily lives, including appealing but false stories such as conspiracy theories. One way to understand the causal influence of stories on beliefs and behaviors is to use them as experimental treatments. The outcomes of these experiments can vary widely depending...

 Social Sciences

Threat Perception in Foreign Policy Decision-Making

Marika Landau-Wells - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Threat perception has always played a major role in foreign and domestic policy-making. From Covid to climate change to terrorism, policy-makers have made decisions about which potential threats to address and which to ignore. This project investigates how policy-makers in the U.S. and in other countries determine...

 Social Sciences

Threat Perception in the Brain: A Meta-Analysis Project

Marika Landau-Wells - Professor, Political Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Neuroscientists have studied the brain's response to threatening stimuli since the earliest days of brain imaging. Yet there is no single catalogue of threat perception studies and their findings. Meta-analysis involves using data from many studies to characterize the collective state of knowledge in a field. This project seeks...

 Social Sciences

Using Language Models for Text Coding Validation

Marika Landau-Wells - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

Social scientists often assign categorical values to text data in order to structure it (e.g., categorizing statements made by Congress members as pro- or anti-immigration). Traditionally, this coding has been done manually by humans who read and categorize the texts of interest. This method risks both systematic error (e.g...

 Social Sciences

Origins of High Rates of Police Homicides and Civilian Homicides in US Cities

Gabriel Lenz - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

US cities continue to experience a criminal justice nightmare with high rates of interpersonal violence, police violence, and incarceration. When did this nightmare start? Why did it start? In preliminary work, I've found that this nightmare appears to have begun in Jim Crow southern cities around 1900. This finding suggests...

 Social Sciences

Variations in union democracy and union officer ideology

Gabriel Lenz - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Unions are one of the few democratic institutions within the workplace. However, the institutional structure of unions can encourage or constrain democracy within unions. I am interested in investigating the inner workings of union locals by collecting data on union local constitutions and bylaws, and collective bargaining agreements. Additionally, unions...

 Social Sciences

The Racial Identity and Racial Attitudes of White Democrats

Gabriel Lenz - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

Research apprentices will assist with a project studying the racial identity and racial attitudes of white Democrats. This group has become markedly more liberal on race-related issues over the past decade, and scholars don’t know exactly why. This projects help to explain this shift by exploring how white survey...

 Social Sciences

What news matters?

Gabriel Lenz - Professor, Political Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 3-5 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project has two parts. Part 1 looks at how the news media shapes policy outcomes and whether disparities in coverage lead to policy inequity. Can we show convincing evidence that news coverage of pedestrian fatalities leads to a change in local transportation policy? Are certain communities more likely to...

 Social Sciences

Policing in Post-Conflict Contexts

Aila Matanock - Professor, Political Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This research project examines policing in places that have had civil conflict and related crime, as well as peace agreements and interventions, specifically. We are focusing on a review of community-oriented policing in these contexts as well as how the end of conflict changes policing...

 Social Sciences

Inviting Intervention

Aila Matanock - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This research project examines how and why foreign intervention occurs by domestic invitation, as well as to what effect these invited interventions have on the rule of law. Intervention by invitation is increasingly used by intergovernmental organizations pooling resources to deal with transnational concerns. The treaties that enact these agreements...

 Social Sciences

Program on Security Institutions and Violent Instability (Constitutional Legal Frameworks)

Aila Matanock - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: On Campus

This is one of three pieces of a collaborative project between Professors Arriola, Matanock, and Mattes.) Countries around the world are increasingly confronting violent irregular threats such as insurgencies and terrorism. Yet, many countries have proven unable to effectively deploy their security institutions (including regular militaries, paramilitaries, and police) when...

 Social Sciences

Program on Security Institutions and Violent Instability (Military)

Michaela Mattes - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Overview: (This is one of three pieces of a collaborative project between Professors Arriola, Matanock, and Mattes.) Countries around the world are increasingly confronting violent irregular threats such as insurgencies and terrorism. Yet, many countries have proven unable to effectively deploy their security institutions (including regular militaries, paramilitaries, and police...

 Social Sciences

Religious Costly Signals in International Crises

Michaela Mattes - Professor, Political Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: Off Campus

On September 20, 2001, right after the 9/11 attacks, U.S. President George W. Bush addressed the nation and declared war against terror. In his speech, the President repeatedly used religious connotations. For instance, “Prayer has comforted us in sorrow, and will help strengthen us for the journey ahead.” President showed...

 Social Sciences

Apologies in International Politics

Michaela Mattes - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Throughout history countries have done terrible things to one another: genocide, war crimes, forced displacements etc. Apologizing for past wrongs was very rare before the 1990s and has become only slightly more common. Interestingly, there is a lot of variation in whether a country apologizes, when it does so, the...

 Social Sciences

Program on Security Institutions and Violent Instability (Synthesizing data on militaries, paramilitaries, police, and constitutions)

Michaela Mattes - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project synthesizes work done by URAP teams led by Professors Arriola, Matanock, and Mattes in previous semesters.) Countries around the world are increasingly confronting violent irregular threats such as insurgencies and terrorism. Yet, many countries have proven unable to effectively deploy their security institutions (including regular militaries, paramilitaries, and...

 Social Sciences

Vulnerability to Forced Labor and Human Trafficking

Cecilia Mo - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

This uses focuses on designing and implementing a nationally-representative survey to examine the prevalence, knowledge, and attitudes surrounding child trafficking and forced labor in Jamaica. Previous studies have reported that in Jamaica, 1 in 12 children work at least one hour a week and of those working children, 71.3...

 Social Sciences

Women's Action Committees and Local Services in Nigeria (Metaketa V)

Cecilia Mo - Professor, Political Science

Status: Check back for status     Weekly Hours: 9-11 hrs     Location: Off Campus

The dynamics undermining Nigeria’s democratic progress over the past two decades have disproportionately marginalized the role of women in governance. While women are legally entitled to equal rights under Nigeria’s constitution, they have been largely excluded from political participation through a combination of social, logistical, and psychological barriers. If barriers...

 Social Sciences

A Woman's War: Reassessing Narratives of Women in Conflict Worldwide

Cecilia Mo - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

Throughout history, women have often been omitted from narratives and histories of war. A Woman’s War, an oral history project that includes narratives of over 120 women across six countries---Bangladesh, Egypt, Northern Ireland, Bosnia, Vietnam, and the United States---seeks to examine the intersection of individual and collective experiences...

 Social Sciences

Mental Health in Post-Conflict and Forced Migration Contexts

Cecilia Mo - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

This project focuses on the impact of mental health in post-conflict and forced migration contexts. There are two primary research areas within the larger project: (1) producing a systematic review article on how living through and beyond trauma impact communities affected by conflict and forced migration, and (2) conducting...

 Social Sciences

Doctors as Mayors: Activating Profession in Local Brazil

Alison Post - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

When do voters elect medical doctors for office? Scholars focused on symbolic and substantive representation typically concentrate on race, gender, religion, or some combination thereof. However, historically, political science scholars have been interested in occupation as a salient category, particularly lawyers. With the decline of the politician-lawyer in Congress...

 Social Sciences   Biological & Health Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies

Understanding Urban Politics in Argentina and Brazil

Alison Post - Professor, Political Science

Status: Current Term Now Closed     Weekly Hours: 6-8 hrs     Location: On Campus

What are the main types of concerns that citizens bring to mayors and city councilors in Latin America? What sorts of incentives do public officials have to address these concerns? And how do these dynamics vary between cities of different sizes? In this project, we will investigate local-level politics...

 Social Sciences   Biological & Health Sciences   Engineering, Design & Technologies

A) Global Order Framework Project and B) Market Governance and Inequality in the United States and Japan.

Steven Vogel - Professor, Political Science

Status: Full- no new appr needed     Weekly Hours: to be negotiated     Location: On Campus

I will be actively working on several projects in Fall 2024. 1) I will be conducting research for an international project sponsored by the Canon Institute in Japan called the Global Order Framework Project. The project goals include developing guidelines and metrics for monitoring the behavior of governments and firms...

 Social Sciences

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