Department Announcements and Achievements

Our department works hard conducting research, teaching classes, and remaining engaged with local and global trends on topics that impact us and shape the future. The Department of Political Science is proud to recognize the achievements of our faculty, graduate students, and staff in service of our mission.

PhD Candidate Hillary Style Receives Rapoport Family Foundation Grant to Study Political Cynicism

Style

Hillary Style, PhD Candidate in Political Science, has been awarded a doctoral dissertation grant by the Rapoport Family Foundation to conduct a study on the relationship between political cynicism and perceptions of political knowledge. Results from Style's preliminary research indicate that people do view an individual who makes a cynical statement about politicians as more knowledgeable than an individual who make a statement that is not cynical.

To build on these findings, Style will be fielding a survey experiment supported by the grant to determine if individuals perceive statements about political issues framed in a cynical way as more informative and if they are more likely to share and trust cynically framed statements. This research will further analyze the relationship between expressions of political cynicism and perceptions of political knowledge. The results of this study will contribute to the analysis in Style's dissertation of the role political cynicism plays in American democracy. The findings of this study also have implications for the study of political communication and participation more
broadly by extending research on political cynicism beyond media effects and addressing concerns about the impact of political cynicism on participation.

To learn more about Hillary and her research, you can view her website at hillarystyle.com.

6/10/22

Past announcements

2021-2022

Alumna Mariam Malik (‘21) has been selected as a Fulbright Award recipient to Kyrgyzstan for the 2022-2023 academic year. The Fulbright program is the world’s largest international educational exchange program that gives students the opportunity to work in a variety of different fields of study with international partners. While studying in Kyrgyzstan, Mailk will develop long-term relationships and deepen her understanding of the country as a whole. She will also be able to openly communicate and engage with the local community as both a Fulbright participant and a representative of the United States. Congratulations Mariam!

5/16/22
Professor Helmut Norpoth and undergraduate student Yulia Pechenkina collaborated on an article published in the LSE USAPP blog, where they present evidence for President Biden’s low approval ratings in his second year of office. They explain that his decreasing popularity can be attributed to the disappointment of progressive voters and those who voted for him out of disapproval for former President Trump. Many Democrats supported President Biden because of the proposals in his “Build Back Better” agenda. However, his passivity in delivering on these promises has led to the dismay of voters. Additionally, a significant amount of President Biden’s support in the 2020 election came from people who opposed Trump. Once he left office, many voters lost interest in Biden’s actions in the White House. As a result, President Biden’s approval ratings continue to experience a steady decline. Click here to read their article.

5/10/22
PhD student Lauren Palladino was awarded first place in the Young Public Opinion Stars competition on April 26, 2022 from The New York Chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (NYAAPOR). Her project is in collaboration with Professor Krupnikov and is titled, “Hair, Hemlines, and Husbands: The Exploitation of Feminine Stereotypes in Political Media,” which focuses on the intersection of race and gender in politics. Specifically, it analyzes how feminine stereotypes of white and Black women running for office can be weaponized in the media. She describes how these stereotypes can affect people’s perceptions of women candidates in several different ways. Congratulations on this great accomplishment Lauren!

5/10/22
Associate Professors Gallya Lahav and Oleg Smirnov and co-authors Minghua Zhang from SOMAS and former PhD student Tingyin Xiao from SOMAS recently published their paper in the International Migration Review, a top journal in the field of migration studies. Their interdisciplinary project makes use of both climate science data and social science research to study climate change projections in the 21st century. They analyze the likely displacement of populations due to extreme droughts around the world, primarily through 16 climate models. These models incorporate two policy scenarios in regard to greenhouse gas emissions, where one follows the goals laid out by the Paris Agreement and the other represents our current trajectory with business as usual. Their findings reveal that climate change mitigation will likely be less costly in the long term rather than a series of adaptation policies meant to take on such challenges. To read more about their study, click here: https://bit.ly/3JR43Zy
We are most sad to report the death on March 21, 2022 of our devoted colleague Professor Lee Koppelman. One of the nation’s most eminent urban planners and the chief planner of Long Island for over forty years, Lee was a leading member of the Stony Brook political science department for over five decades. Indeed, Lee continued teaching in our Public Policy program until late in 2021.

His contributions to the planning of Long Island have long been recognized: Director of the Suffolk County Planning Department from 1960 to 1988 and Executive Director of the Nassau-Suffolk County Regional Planning Board from 1965 to 2006. In these roles Lee promoted the environmental sustainability of Long Island through protection of its water supply, developing sanitary sewerage disposal and preventing destruction of the Long Island Pine Barrens. He was also instrumental in guiding Long Island’s land use and development regulation, promoting more affordable housing and expanding its transit system.

Lee Koppelman essentially launched Stony Brook’s Masters in Public Policy program and was instrumental in locating it the Department of Political Science. At Stony Brook he also ran a Center for Regional Studies that conducted research and advocacy for the planning and advancement of Long Island’s economic, environmental and demographic vitality. As a professor of public policy, Lee was among the most highly regarded by the program’s graduates, teaching courses in environmental policy, regional planning, the environment and transportation.

He trained generations of local leaders and policy analysts, ensuring his legacy. He will be sorely missed.

The family asks that in lieu of flowers, donations be made to the Doctors Connie and Lee Koppelman Endowed Fellowship Fund in Political Science through the Stony Brook Foundation.

3/26/22

Congratulations to these outstanding undergraduate students for receiving our scholarships for the 2021-2022 academic year! The Scholarship and Awards Committee reviewed the highest number of applicants in recent years, so the recipients truly exemplify the best in scholarship and potential.

Ryan Magill and Erin Byers

Recipients of the Patricia A.Gramer Memorial Scholarship

The recipients of this scholarship goes to political science students who have done exceptionally well in their academic studies and are writing a senior honors thesis in political science.

Alice Mo

Recipient of the Alumni Pre-Law Scholarship

This scholarship is given to students who have shown interest in pursuing a career in law. Those who have had previous experience in working in the legal industry and intend to go to law school in the future.

Bisma Bhatti

Recipient of the Robert Clasen Scholarship

This scholarship was established by Robert Clasen, a practicing attorney who graduated from Stony Brook University in 1980 to provide scholarship support for deserving students.

2020-2021

Congratulations to these four undergraduate students for receiving our scholarships for the 2020-2021 academic year!

Paul J. Dreyer (Senior)
Recipient of the Patricia A.Gramer Memorial Scholarship

The recipient of this scholarship goes to political science students who have done exceptionally well in their academic studies.

Haya Farid (Junior)
Recipient of the Alumni Pre-Law Scholarship

This scholarship is given to students who have shown interest in pursuing a career in law. Those who have had previous experience in working in the legal industry and intend to go to law school in the future.

Ryan Magill (Junior)
Recipient of the Scott D. Middleton Scholarship

The Middleton scholarship is intended for students who have a specific interest in governmental studies while undergoing their political science major/minor.

Mariam Malik (Senior)
Recipient of the Robert Clasen Scholarship

This scholarship was established by Robert Clasen, a practicing attorney who graduated from Stony Brook University in 1980 to provide scholarship support for deserving students with financial need.

Yvette Williams (Senior)
Recipient of the Davidson Family Scholarship

The Davidson Family Scholarship was created to provide support to a Junior or Senior, preferably majoring in Political Science, who is a veteran of the armed forces of the United States or Coastguard that has served on active duty.
In Fall 2020 two distinguished researchers join our department and the Stony Brook community. We welcome Ryan Vander Wielen, Associate Professor and Joseph Vitriol, Senior Researcher. We are excited to work alongside them and are eager to gain from their teaching and research expertise. To learn more about their education profiles and specific research, click on their names above.
Congratulations to PhD candidate Talbot Andrews, who has accepted a position as a postdoctoral research associate at Princeton University’s Center for the Study of Democratic Politics. She will be working under the supervision of Markus Prior on a project that focuses on psychological processes related to time and their consequences for politics. Talbot is currently a PhD candidate who is interested in public opinion and behavioral political economy. She primarily focuses on responses to climate change, examining how both institutions interact with individuals’ psychology to shape climate change mitigation preferences. Her position begins in the fall of 2020.

Read more about her work here: https://vigorous-hermann-4588d1.netlify.app/
Michelle is a PhD candidate whose research interests centers around public opinion and political behavior. Much of her work centers around understanding how people form opinions related to economic inequality. Some of her work examines how political ideology, political emotions, and political identities affect beliefs about inequality and support for redistribution. She has recently been awarded the National University of Singapore’s (NUS) Development Grant and the title “Young NUS Fellow.” This grant is designed to nurture high caliber Singaporean talents for a career in academia by providing additional resources to sharpen their competitive edge and to improve their chances of being hired by top institutions.

Read more about her work here: https://miolow.github.io/

2019-2020

Senior Political Science Majors Andrew Bearkland, Jeanette Blanchette, and Hana Kim from the Honors College virtually presented their research as part of the 2020 Senior Symposim this past week. To view their posters click below and to view their presentations, visit the Virtual Symposium web page.

Andrew Bearkland — THE CASE FOR A CONVENTION ON HUMAN RIGHTS ON THE BASIS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION, GENDER IDENTITY AND EXPRESSION, AND SEXUAL CHARACTERISTICS (SOGIESC)

The goal of this research project was to discuss the pertinence, implications, and possible issues of a human rights convention to safeguard the basic rights of all peoples regardless of SOGIESC. The project outlines how the UN is currently mishandling the issue of SOGIESC human rights, how many countries worldwide are allowing the abuse of this community through legal frameworks and other means such as hate crimes, and how the mental and physical health of people of diverse SOGIESC are at stake in bringing light to this issue. I combined the framework of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) with the rights outlined in the Yogyakarta Principles Plus Ten (YP+10) to create a prospective human rights convention titled the “Convention on Human Rights on the Basis of Sexual Orientation, Gender Identity and Expression, and Sexual Characteristics (SOGIESC)”, as well as how this convention could be effective by evaluating the positive effects of the CEDAW. My mentor was Dr. Charles Robbins and I came to this project through my interest in international human rights and the advancement of the SOGIESC rights. I am graduating Summa Cum Laude with majors of political science and sociology and minors of international studies and Asian/Asian-American studies, and next fall I am attending George Washington University Law School to earn my JD.

Jeanette Blanchette — THE ROLE OF SOCIAL MEDIA ON POLITICAL POLARIZATION

During the 2016 election, polarization became an often-used reason to explain partisan hostility. Social media was at the forefront of political communication; shaping policy and public perception. Despite some research stating the opposite, many Americans believe that increasing polarization is the cause of this hostility and I wanted to know why. For these reasons, I chose to work with Dr. Yanna Krupnikov who is an expert in this field and has written extensively about it. With this research project, I specifically wanted to prove that social media makes people believe there is more polarization than there actually is. After conducting my experiment, I found that the anger treatment influenced respondents to be more polarized than they actually were. Some results did not prove any polarization and it is possible that respondents may have caught on to what the experiment was trying to test and acted differently. However, anger continued to be prevalent throughout the experiment as many still believed angry discourse to be the most accurate representation of the current American political landscape. In the future, I hope to become either a foreign policy or public policy analyst and work for the State Department.

Hana Kim — PREVENTION OR RELIEF? PUBLIC ATTITUDES TOWARDS DISASTER POLICIES

Governments sometimes want to mitigate the threat of various types of disasters. Governments can invest in prevention and preparedness before a disaster strikes, and they can spend on relief for citizens after a disaster strikes. The U.S. can also invest in epidemic research and public health. This could be a type of prevention spending because it could help the country be better prepared and reduce the likelihood of an epidemic. While my study doesn’t look into viruses specifically, my research sheds light on public attitudes toward disaster policies generally. Past research has shown that citizens reward incumbents for relief spending in response to disasters, but not for prevention spending. However, it is not clear whether these study results reflect the public’s true policy preferences. In my research, I use a survey experiment to study (1) how framing the issue as a disaster prevention spending — as opposed to a disaster relief spending — affects an individual’s vote, and (2) how each policy leads to different levels of thinking about deservingness. I find no evidence that people support relief policies over prevention policies. Finally, the results suggest that people think about disaster victims as people when evaluating a relief policy more than they do when evaluating a prevention policy. After I graduate, I plan to apply to a Ph.D. program in a political science department concentrating on political psychology. I wish to learn more quantitative research methods, start teaching undergraduate classes by my 3rd year in the program, and be a good scientist. I am hoping to become a professor one day.
PhD student Payel Sen has won a second place Young Public Opinion Stars award from the New York chapter of the American Association for Public Opinion Research (NYAAPOR) for her research on humanitarianism and charitable donations. Payel was recognized at the virtual chapter meeting on 4/28/2020. Congratulations Payel!
Brandon Marshall (PhD '20) has been announced as a top 8 finalist in the Graduate School's 2020 Three Minute Thesis Competition. Virtual voting takes places April 28-April 30, so view the finalists videos and cast your vote! Learn more about Brandon's research here or follow him here.