Faculty Focus-October 1, 2024
In this edition, we spotlight faculty’s innovative use of prediction markets to enhance civic engagement in political science classrooms, the historical intricacies of Chinese cultural diplomacy, how ineffective corruption control in Europe has fueled the rise of populist movements, and much more.
Precious Hall
Assistant Professor of Political Science Precious Hall recently had a co-authored journal article published in the Journal of Political Science Education. The article, "Using Prediction Markets as a Tool for Classroom and Civic Engagement" was co-authored with Zac McGee, formerly an assistant professor at St. Lawrence who is now on the faculty at Kenyon College. During the fall 2022 semester, Hall and McGee piloted the use of a prediction market in their classes for the midterm elections as an experiment to see if the use of the market boosted civic engagement. This research was sponsored by a teaching grant from St. Lawrence. Hall is utilizing the markets again this semester.
Yanqiu Zheng
Associate Director of Asia and Pacific Programs Yanqiu Zheng will have his first book, In Search of Admiration and Respect: Chinese Cultural Diplomacy in the United States, 1875-1974, published by the University of Michigan Press this month. It is part of the China Understandings Today series of the University of Michigan Press and Columbia University Studies of the Weatherhead East Asian Institute series.
In Search of Admiration and Respect examines the institutionalization of Chinese cultural diplomacy in the period between high imperialism and the international ascendance of the People’s Republic of China. During these years, Chinese intellectuals and officials tried to promote the idea of China’s cultural refinement in an effort to combat negative perceptions of the nation. Yanqiu Zheng argues that, unlike similar projects by more established powers, Chinese cultural diplomacy in this era was not carried out solely by a functional government agency; rather, limited resources forced an uneasy collaboration between the New York-based China Institute and the Chinese Nationalist government.
Yanqiu Zheng is a historian of China in the world and is the Associate Director of Asia and Pacific Programs at St. Lawrence University's Patti McGill Peterson Center for International and Intercultural Studies. He led the China and the Global South project, supported by the Ford Foundation, at the Social Science Research Council.
Robin Rhodes
Director of ESOL and Multilingual Student Academic Support Robin Rhodes has been recommended by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) and World Learning Peer Review Panel for placement on the Fulbright Specialist Roster. While on the Fulbright Specialist roster, Robin is now eligible to be matched with projects designed by host institutions in over 150 countries globally.
The Fulbright Specialist Program is a field-driven initiative in which host institutions abroad design projects of interest that represent a priority for their organizations. The Fulbright Commission/U.S. Embassy then works to match a Fulbright specialist with the project.
Rhodes was selected as a recipient for this prestigious position based on her academic and professional achievement and demonstration of leadership in her field.
Tyler S. Rife
Assistant Professor of Performance and Communication Arts Tyler S. Rife has published an article in the journal Popular Communication, entitled "Nineteen Eighty-Four in 1974: the surveillance imaginary of the New Mexico Civil Liberties Union Campaign for privacy awareness." This article maps the surveillance imaginary of a unique public awareness initiative by the New Mexico Civil Liberties Union and Godfrey Reggio’s Institute for Regional Education in 1974 that consisted of two parts: a situationist-inspired campaign using and surrealistically subverting popular media to raise awareness of surveillance, paired with a newspaper supplement documenting detailed intrusions on the privacy and liberty of citizens on a number of fronts, representing an encroaching society of social control.
Taken as a whole, the surveillance imaginary of the campaign combined images of eyes, computers, and rats in mazes with detailed discussions of databases, militarized policing, and direct behavioral control justified by stories of rising violence in society to critique both state surveillance and the growing corporatization of the public sphere.
Kearney Coupland
Visiting Assistant Professor of Environmental Studies Kearney Coupland participated in the Sea Grant-funded "People on the Move in a Changing Climate: Receiving Communities" in Corvallis, Oregon, where she discussed climate mobility within the U.S. with planners, researchers, and non-profit organizations from across the United States. In addition to discussing the projections of people's movement, they examined the impacts and opportunities of migration to rural and urban areas. Within this workshop, she introduced her curiosity in examining how the North Country may be impacted or may provide opportunities for migration, particuarly through the migration pathways being created through the introduction of Micron to Syracuse. She also participated in a panel that summarized the workshop and outlined the next steps to co-create research and policy.
Mert Kartal
Associate Professor of Political Science Mert Kartal’s recent research article, "The (Unintended) Consequences of Ineffective Corruption Control on Populism in Europe," was published in West European Politics.
The study explores how ineffective efforts by the European Union (EU) and mainstream governments in its member states to combat corruption have unintentionally contributed to the rise of populist parties across Europe. By analyzing a novel dataset and several case studies, he found that when anti-corruption initiatives fail to produce visible results, public disillusionment grows, creating an environment where populist rhetoric thrives and public support for populist actors increases.
“The findings indicate that inadequate corruption control not only erodes trust in established institutions but also provides populist parties with opportunities to exploit widespread dissatisfaction with mainstream politicians in Europe,” he says.
This research builds on Kartal’s broader focus on the role of international organizations in shaping national governance and anti-corruption strategies. His work has been published in other respected journals, including Comparative European Politics, the Journal of European Public Policy, and the Journal of European Integration.
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