CONWAY, Ark. (April 14, 2017) – Ten Hendrix College seniors from the Department of Politics and International Relations presented their undergraduate research at the Midwest Political Science Association (MPSA)’s annual conference this month in Chicago, Illinois.
Thousands of students and scholars gathered from around the world to exchange ideas and present research at this four-day conference. MPSA represents approximately 7,000 political science scholars in more than 100 countries around the world.
The students’ travel was supported in part by the Hendrix Odyssey Program.
Students and their research presentations include:
- Morgan Carrico ‘17 presented her research titled “Expansion of Speech Rights Across the States: An Exploration of Judicial Federalism at Work,” in which she considered the status of free speech across the United States. Analyzing the tool of judicial federalism, Carrico applied her findings to a comparative case
study of Ohio and Oregon.
- Isaac Filat ‘17 presented his research titled “Analyzing the Impact of Social and Economic Development on Regular Immigration Policies,” where he examined the variables that influence immigration policymakers.
- Bradford Harper ‘17 presented his research titled “Quality of Life and Communal Violence: Analyzing Causes and Comparing Salience.” He tested the efficacy of common predictors of violence against data on ethnic and religious violence from 174 countries.
- Mark Hickey ‘17 presented his research titled “Showing their Softer Side: Analyzing the Soft Media Strategies of Statewide Campaigns in Texas and Arkansas,” in which he gathered information firsthand from political operative from very different states to see how major campaign organizations adapt to a media
landscape that constantly shifts.
- Chirag Lala ’17 presented his research titled “Reforming the International Monetary System: Chartalist Prescriptions and their Implications for Political Economy,” in which he developed proposals for reforming the International Monetary System from Chartalist theory to determine their impact
on normative guidelines for policies targeting full employment and price stability.
- Brooke Nelson ’17 presented her research titled "Breaking Bias: Press-Ideology Parallelism and Its Effect on Voter Turnout," which investigated the negative impact of media bias on voter turnout both in the United States and internationally.
- Matt Ramirez ’17 presented his research titled “News that (Still) Matters: The Millennials Edition,” in which he found and described how much influence television broadcasts have on millennials.
- Sami Sexton ’17 presented her research titled “Advertising Saturation in Political Campaigns,” in which she conducted research to examine the relationship between negative campaign advertisements and voter turnout in the 2010 and 2014 elections.
- Guneev Sharma ’17 presented his research titled “Restoring the American Dream: An Exploration on How to Alleviate Poverty in the South,” which looked at southern states that have been able to lower poverty rates since the Great Recession (2009) as key models for the rest of the American
South.
- Charlotte Thomas ’17 presented her research titled “Marx’s Evolving Thought: An Analysis of the Irregularities in Karl Marx’s Theory of Revolution,” where she provided evidence from Marx’s own works that showed that Marx’s theory of revolution is inconsistent, and thus needs to be analyzed over
time and in a historical context.
“We were able to speak to academics from all around the world and discuss topics ranging from the recent U.S. election to the global economic effects of sanctions,” said Sharma.
“The conference gave us a chance to explore countless subfields within the discipline of political science while receiving critical feedback on our own research,” said Hickey. “To top it all off, we got to experience one of the world’s most exciting cities for four days.”
About Hendrix College
Hendrix College is a private liberal arts college in Conway, Arkansas. Founded in 1876 and affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884, Hendrix is featured in Colleges That Change Lives:
40 Schools That Will Change the Way You Think about Colleges and is nationally recognized in numerous college guides, lists, and rankings for academic quality, community, innovation, and value. For more information, visit
www.hendrix.edu.