Journal of Undergraduate Research

Madeleine Gleave and Matthew Brigham, Dr. Daniel Nielson, Political Science I. INTRODUCTION Helping behavior in a given society provides an interesting measure of social trust and prosociality. Whether individuals will assist strangers in need should indicate baseline levels of empathy, perceived social obligation, and generalized trust. But to date few studies have explored experimental interventions […]

Kyrene Gibb and Dr. Christopher Karpowitz, Political Science In the 2012 Presidential election cycle, independent expenditure committees, or Super PACs, had spent a more than $237 million advocating for one or the other presidential candidate (OpenSecrets.org, 2013). Given the large sums of money that independent expenditure committees are raising and spending to influence the outcome […]

Lucas Brook and Dr. Darren Hawkins, Political Science Department Peru has long been afflicted by corruption and political malpractice. As a result, Peruvian citizens have become disenchanted with their government. In recent years, the Peruvian government has employed internet transparency campaigns in an attempt to improve these sentiments. But what if Peruvians feel they cannot […]

Matthew Frei and Dr. J. Quin Monson, Political Science Some political science and sociology scholars distinguish between two dimensions of religiosity or religious commitment: individualism and communitarianism. The former means that individuals are motivated toward piety with an emphasis on an intrinsic or individual-level religious practice and belief (Allport and Ross 1967). The communitarian perspective, […]

Ryan C. Bakow, Political Science PROJECT ABSTRACT Billions of dollars each year are spent on foreign aid projects, much of which ends up in the hands of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) all around the world. NGOs are involved in many phases of development and have often accomplished great things; however, despite a long history of NGO […]

Erin Lee Wells and Dr. Kirk Hawkins, Political Science Populism is a set of ideas that sees a strict dichotomy of corrupt elite suppressing the unified will of people (Hawkins 2009). From the Populist Party of the 1890’s to the current day Tea Party, populist ideas have a long history of use in America and […]

Daniel Walker and Dr. Michael Findley, Political Science Department Abstract Recent literature dealing with nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) claims that NGOs have little incentive to base their decisions and strategies on local needs and instead are governed largely by their current and prospective donors (McGann and Johnstone 2006; Prakash and Gugerty 2010; Bollen et al 2005). […]

Paul Russell and Dr Wade Jacoby, Political Science Overview I was awarded an ORCA grant to study the causes of support for separatist political parties in Belgium. In January of 2011, I had the opportunity to travel to Belgium as an intern for a political party at the European Parliament in Brussels. The grant that […]

Taylor Malia Richards and Dr. Darren Hawkins, Department of Political Science Foreign aid, and aid effectiveness, has been one of the most heated debates in international relations and US foreign policy in the past several decades. Is aid ever effective? Under what conditions? At stake are billions of dollars and, potentially, millions of lives and […]

Owen D. Yeates and Dr. Richard Vetterli, Political Science The scope of my initial research proposal was quite wide, simply stating that I would study the writings of the Cambridge Platonists and Oxford Reformers and those surrounding them to discover the effects of religious thought on the concepts of virtue and liberty as transmitted from […]