Research Assistants
Ashley Augustine
I assist Professor Diermeier with his work on the role of uncertainty in international legislative success rates. I survey existing literature for international data and compare how different government structures engender different success rates. The Ford Center aligns with my interests by exposing me to formal models in the political science arena.
Sophomore MMSS studying economics and international studies
Ben Chanzit
I helped Professor Diermeier mainly examine existing measurement systems for corporate reputation. The study of corporate reputation as something that organizations need to pay attention to and manage actively has increased greatly in the past 20 or so years. In that time, many systems to evaluate and quantify a company's reputation have gained prominence. I helped find existing literature on the matter and examined related models in political science of mass opinion formation to evaluate these measurement systems.
Junior studying applied mathematics and economics
Katie Chen
I wanted to work at the Ford Center because of my interest in how corporations manage crises and why some succeed and others fail. I also wanted to work somewhere that would further my knowledge of trends in the business world.
As a journalism major, there are many different areas I can specialize in and business journalism is one area I'm considering. At the Ford Center, I look at business news from a researcher's perspective, which is extremely helpful in terms of understanding all angles and the major players of a story.
Senior, Medill School of Journalism
Joshua Kaplan
I received a research fellowship over the summer and wanted to continue doing research in economics. I currently conduct research on consumer boycotts, focusing on their causes and effects. Using Prof. Diermeier's research on the matter, I attempt to predict the effect of the boycotts on companies' sales, and I study historical boycotts as well as current ones.
Sophomore in Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences majoring in Economics with a minor in Transportation and Logistics, and a certificate in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC).
Will Kim
I am currently creating agent-based models of mass-organized behavior. Some of the topics include models of voting on different networks, the Ising model on networks, and social consensus models on different networks. We try to explain why and under which conditions a group of people display collective action, such as riots and voter turnout. Currently, I am working to create a library of such models.
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Alyssa Lloyd
I enjoy working at the Ford Center because I am interested in global issues and social issues, and the Ford Center focuses on both. I am currently working on a project looking at CITGO and the ways that people's perceptions of Hugo Chavez have influenced their purchasing decisions regarding the company. This includes looking at people from the U.S. and South America, boycotts and buycotts, and a special focus on Chavez's UN speech in 2006 in which he famously criticized George W. Bush.
Senior, SESP/WCAS, Social policy and international studies
Aileen McGraw
I research and write for Professor Diermeier, focusing on emerging social innovation models and how they impact the Global Health Initiative and the Global Health Foundation's efforts. The Ford Center engages my experience with nonprofit development and exposes new ideas of social innovation and global health technology, providing multidisciplinary exposure to the creativity behind social business models.
Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences
Michael Schnabel
I'm assisting Daniel in a book chapter which reviews various types of voter models and their use in modeling public opinion dynamics. I'm interested in applying methods from statistical mechanics to the modeling of opinion formation and decision making in social groups.
Post-doctoral fellow, McCormick School of Engineering
Dennis Zhan
I worked on three surveys in formal models of collective action, parliamentary legislative decision-making, and media bias. For collective action, I evaluated the competing theories and supporting case studies on why riots, rebellions, and revolutions erupt. For the second survey, I looked at how lobbying, bargaining and party structure affect how laws get passed and the power dynamics in parliamentary legislatures. Finally, I looked at the current state of the political economy of mass media bias, focusing on the supply-side and demand-side arguments as well as the empirical evidence.
Senior majoring in economics and mathematics at the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences, participant in the Kellogg Certificate Program for undergraduates in Financial Economics
|
