Weatherhead Center introduces 26 doctoral candidates for 2008-09

Twenty-six doctoral candidates will be supported by the Weatherhead Center for International Affairs for the 2008-09 year. The associates come from a multidisciplinary group of advanced-degree candidates in the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences’ departments of Anthropology, Economics, Government, History, Health Policy, Middle East Studies, Social Policy, and Sociology. All of the students are working on dissertations related to international affairs.

The center provides the associates with office space, computer resources, and research grants, and they participate in a variety of seminars, including their own graduate student seminar during which they present their work and receive feedback.

The center has also granted dissertation completion fellowships to two associates for 2008-09, Yevgeniy Kirpichevsky and Giacomo Ponzetto, as well as Nico Slate, a Ph.D. candidate in History.

The 2008-09 Graduate Student Associates and their research projects, are as follows:

Marcus Alexander, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: Behavioral political economy; experimental social science; econometrics; dynamics of conflict and cooperation.

Christopher Bail, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Sociology: Diverse Diversities: The Configuration of Symbolic Boundaries Against Immigrants in 23 European Countries.

Suzanna Chapman, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: Measuring and explaining trends in restrictive immigration policy in wealthy democracies (1960-2006).

Alex Fattal, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology: Demilitarization, demobilization, and reintegration of insurgents in Colombia.

Garner Gollatz, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology: Healing, pilgrimage, and spirituality at the Sanctuary of Lourdes, France.

Karen Grépin, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Health Policy: Economics of health systems; health human resources; and effectiveness of health development assistance. Research area: Africa, specifically Ghana.

Zongze Hu, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology: How locals have encountered and seen the national state in a North China village.

Robert Karl, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History: State formation, politics, violence, and U.S. influence in 20th century Colombia.

Yevgeniy Kirpichevsky, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: Secret weapons and secret diplomacy in international relations.

Ian Klaus, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History: The role of trust in the business and military relations of the British Empire.

Diana Kudayarova, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History: Labor policy and labor market strategies of white-collar professionals in the Soviet Union.

Rebecca Nelson, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: Explaining variation in the terms of sovereign debt restructurings with private creditors in the post-World War II era.

Vernie Oliveiro, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History: The United States’ efforts against the bribery of foreign public officials by multinational corporations wishing to do business abroad (1975-1997).

Sabrina Peri, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Social Anthropology: Examining intersections of violence, identity, and primary resource extraction in Bosnia and Herzegovina’s ethnographic present, and in its history.

Sanjay Pinto, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Sociology and Social Policy: The political economy of social stratification: Varieties of occupational structure in post-industrial and newly industrialized societies.

Giacomo Ponzetto, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Economics: The role of partisanship and voters’ asymmetric information in the political economy of trade policy.

Brenna Powell, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government and Social Policy: Comparative ethno-racial politics, civil conflict, and political violence; dissertation work in Northern Ireland, Brazil, and the United States.

Jonathan Renshon, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: How status considerations affect the calculations of states in international politics.

Meg Rithmire, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: Building modern cities: Development, space, and power in urban China.

Claire Schwartz, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: Implications of the shift from state governance toward “civil governance” in industrial regulation and the differential effects of developed and developing countries.

Sarah Shehabuddin, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: The rules of engagement: Women’s rights and the determinants of secularist-Islamist relations.

Anthony Shenoda, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Anthropology and Middle East Studies: Coptic Orthodox Christian encounters with the Miraculous in Egypt.

Anya Vodopyanov, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: Political economy of service provision in the Middle East: Impact of increased basic service provision by Islamic groups on the quality and reach of government services.

Ann Marie Wilson, Ph.D. candidate, Department of History: An investigation into the origins of modern American human rights activism, focusing on the Anglo-American humanitarian movements that arose in response to crises in Armenia, Russia, and the Congo Free State between 1880 and 1920.

Lili Zhang, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Government: Reputation and War Termination: An approach based on psychology and behavioral economics.

Min Zhou, Ph.D. candidate, Department of Sociology: Grassroots organizations in the 2005 anti-Japan movement in China.