PoliSci Blog

Our friend and colleague Robert Aponte, in the Department of Sociology, passed away earlier this year. Robert was a tireless social justice scholar and he finished his final piece, co-authored with Sociology graduate student Hannah Hurrle, just 10 days before passing away. We celebrate his research and want to share this final work with everyone: …

The Department of Political Science would like to congratulate all of our 2020 award and scholarship winners! We look forward to great things from each of you!   P.E. MacAllister Scholarship Bri Brown Yvonne Carmelo Robert C. Kirch Scholarship Riley Sawyer Christopher Rude James E. Sawyers Memorial Scholarship Jennifer Leeper Winslow Prize in Political Theory …

Faculty Publication: Indiscriminate Repression in Nonviolent Resistance Campaign Since the tidal wave of civil resistance campaigns of the Arab Spring in 2010, political scientists and sociologists have turned their focus toward understanding why some of these protests have resulted in regime change or substantial governmental reforms while others have not. In the context of this …

If I could explain my internship with the Indiana State House Democrats in one word, then this post would not go beyond this sentence. However, there is not oneword that can fully describe the nearly three months that I servedas an intern at the Statehouse. It was an experience that both allowed me to shine, …

Greetings! Currently, I’m a senior in Political Science with the following minors: Africana Studies, Philosophy and Public Policy. I’d like to share with you some of my experiences while living in Washington D.C. for four months. Despite the government shutdown, luckily, it became an opportunity for me to acquire two internships. I was able to …

There are no words to describe how quickly the last three years have completely flown by. It is quite mind-blowing to think my undergraduate career is rapidly coming to an end, but I know that it is only the beginning of a new chapter. Honestly, it is refreshing to look back and reflect on my …

As of Saturday, May 11, 2019, I became a college graduate. This exciting milestone had me reflecting on the last four years of my university experience, which I was fortunate enough to spend at IUPUI. When people talk about that “feeling” that you get when you visit a college campus – the one where it …

A former British colony, Somaliland proclaimed its independence from Somalia in 1991. Although it has been largely peaceful since 1997, Somaliland’s sovereignty remains entirely unrecognized. It is a paradigmatic example of what IUPUI Political Science Professor Scott Pegg terms “de facto states” – political entities that control territory, provide governance, secure popular legitimacy and yet …

The goal of the paper is to connect the dots between direct democracy and feelings of political efficacy. Current scholarly work has not yet been able to show a clear link between these two things. We argue that this is because current work does not take into account the differences in ballot initiative process from state to state, nor the differences between internal and external efficacy. Our research provides a more comprehensive look at the influence direct democracy has on political efficacy, and hopefully a launching pad for more scholarly work regarding the secondary effects of direct democracy.

Prof. Amanda Friesen is spending her first sabbatical at IUPUI as a Visiting Scholar at the Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender & Sexuality and University of Amsterdam Challenges to Democratic Representation group.