Research and Teaching Working Groups
American Politics Workshop
The UW-Madison American Politics Workshop is a multidisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students that meets every other Monday at noon in 422 North Hall to discuss new and ongoing research projects in American Politics. A typical workshop meeting will open with 10-15 minutes of comments by the paper author followed by an hour of discussion. Papers are posted online for reading prior to the meeting. Faculty and graduate students wishing to present at the workshop should send an email to Barry Burden or Lesley Lavery
The UW-Madison American Politics Workshop is a multidisciplinary group of faculty and graduate students that meets every other Monday at noon in 422 North Hall to discuss new and ongoing research projects in American Politics. A typical workshop meeting will open with 10-15 minutes of comments by the paper author followed by an hour of discussion. Papers are posted online for reading prior to the meeting. Faculty and graduate students wishing to present at the workshop should send an email to Barry Burden or Lesley Lavery
European Politics Working Group
The European Politics Working Group is a forum for informal discussion among graduate students and faculty members. This working group, which meets once per month, serves primarily as a forum for scholars interested or working in the area of European politics - broadly conceived - to receive comments and feedback on work in progress, such as research proposals, conference and working papers, and dissertation drafts. For updated information about meetings, discussion papers etc., please see the webpage @ https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/jtweishaupt/web/EPWG.html or contact Timo Weishaupt directly (email: weishaupt@polisci.wisc.edu).
The European Politics Working Group is a forum for informal discussion among graduate students and faculty members. This working group, which meets once per month, serves primarily as a forum for scholars interested or working in the area of European politics - broadly conceived - to receive comments and feedback on work in progress, such as research proposals, conference and working papers, and dissertation drafts. For updated information about meetings, discussion papers etc., please see the webpage @ https://mywebspace.wisc.edu/jtweishaupt/web/EPWG.html or contact Timo Weishaupt directly (email: weishaupt@polisci.wisc.edu).
Comparative Research Colloquium
The Comparative Research Colloquium (CRC) is a collaborative research initiative intended for, but not limited to, graduate students and faculty in the department of political science. All social scientists interested in issues within the realm of comparative politics are invited to participate. The CRC is designed for comparativists to present their works-in-progress in a critical and constructive environment. Colloquia meetings are devoted to the discussion of scholarly papers, usually available a week in advance of the session.
The format is as follows: each discussant will present 10-15 minutes of comments, after which the author will have an opportunity to respond. Finally, the floor is opened for a free-flowing exchange of ideas from the entire group. To enrich the discussion, all participants are expected to have read the paper in advance.
The CRC holds at least two evening (7:30-9:30pm) meetings each semester in a member's home. Please contact Kerry Ratigan (ratigan@wisc.edu), Kristin Vekasi (vekasi@wisc.edu) or Melanie Manion (manion@lafollete.wisc.edu) for additional information about the CRC or its 2007-2008 events.
Chinese Politics Workshop
The Chinese Politics Workshop is a forum for the presentation of ongoing work focusing on Chinese politics (working papers, dissertation proposals and chapters) by University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students and University of Wisconsin-Madison and external faculty. A graduate student reviews the work for about 15 to 20 minutes, followed by a response from the author and open discussion among the participants. There are no formal presentations. Papers are made available to participants one week in advance of the workshop.
The workshop meets on Tuesdays between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. during the Fall 2007 semester. For more information, please visit our website. If you are interested in participating or submitting a paper, please contact Leah Larson-Rabin, Graduate Student Coordinator, at lrabin@wisc.edu.
The Chinese Politics Workshop is a forum for the presentation of ongoing work focusing on Chinese politics (working papers, dissertation proposals and chapters) by University of Wisconsin-Madison graduate students and University of Wisconsin-Madison and external faculty. A graduate student reviews the work for about 15 to 20 minutes, followed by a response from the author and open discussion among the participants. There are no formal presentations. Papers are made available to participants one week in advance of the workshop.
The workshop meets on Tuesdays between 6:00 p.m. and 7:00 p.m. during the Fall 2007 semester. For more information, please visit our website. If you are interested in participating or submitting a paper, please contact Leah Larson-Rabin, Graduate Student Coordinator, at lrabin@wisc.edu.
International Relations Colloquium
The IR Colloquium brings students and faculty together to discuss international security, foreign policy, international organizations, and international political economy. Visiting scholars as well as faculty and graduate students from UW present their ongoing research, followed by questions and open discussion among the participants. For more information, please contact Dave Ohls at ohls@wisc.edu.
The IR Colloquium brings students and faculty together to discuss international security, foreign policy, international organizations, and international political economy. Visiting scholars as well as faculty and graduate students from UW present their ongoing research, followed by questions and open discussion among the participants. For more information, please contact Dave Ohls at ohls@wisc.edu.
MAD - Models and Data Group
Models and Data Group (MAD) is a working group to assist faculty and graduate students in improving the quantitative aspects of working papers. Topics discussed cover a wide range of substantive interests from every subfield, while discussions focus on methodology issues ranging from research design to estimation issues. Graduate students are encouraged to participate as members of the working group, especially in the role of presenters.
Models and Data Group (MAD) is a working group to assist faculty and graduate students in improving the quantitative aspects of working papers. Topics discussed cover a wide range of substantive interests from every subfield, while discussions focus on methodology issues ranging from research design to estimation issues. Graduate students are encouraged to participate as members of the working group, especially in the role of presenters.
NewsLab at the University of Wisconsin - Madison
Most Americans get most of their information from television and local news in particular. Yet there have been few systematic studies of the content and effectiveness of local television news. NewsLab at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, directed by Professor Ken Goldstein, is revolutionizing the way scholars study politics and media coverage by providing systematic capture, story-based analysis, and digital, web-based, searchable archives of local news across the country since 2002. The Wisconsin NewsLab dataset is the most comprehensive and systematic collection of local news ever gathered. NewsLab video archives have been crucial resources for scholars documenting the flow and effect of broadcast messages and for policymakers seeking to improve the quality of news coverage across the nation on a variety of topics from elections to health to foreign affairs.
Most Americans get most of their information from television and local news in particular. Yet there have been few systematic studies of the content and effectiveness of local television news. NewsLab at the University of Wisconsin – Madison, directed by Professor Ken Goldstein, is revolutionizing the way scholars study politics and media coverage by providing systematic capture, story-based analysis, and digital, web-based, searchable archives of local news across the country since 2002. The Wisconsin NewsLab dataset is the most comprehensive and systematic collection of local news ever gathered. NewsLab video archives have been crucial resources for scholars documenting the flow and effect of broadcast messages and for policymakers seeking to improve the quality of news coverage across the nation on a variety of topics from elections to health to foreign affairs.
Political Behavior Research Group
The Political Behavior Research Group consists of faculty members and graduate students within the department of political science who are involved in research on political behavior broadly construed -- i.e., political participation, public opinion, political psychology, political culture, political communication, political socialization, and mass-elite linkages. The group meets once a month to discuss a participant's ongoing research project.
The Political Behavior Research Group consists of faculty members and graduate students within the department of political science who are involved in research on political behavior broadly construed -- i.e., political participation, public opinion, political psychology, political culture, political communication, political socialization, and mass-elite linkages. The group meets once a month to discuss a participant's ongoing research project.
Political Economy Colloquium
Modern political economy may be defined as the study of incentives in group life. Central to the field are such questions as the nature of cooperation and competition among individuals and organizations, the role of institutions in structuring individual behavior, and the aggregation of individual preferences into group choice. Using tools and concepts that largely originate in economic theory, political economy has grown to encompass theoretical and applied work in economics, political science, sociology, and related disciplines. The Political Economy Colloquium features presentations by visiting and University of Wisconsin-Madison speakers on a wide range of topics within this field. For more information, please contact Leah Larson-Rabin, Graduate Student Coordinator, at lrabin@wisc.edu.
Modern political economy may be defined as the study of incentives in group life. Central to the field are such questions as the nature of cooperation and competition among individuals and organizations, the role of institutions in structuring individual behavior, and the aggregation of individual preferences into group choice. Using tools and concepts that largely originate in economic theory, political economy has grown to encompass theoretical and applied work in economics, political science, sociology, and related disciplines. The Political Economy Colloquium features presentations by visiting and University of Wisconsin-Madison speakers on a wide range of topics within this field. For more information, please contact Leah Larson-Rabin, Graduate Student Coordinator, at lrabin@wisc.edu.
Political Philosophy Colloquium
The Political Philosophy Colloquium brings together graduate students and faculty with an interest in the history of social and political thought, normative social and political theory, and the normative and theoretical dimensions of public policy and public law. Our meetings center around the discussion of work in progress by UW graduate students and faculty, as well as by invited guests from around the country. They include a brief presentation by the author and a prepared response by an advanced graduate student, followed by a general discussion. In most cases papers are distributed in advance of the meetings. We welcome participants from a broad range of disciplinary and methodological approaches.
Transitional Justice Database Project
Transitional justice mechanisms, or institutional arrangements for addressing past authoritarian state violence, have proliferated around the world. States emerging from civil war or authoritarian rule during the recent global wave of democratization since the 1970s have adopted a variety of transitional justice mechanisms. These have included elaborate truth commissions and trials intended to hold perpetrators accountable; restorative justice mechanisms such as reparations, monuments, and other public memory projects; and constitutional amendments and institution building (such as the creation of ombudsmen) intended to safeguard human rights. Despite significant geographic and institutional variations, transitional justice arrangements share a common set of goals aimed to avoid repeating, reenacting, or reliving past horror, deter future violators, establish democratic (particularly legal) political institutions, and restore the dignity of citizens victimized by atrocity. This project explores whether transitional justice achieves these goals. At the macro-level the project seeks to uncover what impact, if any, transitional justice has on the prospect for peace and the deterrence of human rights violations in emerging democracies. If transitional justice does have a positive impact on transitional states, which specific mechanisms, or combinations of mechanisms, should states employ to best achieve these desired results? Once identified, what conditions best facilitate the adoption of these mechanisms? Finally, if transitional justice does not have a significant impact, what factors are driving improvements in human rights conditions and continued stability in many newly democratized states?
Transitional justice mechanisms, or institutional arrangements for addressing past authoritarian state violence, have proliferated around the world. States emerging from civil war or authoritarian rule during the recent global wave of democratization since the 1970s have adopted a variety of transitional justice mechanisms. These have included elaborate truth commissions and trials intended to hold perpetrators accountable; restorative justice mechanisms such as reparations, monuments, and other public memory projects; and constitutional amendments and institution building (such as the creation of ombudsmen) intended to safeguard human rights. Despite significant geographic and institutional variations, transitional justice arrangements share a common set of goals aimed to avoid repeating, reenacting, or reliving past horror, deter future violators, establish democratic (particularly legal) political institutions, and restore the dignity of citizens victimized by atrocity. This project explores whether transitional justice achieves these goals. At the macro-level the project seeks to uncover what impact, if any, transitional justice has on the prospect for peace and the deterrence of human rights violations in emerging democracies. If transitional justice does have a positive impact on transitional states, which specific mechanisms, or combinations of mechanisms, should states employ to best achieve these desired results? Once identified, what conditions best facilitate the adoption of these mechanisms? Finally, if transitional justice does not have a significant impact, what factors are driving improvements in human rights conditions and continued stability in many newly democratized states?
Wisconsin Advertising Project
The Wisconsin Advertising Project, directed by Professor Ken Goldstein and using data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), is a unique resource for tracking all aspects of political advertising in the largest hundred markets of the United States (covering over 86 percent of the population). The data collected tracks each individual airing of political commercials (electoral and issue advocacy) in these major markets markets. In addition, the project is able to analyze the content of all these ads, with access to storyboards of each different commercial. By combining the data of the targeting of individual spots with analysis of each of the storyboards the project is able to give a comprehensive account of the nature of political advertising in the United States. Work so far produced by the project has related to the use of "soft money" in campaigns (and the implications of this for campaign finance reform); the effects and nature of negative political advertising; the role of gender in political advertising and targeting of campaign resources. In addition, the project has been a valuable resource for both the print and broadcast media. The Wisconsin Advertising Project is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
The Wisconsin Advertising Project, directed by Professor Ken Goldstein and using data from the Campaign Media Analysis Group (CMAG), is a unique resource for tracking all aspects of political advertising in the largest hundred markets of the United States (covering over 86 percent of the population). The data collected tracks each individual airing of political commercials (electoral and issue advocacy) in these major markets markets. In addition, the project is able to analyze the content of all these ads, with access to storyboards of each different commercial. By combining the data of the targeting of individual spots with analysis of each of the storyboards the project is able to give a comprehensive account of the nature of political advertising in the United States. Work so far produced by the project has related to the use of "soft money" in campaigns (and the implications of this for campaign finance reform); the effects and nature of negative political advertising; the role of gender in political advertising and targeting of campaign resources. In addition, the project has been a valuable resource for both the print and broadcast media. The Wisconsin Advertising Project is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Border and Transcultural Studies Research Circle
The Border and Transcultural Studies Research Circle is designed to foster dialogue on the UW Madison campus among faculty, staff, and students from different departments and programs around issues of intercultural contact. It grows out of the March 1997 Burdick-Vary Symposium entitled "Contact and Power: Transgressions in the Borderlands of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Encounter" supported by the the Institute for Research in the Humanities, and has enjoyed support from that institute, the International Institute and other campus units since 1997.
The Border and Transcultural Studies Research Circle is designed to foster dialogue on the UW Madison campus among faculty, staff, and students from different departments and programs around issues of intercultural contact. It grows out of the March 1997 Burdick-Vary Symposium entitled "Contact and Power: Transgressions in the Borderlands of Intercultural and Interdisciplinary Encounter" supported by the the Institute for Research in the Humanities, and has enjoyed support from that institute, the International Institute and other campus units since 1997.
Environment and Development Research Circle
The Environment-and-Development Advanced Research Circle (EDARC) is dedicated to strengthening research and teaching initiatives on the interrelations among crucial human environmental changes and development processes. The EDARC focuses on three primary themes: (i) the economics of local resource use outcomes; (ii) the politics and policy of resource and conservation management and practices, and (iii) environmental analysis of human-induced change. The EDARC is especially interested in how these themes are worked out in the making and management of critical "planning territories," such as extractive reserves, parks, protected areas, buffer zones, range management units, irrigation districts, conservation watersheds, and so forth.
The Environment-and-Development Advanced Research Circle (EDARC) is dedicated to strengthening research and teaching initiatives on the interrelations among crucial human environmental changes and development processes. The EDARC focuses on three primary themes: (i) the economics of local resource use outcomes; (ii) the politics and policy of resource and conservation management and practices, and (iii) environmental analysis of human-induced change. The EDARC is especially interested in how these themes are worked out in the making and management of critical "planning territories," such as extractive reserves, parks, protected areas, buffer zones, range management units, irrigation districts, conservation watersheds, and so forth.
Global Governance Research Circle
The Global Governance Research Circle will probe the concept and practice of global governance from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Global governance concerns the attempt by states and nonstate actors to organize their relations through various institutional mechanisms and decentralized arrangements to solve transboundary and collective action problems in a nonviolent manner. Global governance has taken on greater urgency over the past decades. Some have argued those increasing movements of people, capital, and information are only possible with efficient institutional arrangements. Others argue that these very movements have the potential to produce conflict absent appropriate coordinating measures and dispute mechanisms.
The Global Governance Research Circle will probe the concept and practice of global governance from a multi-disciplinary perspective. Global governance concerns the attempt by states and nonstate actors to organize their relations through various institutional mechanisms and decentralized arrangements to solve transboundary and collective action problems in a nonviolent manner. Global governance has taken on greater urgency over the past decades. Some have argued those increasing movements of people, capital, and information are only possible with efficient institutional arrangements. Others argue that these very movements have the potential to produce conflict absent appropriate coordinating measures and dispute mechanisms.
Media, Performance, and Identity Research Circle
The mediation of cultural forms is radically transforming notions of community worldwide. Seeing the media as both empowering and dangerous, even the poorest countries devote scarce funds to promote official agendas through national media and impose quotas and censorship to minimize the perceived harmful effects of cultural globalization. Scholars at Madison and elsewhere are conducting research on forms of cultural production that rely heavily, or even wholly, on the mass media. Many address issues of identity formation in relation to shifting notions of community (ethnicities, nations, classes, "races," the sense of "belonging" to a specific place).
The mediation of cultural forms is radically transforming notions of community worldwide. Seeing the media as both empowering and dangerous, even the poorest countries devote scarce funds to promote official agendas through national media and impose quotas and censorship to minimize the perceived harmful effects of cultural globalization. Scholars at Madison and elsewhere are conducting research on forms of cultural production that rely heavily, or even wholly, on the mass media. Many address issues of identity formation in relation to shifting notions of community (ethnicities, nations, classes, "races," the sense of "belonging" to a specific place).
WAGE - The Center for World Affairs and the Global Economy
WAGE, part of the Madison Initiative public-private partnership, draws upon the diverse specialties of UW-Madison’s outstanding faculty to define the complex challenges facing Wisconsin and its economic environment, and it brings together faculty from across the campus to address those needs. Specifically, WAGE prepares students for professional careers at the highest levels of the global economy; stimulates the faculty to define and solve the problems of economic governance in a complicated world; brings the expertise of the campus to Wisconsin business; and keeps the public informed about new challenges posed by world events.
WAGE, part of the Madison Initiative public-private partnership, draws upon the diverse specialties of UW-Madison’s outstanding faculty to define the complex challenges facing Wisconsin and its economic environment, and it brings together faculty from across the campus to address those needs. Specifically, WAGE prepares students for professional careers at the highest levels of the global economy; stimulates the faculty to define and solve the problems of economic governance in a complicated world; brings the expertise of the campus to Wisconsin business; and keeps the public informed about new challenges posed by world events.