APSA’s Institute for Civically Engaged Research (ICER) is an annual four-day, residential institute held on the campus of Tufts University that provides political scientists with training to conduct ethical and rigorous civically engaged research. Each year, we select a group of up to 20 political scientists from a diverse and competitive pool of applicants to become ICER Fellows and attend the Institute. ICER Fellows network with other like-minded political scientists, and together, learn best practices for conducting academically robust, mutually beneficial scholarship in collaboration with communities, organizations, and agencies outside of academia.
ICER trains political scientists at all career stages in best practices for conducting academically rigorous, mutually beneficial, civically engaged research. The Institute Directors are Peter Levine (Tufts University) and Valeria Sinclair-Chapman (Purdue University). Together with practitioner experts and scholarly guest speakers, ICER Directors and fellows will explore key topics related to civically engaged research by discussing relevant readings, by analyzing specific examples of civically engaged research from political science and cognate disciplines, and by considering the research plans and ideas of institute participants. We are delighted to announce our 18 ICER fellows for 2023 who participated in ICER between July 10-13. To learn more about ICER, please visit our website at connect.apsanet.org/icer/
SHELLY ARSNEAULT
Shelly Arsneault is a professor of political science at California State University, Fullerton where she teaches classes on nonprofit organizations & management, California government, and public administration. Her research interests include social policy and nonprofit organizations. She has published work in the areas of poverty & welfare, sex education, women’s health, education policy, and the nexus of nonprofit organizations and public policy. Current projects include “Cases in California Politics & Administration: Centering Equity & Social Justice Issues,” and “Sex Education as the Next Cultural Battleground” (with Meeyoung Lamothe & Lauren Miller). Shelly has long been active with the California Faculty Association--Fullerton Chapter, serving as Political Action/Legislation co-chair for a decade, as Chapter Vice President for six years, and as co-chair for Faculty Rights for three years. She earned her PhD in political science at Michigan State University.
ANGIE BAUTISTA-CHAVEZ
Angie Bautista-Chavez is an Assistant Professor at the School of Politics and Global Studies at Arizona State University. She is a first-generation college student, and earned her PhD in Government from Harvard University. Her research integrates approaches from American politics, bureaucratic politics, organizational behavior, and international relations to study US immigration politics and policy. In her book project, Exporting Borders, she examined the transnational and bureaucratic dimensions of US immigration enforcement. In her community-engaged Latinx Organizational Archives Project, she examine the organizational terrain of US Latinx interests across the United States.
JILL BIRREN
Jill McNew-Birren is an Associate Professor in the Departments of Educational Policy and Leadership and Political Science at Marquette University. Her research centers around activities, perspectives, and political engagement of communities confronting environmental contamination challenges.
MATILDE CERON
Matilde Ceron completed her PhD in Political Studies at the University of Milan (NASP). Her dissertation investigated the multilevel interplay between the EU fiscal framework and domestic political, institutional and economic factors in shaping the composition of public expenditures in the Member States. Matilde holds an MSc in Economics and Social Sciences from Bocconi University and an MA in Public Policy Analysis from the College of Europe. Her research interest clusters at the intersection of EU economic governance, fiscal policies, gender equality and representation. Prior to her doctoral studies, she gained experience in policy-oriented research contributing to evaluations and impact assessments for the EU institutions. As a postdoctoral fellow in political economy at the University of Pavia, she contributed to a project examining the digital inclusion of people with disabilities, specifically analyzing the effects of pandemic digital surveillance and AI on discrimination and the rights of vulnerable groups. During her postdoctoral fellowship at Luiss University, her research focused on the policy-making and legitimacy implications of EU executive leadership selection. As a Max Weber Fellow at the Robert Schuman Center for Advanced Studies of the European University Institute, she extended her research on national and EU emergency and recovery responses to the pandemic addressing the changes in fiscal policies and governance frameworks after Covid-19. In parallel, she expanded her work to a gendered analysis of EU economic governance with a focus on pandemic recovery policies. Her current project focuses on substantive representation and gender mainstreaming in the National Recovery and Resilience Plans.
STEPHANIE CHAN
Stephanie Chan is an Assistant Professor of Government and Law at Lafayette College. Her research interests include immigration, race, political participation, networks, and public opinion. As part of her dissertation, she interviewed immigrants and leaders of community groups with relatively high proportions of immigrants in an effort to better understand how political incorporation differs for immigrants by race. She is hoping to build on her multi-method dissertation for her book project. She earned her PhD from Princeton University in Politics in Spring 2022.
DANG DO
Dang Do is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Political Science at Trinity College, Hartford. He is also the new Director of the Legislative Internship Program at the college, one of the signature programs at Trinity College. Do received his PhD in Political Science from the University of California, San Diego, in 2022. He is interested in the intersection of race and representation in American politics. His research explores the factors that induce racial and ethnic minorities to participate in politics and how these groups exert influence through lobbying. He has two planned projects that involve civically engaged research: a book project that expands on the role of racial minority interest group (RMIG) lobbying and a research project that examines the mobilization of low-propensity voters in off-cycle municipal elections. He plans to work with local grassroots organizations in both projects to gain insight and collect qualitative data. He looks forward to sharing his ideas and receiving constructive feedback.
RAYCHEL GADSON
Raychel Gadson is a PhD student in Political Science at Johns Hopkins University. She works as an activist ethnographer with the South Baltimore Community Land Trust to study urban politics and neighborhood organizing in Baltimore. Specifically, she focuses on the ways that grassroots organizers in historically segregated, and politically marginalized neighborhoods fight to build decision-making power for their communities.
CURTIS KLINE
Curtis is a PhD candidate in Political Science at Colorado State University. His research interests are focused on territorial politics, socio-environmental conflicts, indigenous peoples, and food politics. Using collaborative methods, his current dissertation project is engaged with communities and organizations in the South American country of Colombia. The project looks into the processes and mechanisms regarding conflicts in indigenous and peasant communities surrounding genetically modified seeds. Curtis is evaluating how these GMO disputes are in reality political struggles over autonomy, self-determination, sovereignty, and ways of inhabiting the territories of indigenous and peasant peoples. His research has been supported by the National Science Foundation, the Center for Collaborative Conservation, the Office of the Vice President of Research at CSU, and the Political Science. Moreover, Curtis has spent time researching with and accompanying various rural and indigenous social movements in Mexico and Colombia, as well as in the United States.
ROSA KREWSON
Rosa Castillo Krewson has over 25 years of program management experience within the corporate and nonprofit sectors, specializing in organizational restructuring and leadership transitions. She earned a BA in Philosophy and Political Science from Boston University, completed the Nonprofit Management Executive Certificate at the Center for Public and Nonprofit Leadership at Georgetown University, and a PhD in Public Administration and Public Affairs from the Center of Public Administration and Policy (CPAP) at Virginia Tech’s School of Public and International Affairs. Dr. Krewson is an adjunct professor in the Washington Semester Program at American University. The Public Administration Theory Network selected her co-authored article “Administración pública de nepantla: Transforming public administrators from ‘gatekeepers’ to ‘border crossers’” for the Best Article of 2021 award. Dr. Krewson focuses on social equity issues in areas of public and nonprofit management, veterans affairs, public policy analysis, and education. She co-founded The Institute for Building Agency, a nonprofit focused on improving civics education for young people of color and related research.
VALERIE MARTINEZ-EBERS
Valerie Martinez-Ebers is a University Distinguished Research Professor of Political Science and Director of the Latina/o and Mexican American Studies Program at the University of North Texas. She is a former Vice-President of the American Political Science Association and a former President of the Western Political Science Association. From 2012-2016, she served as Co-Editor of the American Political Science Review, the flagship journal in political science. Dr. Martinez-Ebers has published widely on a variety of topics associated with the politics of race and ethnicity, including articles in all the top journals of her discipline. She is co-author of Politicas: Latina Public Officials in Texas (2008); Latino Lives in America: Making it Home (2010), Latinos in the New Millennium: An Almanac of Opinion, Behavior and Policy Preferences (2012), Human Relations Commissions: Relieving Racial Tensions in the American City (2020) and The American Professor Pundit: Academics in the World of US Political Media (2021). She also edited Perspectives on Race, Ethnicity and Religion: Identity Politics in America (2009), an anthology that examines the history, dynamics and policy issues of minority groups in the United States. She was a co-principal investigator for the 2006 Latino National Survey, an 8,643-respondent, state-stratified survey funded by the Ford, Carnegie, Russell Sage, Hewlett, Joyce, and National Science Foundations.
ANKUSHI MITRA
Ankushi Mitra is a PhD student in Political Science at Georgetown University. Her work focuses on migration, development, and racial and ethnic politics in global south settings. Her dissertation project aims to explain why states vary in their policy responses to refugees and asylum-seekers. Her broader work looks at how relationships between refugee-hosting states, international humanitarian and development organizations, and refugee and host communities shape the lives and experiences of displaced populations. Outside academia, she has worked with organizations such as the World Bank and Innovations for Poverty Action to develop and evaluate projects to support refugees and host communities in North Africa, East Africa, and South Asia.
ASHLEY NICKELS
Ashley Nickels is an associate professor in the School of Peace and Conflict Studies (SPCS) at Kent State University. Working at the intersections of urban and local politics, nonprofit and voluntary studies, and public policy and administration, Dr. Nickels’ research focuses on issues of power, social equity, and democratic participation. She is the author of the award-winning book, Power, Participation, and Protest in Flint, Michigan: Unpacking the Policy Paradox of Municipal Takeover. Dr. Nickels is the Chair of the Public Administration Theory Network, Co-Leader of the Growing Democracy Project and Growing Democracy Lab, and Co-Host of the Growing Democracy Podcast. Dr. Nickels holds a PhD in Public Affairs, with a specialization in Community Development, from Rutgers University-Camden and a MPA, with a concentration in nonprofit leadership and management, from Grand Valley State University.
RODRIGO NUNES
Rodrigo Nunes is a professor of political science and global studies at St. Edward’s University in Austin, TX. He received his PhD from the University of Texas in 2010, where he researched the politics of judicial reform in Latin America with a focus on constitutionalism and the judiciary in Brazil and Colombia. He has also done research on legislative and institutional reforms to Brazil’s criminal justice system. At St. Edward’s, he teaches courses on comparative politics, Latin American politics, and American constitutional law.
FRANK REICHERT
Frank Reichert is a social-political psychologist and educational researcher at The University of Hong Kong. He has previously worked at universities and research institutions in Germany and Australia; held fellowships from the Fritz Thyssen Foundation (Germany) and the National Academy of Education (USA); and was a visiting fellow at universities in Australia, Belgium, and Germany. Frank is also an alumnus of the Leadership Academy of the German Scholars Organization. His research examines multilevel data on citizenship; political attitudes and behavior; civic education, communication, and digital learning; social identity; and youth development. He often employs advanced statistical techniques using large-scale data and has also adopted mixed-methods approaches in his research. Some of his contributions include harnessing underexplored large-scale data and pioneering person-centered statistical techniques in the field of civics and citizenship (incl. digital citizenship). Frank’s research has been published across disciplines and received several competitive awards for research excellence and knowledge exchange.
LAURIE RICE
Laurie L. Rice (PhD University of California, San Diego) is a professor of Political Science at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville. She is co-author of the books The Political Voices of Generation Z and Web 2.0 and The Political Mobilization of College Students and co-editor of American Political Parties Under Pressure: Strategic Adaptations for a Changing Electorate. Her research interests include political communication, the presidency, elections, social media, and civic engagement and her work on these topics also appears in journals such as Presidential Studies Quarterly and Social Science Computer Review. Rice partners with civic groups to increase civic education and engagement and she also provides expertise on elections, social media, and the presidency to various media outlets. She has written pieces for The Hill, The Huffington Post, and the St. Louis Post Dispatch and serves on the Faculty Network for Student Voting Rights Steering Committee. She is currently part of a collaborative project seeking to encourage sustainable community engagement while building community resilience against radicalization to violence.
ELIZABETH SHARROW
Elizabeth (Libby) Sharrow (they/she) is Associate Professor of Public Policy and History at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and Director of Faculty Research at the UMass Institute for Social Science Research. She holds a PhD (political science) and a MPP. Their research focuses on the history and impacts of sex equity policies, with a focus on Title IX of the Education Amendments of 1972. Their book (with James Druckman), Equality Unfulfilled: How Title IX’s Policy Design Undermines Change to College Sports, will be published with Cambridge University Press in summer 2023. Her scholarship is funded by the National Science Foundation, the Association for University Women, the Social Science Research Council and others, and she is published in multiple peer-reviewed and public-facing outlets. She sits on the steering committee for the UMass Public Engagement Project and has been interviewed in the New York Times, a 2022 ESPN docu-series on Title IX, and other journalistic outlets.
EVELYN SIMIEN
Evelyn M. Simien is professor of political science and Director of the Intersectional Indigeneity, Race, Ethnicity, and Politics (IIREP) master’s degree program at the University of Connecticut. A native of Lake Charles, Louisiana, she graduated cum laude with a BA in political science from Xavier University of Louisiana. She received her MA and PhD degrees in political science from Purdue University. Her first book, Black Feminist Voices in Politics (SUNY Press, 2006), examined black feminist consciousness and its effect on political behavior using national survey data. Her second book, Gender and Lynching: The Politics of Memory (Palgrave/Macmillan, 2011), focused on African American women who suffered racial-sexual violence at the hands of lynch mobs in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Her third book, Historic Firsts: How Symbolic Empowerment Changes US Politics (Oxford University Press, 2015), considers whether candidates like Shirley Chisholm in 1972 and Jesse Jackson in 1984 as well as Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in 2008 mobilize voters through emotional appeals while combating stereotypes and providing more inclusive representation. Her fourth book, Historic Firsts in US Elections (Routledge, 2022), extends her theory of symbolic empowerment to the Trump era and focuses on barrier-breaking gubernatorial, congressional, and mayoral campaigns. ◼
