Research

Research Interests

  • Comparative Politics
  • Political Methodology
  • Local Governments and Decentralization
  • Women in Politics
  • Latin American and Middle Eastern Politics

Research Skills

  • Spanish language fluency with translation experience
  • Arabic language study experience (including one-month intensive in Buraimi, Oman)
  • Survey design and administration
  • Experience contacting and interviewing national and local elected officials
  • Data analysis proficiency in R, STATA, and SPSS
  • Academic grant writing for research and travel funding

Research Projects

  • Lead Principal Investigator on The Local Council and Perceptions of Female Candidates

    Lead Principal Investigator on The Local Council and Perceptions of Female Candidates

    This study was conducted in two parts. The first was an extensive pilot study in December 2014 (around 300 respondents) and the second was the full-fielding of the study, conducted in the last weeks of April and the first week of May 2015 (475 respondents). Both used Qatar University students. The LPI attended all classes personally to complete the human subjects (IRB) requirements. Duties involved the theoretical design of the survey experiment, including all the instruments, contacting the professors, attending the classes, some data input and management, and all data analysis.

    This could be a full decription about the project

  • Co-Principal Investigator on the Political Section of the Qatar Quarterly Survey 5th and 6th Waves (telephone survey of Qatari households)

    Co-Principal Investigator on the Political Section of the Qatar Quarterly Survey 5th and 6th Waves (telephone survey of Qatari households)

    March and June 2015 fielding. Duties included developing the questionnaire, containing a conjoint design survey experiment related to candidate selection as well as monitoring the randomization and fielding process and analyzing the output data. Results of the 5th wave served as the basis for the SESRI public event held June 14th, 2015

  • Collaborating Research Assistant on Women in Government: An Experimental Study of Attitudes about Governing Ability Women in Government

    Collaborating Research Assistant on Women in Government: An Experimental Study of Attitudes about Governing Ability Women in Government

    with PI, Michelle M. Taylor-Robinson, Spring 2014 to present This gender attitudes field experiment was conducted in Costa Rica in the summer of 2014. Duties involved participation in editing and crafting experimental materials and administering the experiment under the supervision of the PI.

    This could be a full decription about the project

  • Co-Principal Investigator on the Project for Local Representation

    Co-Principal Investigator on the Project for Local Representation

    with Maria Escobar- Lemmon, Spring 2012 to 2014 This data collection project was created by Bethany Shockley to investigate the political attitudes and behaviors of mayors and council members in Ecuador. Responsibilities included: survey design, obtaining approval from the Institutional Review Board, grant writing, designing electronic versions of the survey, translating all materials into Spanish, international travel, the hiring, training, and supervision of three Ecuadorian research assistants, personal interviews with government officials in 45 localities, and data management and storage. Pre-fieldwork survey testing and language analysis were conducted during July of 2012 and fieldwork from February through April of 2013.

    This could be a full decription about the project