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Department of Government
Newsletter
January 2017
A Letter from the Chair
Dear alumni of Harvard’s Government Department, You hold in your (virtual) hands the first semi-annual newsletter from the Government Department, which I hope you will find interesting and informative. Our goal with this innovation is to develop stronger and more consistent relationships with our many Ph.D. alumni, who have fascinating jobs all over the world but who (we hope) retain a sense of connection with Harvard and the Government Department. The newsletter contains announcements of faculty accomplishments and awards, departmental events, and current or recent PhD student activities. Be sure to check out the video of the annual Christmas skit, produced by our multi-talented G2s. I’d be delighted to hear from you – comments and responses? Other types of information that you’d like to see in a newsletter? Suggestions for the graduate program? Whatever… Please feel free to reach me at [email protected] Thanks, and best wishes, Jennifer
Jennifer L. Hochschild
Harvard University
Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government, and
Professor of African and African American Studies
Immediate Past President, American Political Science Association
Chair, Government Department
Government Department
CGIS: 1737 Cambridge Street
Cambridge MA 02138
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List of Faculty Honors and Activities
Allen, Danielle
University Professor of Government
Renowned political philosopher Danielle Allen
has been named a University Professor,
Harvard's highest faculty honor.
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/11/
danielle-allen-named-university-
professor/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_mediu
m=email&utm_campaign=hag&utm_content=ud
o_all_alumni_2016-12-02
Bates, Bob
Eaton Professor of the Science of Government
o Book selected for Canto Series -- fifty best books published -- by Cambridge University Press
o Inducted into National Academy of Sciences
o Featured biographical essay, Annual Review of Political Science
Blackwell, Matt
Assistant Professor
The paper "The Political Legacy of American
Slavery" (with Avidit Acharya and Maya Sen) was
awarded the Joseph L. Bernd Best JOP Paper
Award for 2016 by the Southern Political Science
Association
Cammett, Melanie
Professor of Government
o 2015 Giovanni Sartori Book Prize,
APSA Section on Qualitative and
Multi-Method Research
o 2015 Honorable Mention, Gregory
Luebbert Book Prize, APSA Section on
Comparative Politics
o 2015 Honorable Mention,
Outstanding Book in Nonprofit and
Voluntary Action Research of the
Association for Research on
Nonprofit Organizations and
Voluntary Action (ARNOVA)
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Carpenter, Dan
Freed Professor of Government
o Chosen as the Julius Rothbaum
Distinguished Lecturer at the University
of Oklahoma in 2017. Past lecturers
include James MacGregor Burns, Richard
Fenno, Morris Fiorina, Jennifer
Hochschild, Sam Huntington, Jack
Rakove, Theda Skocpol and Keith
Whittington.
o Mellon Foundation awarded Harvard a
grant, for which Dan serves as Principal
Investigator, for the creation of a Digital
Archive of Native American Petitions in
Massachusetts.
The Gazette ran a story on this grant earlier this year -- http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/02/a-hearing-for-pleas-to-right-wrongs/
Dominguez, Jorge
Antonio Madero Professor for the Study of
Mexico
o Invited plenary speaker at the annual meeting of the Mexican Political Science Association
o The Harvard Gazette – interview “Cuba
Under Fidel’s Long Shadow”
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/12/cuba-under-fidels-long-shadow/
Enos, Ryan
Associate Professor
o National Science Foundation (with Ken
Nakayama, Na Li, Krzysztof Gajos, Jeremy
Wilmer, Timothy Brady, Justin Junge)
“Collaborative Research: From
Knowledge Consumers to Knowledge
Providers: A Scalable Experiential
Learning Approach for Psychology and
Related Disciplines,” 2016
o Division of Social Science Tenure-Track
Manuscript Workshop Grant, 2016
o Princeton Center for the Study of
Democratic Politics (CSDP) Fellowship,
2016–2017 (declined)
o Tenure-Track Faculty Publication Grant,
2016: TESS: Time-sharing Experiments for
the Social Sciences (with Riley Carney),
2015: “Is Modern Racism Caused by Anti-
Black Affect? An Experimental
Investigation of the Attitudes Measured
by Modern Racism Scales” (research
subjects)
o Pershing Square Venture Fund for
Research on the Foundations of Human
Behavior, 2015: “Harvard Digital Lab for
the Social Sciences”
o Boston Area Research Initiative (with
Justin de Benedictis-Kessner, Michael
Hankinson, and Melissa Sands),
2015: “Stimulating and Measuring Civic
Engagement through the Introduction of
Unclaimed Property in Public Spaces”
o Clark Award, 2015
o Levenson Teaching Prize, finalist, 2015
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Hochschild, Jennifer
Henry LaBarre Jayne Professor of Government
and Professor of African and African American
Studies
Social Science Interview on Race in America in
Social Science Space
http://www.socialsciencespace.com/2016/12/jen
nifer-hochschild-race-america/
Iversen, Torben
Harold Hitchings Burbank Professor of Political
Economy
o Rigmor and Carl Holst-Knudsens Science
Prize (one of Denmark's oldest awards
conferred annually by the University of
Aarhus to honor two researchers, across
disciplines. It comes with a 100,000
kroner cash prize).
o The BP Centennial Professorship in the
Department of Government at the
London School of Economics for the
academic year 2016-17
Perry, Elizabeth J.
Henry Rosovsky Professor of Government;
Director, Harvard-Yenching Institute
o A three-year series of training
workshops in Chinese politics organized
by the Harvard-Yenching Institute for
advanced doctoral students and young
faculty members based at universities in
Asia. The first, focused on using
ethnographic and historical approaches
to study contemporary Chinese politics,
was held at Nanjing University in June
2015. The second, focused on using the
China case to generate broader
(empirical and normative) theories of
politics, was held at Sun Yat-sen
University in June 2016. The third,
focused on studying Chinese politics in
cross-national comparative perspective,
will be held at Fudan University in June
2017. Lecturers at these workshops have
included current and former members of
the Harvard Government Department:
Elizabeth Perry, Devesh Kapur, Prerna
Singh, Benjamin Read. Outstanding
graduates of the workshops are invited
to spend a year in residence at HYI,
working with faculty in Chinese politics at
Harvard and in the greater Boston area.
o Elected to the British Academy and will
receive an honorary doctorate from the
Hong Kong University of Science and
Technology in November.
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Peterson, Paul
Henry Lee Shattuck Professor of Government
Harvard Magazine - article entitled Post-
Regulatory School Reform
http://harvardmagazine.com/2016/09/post-
regulatory-school-reform
Pharr, Susan
Edwin O. Reischauer Professor of Japanese
Politics
Japan Foundation Award for 2016, which
recognizes individuals who through their artistic
contribution or scholarship, along with their
work in promoting intellectual and cultural
exchanges, contribute to building ties between
Japan and the rest of the world. Previous
awardees include Senator William Fulbright,
originator of the Fulbright Program; Boston
Symphony Orchestra conductor Seiji Ozawa; and
writer Haruki Murakami. Scholars who have
received the award include John Whitney Hall,
Yale; Ronald Dore, Imperial College; Arthur
Stockwin, Oxford; and Gerald Curtis, Columbia.
Four Harvard faculty previously have been
recipients: Serge Elisseeff (1973), founder of
Japanese studies at Harvard; Edwin O.
Reischauer(1975), University Professor and U.S.
Ambassador to Japan; Ezra Vogel, Sociology
(1996); and Akira Iriye, History (2013). The award
was presented by Japan’s Foreign Minister in a
ceremony in Tokyo in October.
Putnam, Bob
Peter and Isabel Malkin Professor of Public Policy
2016 Aaron Wildavsky Enduring Achievement
Award of the Public Policy Section of the
American Political Science Association for his
book, “Bowling Alone: The Collapse and Revival
of American Community”.
Rosenblum, Nancy
Senator Joseph S. Clark Professor of Ethics in
Politics and Government
o Harvard Magazine piece on Nancy and on
her book, "Good Neighbors".
http://harvardmagazine.com/2016/09/d
emocracy-of-everyday-life
o 2016 Everett Mendelsohn Excellence in
Mentoring Award recipient
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Sandel, Michael
Anne T. and Robert M. Bass Professor of
Government
o As an experiment using new technology
to promote global public discourse,
Michael's been working with the BBC to
launch a new series, "The Global
Philosopher." Using a high-tech studio
with a wall of 60 video screens, they
connect participants from around the
world to debate the ethical questions
underlying such issues as climate change,
immigration and the moral status of
national borders, and meritocracy. The
first three programs are available here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b07
5ft6f/clips
The Gazette -
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2
016/03/the-global-philosopher/
o The Harvard Gazette recently ran this
interview/profile, including a photo of
him in high school debating Ronald
Reagan, then Governor of California:
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2
016/04/people-want-politics-to-be-
about-big-things/
Shepsle, Ken
George D. Markham Professor of Government
Shepsle Festschrift Conference, London,
November 12th
A one day conference in honor of Ken Shepsle
on 'Political Economy, Formal Political Theory:
The last 50 years, the Next 50'. The conference
will survey the past and examine prospects for
the future of a. formal political theory, b. political
economy and c. political science.
http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/soc/economics/
events/2016/11/shepsle_festschrift_conference/
Sweeney, Latanya
Professor of Government and Technology in
Residence
New Currier House faculty dean appointment
The Harvard Gazette -
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/05/
new-faculty-deans-appointed/
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Skocpol, Theda R
Victor S. Thomas Professor of Government and Sociology Harvard University
Post-election analysis for Talking Points Memo of the Trump transition “The new research study -- launched by Kathy
Swartz (School of Public Health), Mary Waters
(Sociology), and me (Theda Skocpol,
Government) -- aims to track and make sense of
the playing out of policy and political shifts in
eight nonmetropolitan counties where voters
supported Trump in election 2016. We will track
developments in two counties in each of four
states, Pennsylvania, Ohio, North Carolina, and
Wisconsin, looking closely at changes in health
and social spending programs, employment and
jobs efforts, and other policies that impact local
populations and communities. Collecting a
combination of quantitative, interview, and
ethnographic data on citizens and local
institutions and businesses, we will examine, in
each state, one county with a small city and
another county that is less centered on even a
small city. The core idea is that such
nonmetropolitan areas tend to have older, less
prosperous residents, low-wage economies, and
health delivery institutions are often prominent
local employers and civic players. What happens
if and when big policy changes arrive? How do
people and local leaders understand those
changes and how do they react?
So far, we have a seed grant to get going from
the Wiener Center and have applied to the
Provost's Interfaculty fund and an outside source.
Students are eager to get involve. We will hire
both graduate RAs and undergraduates. Four
Government undergraduates are already in
process of joining the project (and some students
may end up responsible for helping us to track
developments in their home-town counties).
We expect to learn a lot from this unique effort, started quickly so as to establish a baseline for post January changes”. OP-ED link: Subject: Behind "Make America Great," the Koch Agenda Returns with a Vengeance http://talkingpointsmemo.com/cafe/behind-make-america-great-the-koch-agenda-returns-with-a-vengeance
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Snyder, Jim
Leroy B. Williams Professor of History and
Political Science
European Economic Association, announced that
his paper (co-authored with Riccardo Puglisi),
"The Balanced US Press", has been awarded the
2016 Hicks Tinbergen Award. This medal is
awarded once every even years to the authors of
an outstanding article published in the JEEA
during the two preceding years.The 2016 Hicks-
Tinbergen Award Committee, composed of Juuso
Valimaki (Chair), Rachel Griffith and Eliana La
Ferrra, has prepared the following motivation
statement:
"This paper proposes a novel methodology for
measuring ideological bias by newspapers. The
key insight is that ballot propositions can be used
to compare newspaper endorsements with the
ex-post votes received by the proposition at the
polls. Newspapers that disagree with a majority
of the voters on a proposition reveal to be to the
left or to the right of the median voter: if a
newspaper keeps endorsing left-wing issues that
lose at the polls, the newspaper is called left-
wing. By averaging over multiple propositions the
authors estimate an index of conservatism for
each newspaper. Their results contrast with
existing evidence that measured media bias by
locating newspapers relative to one another or to
politicians. While previous evidence had
suggested that newspapers exhibited a leftward
bias, the current paper finds that on average
newspapers are located at the median voter in
their states. Interestingly, differences emerge
across issues, with newspapers being more
liberal than voters on social issues, and more
conservative on economic issues. In addition to
the methodology and novel results, the paper
contributes to a literature in which JEEA has
published some very influential work, i.e., the
economics of the media".
Tingley, Dustin
Professor of Government
o American Political Science Association's
2016 Gladys M. Kammerer Award which
is awarded annually for the best book
published during the previous calendar
year in the field of U.S. national policy for
the book “Sailing the Water's Edge: The
Domestic Politics of American Foreign
Policy”.
o 2016 winners of Society for Political
Methodology Gosnell Prize for paper,
"Sparse Estimation with Uncertainty:
Subgroup Analysis in Large Dimensional
Designs." with Marc Ratkovic
o The Gosnell Prize for Excellence in
Political Methodology is awarded for the
best work in political methodology
presented at any political science
conference during the preceding year.
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Ziblatt, Daniel Professor of Government
o Below is a link to his interview on NPR
where he talks about his forthcoming
book and discusses historical analogies to
the election of Donald Trump -
http://www.wbur.org/hereandnow/2016
/12/07/trump-hitler-comparisons
o 2016 Summit on the Future of Europe
The Harvard Gazette’s article -
http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2
016/11/desperate-but-not-hopeless-
times/
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A Post-Election Panel of Faculty from the Government
Department
On November 29th Faculty from the Department of Government gathered to discuss what to expect in
Trump’s America:
Trump’s America: What’s Next?
https://spaces.hightail.com/receive/8rgAG
The Gazette: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2016/11/likely-policies-under-trump/
Participants: Danielle Allen, Jeffry Frieden, Claudine Gay, Jennifer Hochschild, Steven Levitsky, Eric
Nelson, Stephen Rosen
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Notes from Participants:
Levitsky, Steven R. (Professor of Government), Ziblatt, Daniel (Professor of Government)
New York Times article “Is Donald Trump a Threat to Democracy? “
http://www.nytimes.com/2016/12/16/opinion/sunday/is-donald-trump-a-threat-to-
democracy.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&clickSource=story-heading&module=opinion-c-col-right-
region®ion=opinion-c-col-right-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-right-region&_r=0
Frieden, Jeffry
Stanfield Professor of International Peace
Donald Trump’s campaign promises give us some idea of what to expect of his economic policies. The domestic measures he focused on in during the campaign, and which he has stressed since winning the election, include:
1. Substantial cuts to personal and corporate taxes
2. A freeze or cuts to Federal spending, except on the military and the elderly (Social Security and Medicare)
3. A substantial program of infrastructure development, totaling between half a trillion and a trillion dollars.
This will dramatically increase the Federal budget deficit, and provide a potentially substantial fiscal stimulus. Both the deficit increase and the stimulus are paradoxical. Republicans in Congress roundly criticized the Obama administration for budget deficits they regarded as excessive, and vigorously opposed attempts at a fiscal stimulus. However, Republicans in the legislature are likely to be more favorable to Republican deficits and a Republican stimulus. In addition, the electoral success of President-elect Trump seems to have convinced other Republican policymakers to fall into line behind his proposals.
Candidate Trump was also highly critical of Federal Reserve policy he regarded as too expansionary, railing against low interest rates that harmed savers. This, along with the fiscal expansion and the generally positive state of the economy, will undoubtedly lead the Fed to move in a more contractionary direction. The domestic economic-policy prospect, then, is for an expansionary fiscal policy and a more contractionary monetary policy. This is reminiscent of the first Reagan administration.
With respect to international economic policy, candidate Trump was open about his disdain for globalization, which he said “has made the financial elite who donate to politicians very, very wealthy...but it has left millions of our workers with nothing but poverty and heartache." He has threatened to impose an across-the-board 20 percent tariff on imports, and a 15 percent tax on overseas investment by American corporations. To be sure, these are only threats at this point. Nonetheless, the threats may be enough to accomplish at least some of President-elect Trump’s goals. Trading partners could be induced to exercise “voluntary” restraint on their exports; American CEOs may be much more reluctant to relocate production abroad.
There is a contradiction between the domestic and international components of President-elect Trump’s economic policies. The fiscal stimulus and increased budget deficit – especially if combined with tighter monetary policy – will lead to a substantial strengthening of the dollar. A stronger dollar will put important pressure on American firms competing with foreigners at home and abroad. This may heighten existing protectionist pressures. The contradictory effects of the Trump administration’s proposed economic policies are likely to present the administration with substantial challenges – challenges that will also affect the rest of the world.
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News from PhD Students and Alumni
Sheena Chestnut Greitens (PhD 2013) will become the first
lady of the state of Missouri on January 9th, 2017. As an IR-
Comparativist, she learned a lot about American politics from the
ground during a statewide campaign, and now looks forward to
applying her training to her new role, where she plans to work on
improving foster care and adoptive services and exploring the
intersection between state-level and international politics. Her first
book, “Dictators and their Secret Police: Coercive Institutions and
State Violence (Cambridge Studies in Contentious Politics)” based on
her dissertation, was published last year, and she continues to teach
and do research as an assistant professor at the University of
Missouri. She and Governor Greitens would be delighted to welcome
any Harvard Government alumni who happen to pass through
Missouri!
One of our current grad students, John Harpham, has been
selected as a Harvard Horizon Scholar for the 2017-18 academic year.
John was among eight PhD students whose ideas, innovations, and
insights have the potential to reshape their disciplines. These
students have been selected by the Harvard Horizons Faculty Fellows
as representatives of the high aspirations and the extraordinary
achievements of Harvard University’s PhD programs:
https://gsas.harvard.edu/news/stories/announcing-2017-horizons-
scholars
Molly Roberts’ (PhD 2014) dissertation won a number of
awards including 2015 APSA Division of Political Communication’s
Outstanding Dissertation Award, 2015 Richard J. Herrnstein Prize for
Dissertation, 2014 Edward M. Chase Prize.
She recently completed a virtual issue for Political Analysis, write up
in the Washington Post:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/monkey-
cage/wp/2016/05/27/heres-how-text-analysis-is-transforming-social-
science-research/.
She was named 30 top thinkers under 30 last year by Pacific
Standard: https://psmag.com/the-30-top-thinkers-under-30-the-coder-
studying-the-effects-of-government-propaganda-and-censorship-
2c0e9a43eae4?gi=c3235665a932
Her book based off of her dissertation is about the impact of
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censorship in China, provisionally titled: Rerouting the Masses: The
Powerful Impact of Porous Censorship in China. Her research with
Gary King and Jennifer Pan on China's 50 cent party was covered
broadly in the news media, see example here:
http://blogs.wsj.com/chinarealtime/2016/05/19/chinas-online-
propaganda-strategy-distract-and-conquer-new-study-says/
One of our current grad students, Stephen Pettigrew, in
addition to his research on American politics, has worked on a variety
of projects regarding sports analytics. This has allowed him to
collaborate on research with professional teams and to write
freelance pieces for media outlets like FiveThirtyEight and the Wall
Street Journal. Given the many parallels between sports and electoral
politics, which is his area of study, he has sought opportunities to
bridge the gap between these two research interests. Prior to last
summer's Olympics, he co-organized a conference called "Who Will
Win in Rio?" The event brought together political scientists,
statisticians, and economists whose work focuses on the political,
economic, and on-field factors that make a country successful at the
Olympic Games. If you're interested in reading more about his
research, please visit his website: stephenpettigrew.com
One of our current PhD students in political philosophy, Rory
Schacter, is teaching a year-long course “Ethics for Engineers” at
MIT. The course integrates classical readings that provide an
overview of ethics with a survey of case studies that focus on ethical
problems arising in the practice of engineering. Readings taken from a
variety of sources, such as Aristotle, Machiavelli, Bacon, Hobbes,
Locke, the Founding Fathers, and the Bible. Case studies include
written analyses and films that address engineering disasters,
biotechnology, court cases, ethical codes, and the ultimate scope and
aims of engineering.
On October 21st
– October 22nd
the Department of Government
hosted its 10th
Annual Graduate Conference in Political Theory. The
2016 program (as well as the prior years’ programs) can be viewed by
clicking on the link below
http://projects.iq.harvard.edu/politicaltheoryconference/past-programs
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Government Department Holiday Skit
The holiday skit is viewable and downloadable here: https://goo.gl/O0cM5d (password - holidayskit)