The following FSU graduate students are currently seeking academic positions:
Alexandra Artiles
Alexandra is a Ph.D. Candidate at Florida State University and former Fulbright Scholar at the University of Ottawa. Her research focuses on public policy, state politics, and federalism through the lens of elite surveys and experimental methods. Her dissertation examines the conditions under which local officials oppose and resist state preemption by fielding three original survey experiments based on a representative sample of local officials in the U.S. and Canada. She finds that local officials are substantially more opposed to preemption when it is done by an out-party state government. Moreover, local officials are more likely to resist preemption – taking steps to litigate, skirt compliance, file a grievance, or advocate for increased autonomy – when it is done by an out-party state government. She has published in PS: Political Science & Politics, Publius: The Journal of Federalism, Educational Policy, and Federalism During COVID-19: A Comparative Perspective. She has three additional papers under review, including a revise and resubmit at State Politics & Policy Quarterly. She has received over $60,000 in grants to support her research and has mentored several undergraduate students in research capacities. She teaches Introduction to American Government, Introduction to Public Policy, Public Policy Analysis, and Health Services Organization and Policy.
Zachary Houser
Broadly, Zach’s research is in international political economy, U.S. foreign policy, and the domestic politics of international relations. More specifically, his research answers questions that fall into two main themes: 1) understanding what drives public support for foreign aid provisions and 2) understanding how donor nations use foreign aid to achieve domestic and foreign policy objectives. His first dissertation chapter, which is under review, uses an instrumental variable to demonstrate how China has used foreign aid to induce other nations to invest in the renminbi. His second dissertation chapter uses a temporal exponential random graph model to ascertain how aid-for-policy deals from multiple donor nations to the same recipient state impact the amount of foreign aid a country receives. In his third chapter, he fields an original conjoint survey experiment to ascertain what drives public support for foreign aid. He has a coauthored paper under review that uses an original survey experiment to show how status considerations influence support for foreign aid spending. He also has a teaching paper under review on an original active learning simulation that he developed. He was the graduate student teacher of the year and has taught American Foreign policy, International Organizations, and American Government.
Giulia Venturini
Giulia’s research area is Comparative Political Economy with a specialization in quantitative methodology and a substantive focus on gender and politics. Her dissertation investigates how parties nominate candidates based on their gender and experience and how that affects minority representation in legislatures. She develops an original model that formalizes how parties negotiate strategies that trade-off experienced candidates for diversity. She then examines whether the parties’ strategic incentives might be strong enough to prioritize their preferences, even when they are not aligned with the voters. She argues that some institutions, such as gender quotas, make these tradeoffs more salient, even leading parties to reduce their diversity efforts. She examines her propositions with two empirical tests: a dynamic panel data analysis using an original dataset with newly collected fine-grained data she assembled of all legislative party lists in Italy from 1993 to 2022 to examine whether and how parties modify their candidate selection strategies based on the type of electoral rule and the presence of a quota, which was introduced during this time period. Second, she runs both an original incentivized laboratory experiment and an original survey experiment replicating these strategic dynamics. Besides her dissertation, she is completing several projects, both independently and with colleagues, both in the topics of comparative political economy and gender and politics.
Dissertation committee: Christopher Reenock (Co-Chair), Jens Großer (Co-Chair), Amanda Driscoll, Deana Rohlinger, Ana Catalano Weeks (Uni of Bath).
Weifang Xu
Weifang is an international security scholar conducting cutting-edge empirical research on interstate conflict and diplomacy, with a particular focus on policy-relevant studies. Motivated by this research agenda, he employs experimental and computational social science methods to explore conflict escalation and de- escalation dynamics, particularly in the context of U.S.-China great power competition. His work has been published or is forthcoming in top political science journals including Journal of Conflict Resolution (JCR), the Journal of Experimental Political Science (JEPS), Political Science Research and Methods (PSRM), and Research & Politics (P&R). Additionally, I also have an R&R at International Studies Quarterly (ISQ). Over the last three years, he has secured over 110,000 USD in research grants.
Publications
Weifang Xu. “Pride and Prejudice: The Dual Effect of Wolf-Warrior Diplomacy on Domestic and International Audiences.” Journal of Conflict Resolution 0 (0) (2024): https://doi.org/10.1177/00220027241276250.
Weifang Xu, Taylor Chewning, and Qing Wang. “We Only Care What You Do, Not Who You Are – Reexamining Human Rights and Public Support for War” Forthcoming at Journal of Experimental Political Science.
Eddy Yeung and Weifang Xu. “Do External Threats Depolarize Americans? An Experimental Test in the Shadow of China’s Rise.” Forthcoming at Political Science Research and Methods.
Weifang Xu, Kai Quek, and Mark Souva. “Reneging on Alliances: Experimental Evidence.” Research & Politics 10(3) (2023): https://doi.org/10.1177/20531680231203808
Working paper
Guan Wang and Weifang Xu. “Bipartisanship in the Shadow of China: The Effect of External Threats on Internal Unity in the US Congress.” Revised and resubmitted at International Studies Quarterly.