Victor M. Olivieri - Junior Fellows - University of Florida

Junior Fellows Program

The Junior Fellows Program provides meaningful research experience, insight into the profession of Political Science, and the ability to work closely with a faculty member or an advanced (ABD) graduate student in their current research project. The program is designed for advanced juniors and seniors wishing to gain the experience that will prepare them to succeed in their senior thesis work and/or stand out as they apply for research opportunities and advanced degrees. Junior Fellows will have a hands-on experience with the innovative research performed at the Department of Political Science and gain valuable professional insight by working closely with their supervisor on a weekly-basis, attending a seminar series exploring the diversity of methods and approaches, and participating in a capstone research presentation workshop. Students register for POS 4911 and receive credit as outlined in the Program Overview.

Matching Junior Fellows with Faculty and Advanced Graduate Students

The Junior Fellows program is highly competitive. The Program Director will assign Junior Fellows according to Faculty nominations and the needs of the projects, but not all projects or Junior Fellows are guaranteed to be matched unless nominated directly by a faculty member. Faculty and advanced graduate students (ABD) are encouraged to identify and recruit prospective Junior Fellows from their own classroom experiences, or voice their interest in working with a Junior Fellow from the open pool of applicants by providing the Program Director the open pool request. Junior Fellow applicants from the open pool will be chosen and assigned based on merit and fit with the research projects available that semester. Prospective Junior Fellows should apply to the program directly by following the guidance contained in the program documents below.

Please see the bottom of this page for all necessary documentation.

Program Deadlines:

April 1st for the following Fall semester

November 1st for the following Spring semester

Ongoing Faculty/ABD Research Projects Available

Prof. Schwartz needs a Junior Fellow to assist her research of the role of environmental advocacy groups in Everglades politics. The Florida Everglades is currently the site of the largest and most expensive ecosystem-restoration program in world history. Once the world's largest wetland ecosystem, the Everglades was radically transformed in the mid-1950s-70s through construction of the world's largest drainage and flood control system. Over the past decade, in an effort to bolster south Florida's dwindling water supply, rescue endangered natural habitats, and mitigate the impacts of climate change, the state and federal governments have pledged billions for a set of massive re-engineering projects. Prof. Schwartz's research will study the political challenges that have plagued this effort, including a number of decades-old lawsuits and the ongoing competition between the biophysical needs of the natural system and the entrenched interests of human stakeholders.

Prof. Hozic is currently working with her Junior Fellow on a project analyzing the relationship between (un)employment trends for men and women in OECD countries before and during the financial crisis, to include policy proposals disproportionately affecting women. The task is more complicated than it seems since neither side of this equation is self-evident – women (un)employment data often hide a host of informal economic activities performed by women and policy proposals, at least in democracies, rarely explicitly target any segment of the population. And yet, it is well known that, for example, cuts in education funding or in the care for elderly may place an increased burden on women (forcing them out of the workforce at times, as they become primary caregivers).

Prof. Martinez is currently working with his Junior Fellow on a project that simulates voter wait lines under varying conditions to show the distributions of voter wait times, with a focus on the effect of adding a single station at peak arrival times on reducing voter wait times, to estimate the effects that these allocations of resources might make on voter turnout. The 2012 presidential election showed, once again, that many voters endured very long lines to cast their ballots, but the existing literature also suggests that long wait times can be a significant disincentive for some citizens to cast a ballot. While most studies of electoral turnout focus the effects of political institutions, mobilization, electoral laws, and individuals’ predispositions, scholars are also beginning to examine election logistics that can affect voter wait times. They propose to extend that literature by discussing the standard application of queueing theory in mathematics modeling to voting wait times to predict wait times in a variety of settings such as retail stores, movement of traffic, telephone exchanges, internet traffic, and hospital emergency rooms. Based on predetermined parameters, queueing theory predicts distributions of wait times that enable managers to best allocate their labor and technical resources to achieve optimal service for shoppers, patients, and in our case, voters.

Prof. Kreppel is working with her Junior Fellows on a research project that analyzes the agenda setting power of the Commission of the European Union. Although officially the Commission is the only institution that can formally initiate legislation, there have been no across-time "large-N" analyses of the actual impact that the Commission has in terms of the actual policy output. To what extent to those policy initiatives favored by the Commission actually make it on to the legislative calendar and how many ultimately are adopted. Does the policy sector or the legislative procedure influence Commission success rates? This project traces the policy priorities of the Commission as presented in their annual work programmes between 2000 and 2010. This information is then compared to the actual legislative output of the EU to determine to what extent the policy priorities of the Commission actually shape the legislative output of the EU.

Prof. Woods
Details forthcoming

Prof. Rosenson
Details forthcoming

Prof. Ben Smith
Details forthcoming

Prof. Sjoberg
Details forthcoming

Prof. Selden
Details forthcoming

Prof. Wald
Details forthcoming

Nic Knowlton is studying the trajectories of democracy in Africa and is specifically looking at the political histories of Zambia and Kenya to assess the legacies of democratic experiments in establishing lasting democracies.

Mauro Caraccioli is studying the social and economic legacies from Spanish colonial society on contemporary practices by analyzing the naratives, representation, and official documents converning nature, indigenous communities and varieties of economic value.

Will Hicks
Details forthcoming

* Please feel free to contact the individuals listed above and browse the faculty departmental webpages to get further information about the ongoing research

Spring 2013 Junior Fellows

Melanie Miller
Corrado Minardi
Alenandra Chopenko
Sami Alsawaf
Joshua Krusell
Ana Medina
Michelle Asuncion
Devin Barrett
Garrett Dodd
Jason McKibben

These stellar students represent:

Wide range of campus leadership positions and public service

Internships in State Representative and US Senator offices

Multiple honors societies

Seven languages and four regional specializations

Proficiency in various statistical programs

Most of them are looking to attend graduate school in Political Science or a closely-related MA field of specialization. They will be working closely with Professors Sjoberg, Smith, Kreppel, Selden, Bernhard, Rosenson, Hozic, Moraski, Scicchitano and some advanced (ABD) Graduate Students.

Previous Junior Fellows

Fall 2012:
Laura Daley, Marielena Dias, Bryce Freeman, Alexandra Hoffman, Naveed Jazayeri, Alexa Lipke, Adriana Madrazo, Joshua Vadeboncoeur, Robert Wilson.

Spring 2013:
Victoria Dokken, Noah Smith, Christian Chessman, Rachel McDonald, Natalie Yello, Jose Perez, Eliona Jankulla, Daniel Sibol, Alexandra Dehelean, Andrea Powell, Kimberly Greenplate, Dillon Clancy, Jacquelin Johnson.

JF Updates:

Alexa Lipke was admitted (early decision) to the International Peace & Security Institute in Bologna, Italy, where she will be participating in the summer Symposium on Conflict Prevention, Resolution, and Reconciliation. For more information, please see www.IPSInstitute.org

Naveed Jazayeri will be attending the Midwest Political Science Conference with his supervisor, Professor Sjoberg, to present present a paper on their project together. Subsequently, he will be working as legislative intern in Washington D.C. for Senator Bill Nelson during Summer A and traveling to Europe to complete the UF in Cambridge study abroad program during Summer B.

If you are a former or current Junior Fellow who would like to share their recent accomplishments, please feel free to email the Program Director.

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