Congratulations to our 2024 Graduate Fellows! These fellowships are available thanks to the generosity of Scott and Betty Lukins, Alice O. Rice, and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Foundation.
Each year the institute awards research fellowships to graduate students working on important public policy questions. These fellowships are available thanks to the generosity of Scott and Betty Lukins, Alice O. Rice, and the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railway Foundation.
Foley fellowships are awarded annually to graduate students who fulfill at least one of the following criteria:
- Conduct research in the area of just and sustainable societies and policies
- Seek to enhance their public policy research skills and pursue a research agenda focusing on major policy issues
- Conduct research in the area of political institutions and democracy.
This year we awarded five summer fellowships.
Yin-Ru Chen’s (political science) research examines how gender mainstreaming (GM), an initiative launched by the United Nations in 1995, has been implemented in Taiwan. Using a mixed-methods approach, she analyzes the GM program from both macro- and micro-level perspectives, revealing that the design of the GM program and its instruments play crucial roles in shaping implementation success and challenges.
Anna Ivanova (political science) researches the changing dynamics of Arctic governance by tracking who attends Arctic Council meetings and how that participation has evolved over time. Her project resulted in a new dataset covering over two decades of meeting records (1996–2025), documenting the presence of member states, permanent participants, and observer states across ministerial meetings, working groups, and task forces, and reveals a growing role for non-Arctic actors in regional governance.
Christian Maynard’s (sociology) research examines the effect of cannabis legalization on adolescent behavior and attitudes. His work emphasizes differences in use, by consumption techniques (edible, smoke, vape) among adolescents, and explores granular policy provisions (e.g., dispensaries sales, duration of legalization) to identify trends in reported availability and perceived risk towards cannabis.
Sreya Mukherjee’s (history) research conducted in the Willard Archives explores the socio-cultural and medical discourses surrounding alcohol consumption in late 19th and early 20th century colonial India, focusing on the work of the Bengal branch of the Women’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU). The WCTU played a key role in shaping public perceptions of liquor through vernacular temperance literature, periodicals, and reports. Her work analyzes the integral role women played in expanding the sway of temperance struggles and its impact on broader social issues, civic responsibility, and moral expectations.
Sydney Smith’s (political science) research project examined how the rise of anti-gender movements in Europe has led to significant resistance to the ratification of the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention, a treaty aimed at preventing and combating violence against women, in Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Her comparative case study and process tracing investigates how critical actors—including political parties, anti-gender activists, and public discourse—have shaped opposition to the Convention.