Spotlight: Purdue PhD Program

Boiler Up! Celebrating Graduate Student and Alumni Success

The Purdue Political Science Department is proud to celebrate the accomplishments of our graduate students and alumni. From competitive fellowships and prestigious research grants to postdoctoral appointments and tenure-track positions, these achievements reflect the strength of our graduate program and the impact of our scholars' research. Congratulations to all!

Hanna Sistek has received a $15,000 grant from the Rapoport Family Foundation to support her dissertation research examining the causes and consequences of political disinformation by political elites. This award will provide valuable support for her research on an increasingly important issue in contemporary politics.

Kaleigh Karageorge has been selected for the Smithsonian Environmental Justice Fellowship, Envisioning a Shared and Sustainable Future. Through this fellowship, she will work on-site at the Anacostia Community Museum, drawing on the museum's research resources to advance her dissertation research.

Scovia Aweko was selected as a 2024 World Bank Africa Fellow. Previously, she worked as a Behavioral Research Intern at Rare's Center for Behavior and the Environment. Her research examines how external shocks shape political attitudes and behavior, with particular attention to the political consequences of civil war and displacement.

Catalina Vega-Mendez has been appointed a Pre-Doctoral Fellow at Florida International University's Green School of International and Public Affairs. She continues to develop her research on migration, public policy, and political attitudes and behavior in Latin America.

Qian (Habi) Zhang has been appointed the World Consortium Postdoctoral Fellow at the Hamilton Center at the University of Florida. Previously, she served as a Postdoctoral Research Associate with the James Madison Program at Princeton University. A comparativist, her research explores totalitarianism, mass movements, ideology, propaganda, and Chinese politics.

Dr. Janel Jett has joined the University of Oregon as a tenure-track Assistant Professor of Political Science. Before beginning her appointment, she held an NCEC Sloan Foundation Postdoctoral Research Scholar fellowship with the New Carbon Economy Consortium at the University of Missouri's Harry S. Truman School of Government and Public Affairs and Social Cognition of Social Change Lab.

Dr. Jett credits her academic preparation at Purdue with helping establish the foundation for her career. She highlights the department's research funding support, opportunities to participate in external programs such as IQMR and ICPSR, and collaborations with graduate students and faculty across multiple departments.

Her success also reflects the lasting research partnerships developed during graduate school. Dr. Jett and former Purdue graduate colleague Dr. Amber Lusvardi (Ph.D. 2022) collaborated with Dr. Jenn Hoewe and Dr. Eric Weimer of Purdue's Brian Lamb School of Communication on the article "Selection, Trust, and the Effects of Cable News Consumption", published in Journalism & Mass Communication Quarterly.

Reflecting on the importance of these relationships, Dr. Jett notes that graduate school plays a crucial role in building enduring collaborations that continue to shape her professional journey.

Best Dissertation Awards

Dr. Jasmin Jackson (Ph.D. 2022), Assistant Professor at Texas Christian University, received the Western Political Science Association's Best Dissertation Award for her dissertation, The Knowledge Within: Conceptualizing African American Political Knowledge. Dr. Jackson's work also received the Purdue College of Liberal Arts Distinguished Dissertation Award.

More Student Spotlights

Sky Kunkel has been busy! After receiving their Ph.D. in 2024, Sky moved into a Postdoctoral Fellow position at the Gender and Security Sector (GSS) Lab at Cornell University. In 2023–24, they held a predoctoral research fellowship at the GSS Lab and were selected as a United States Institute of Peace (USIP) Scholar. Sky's research focuses on the intersection of security and non-state actors, particularly evaluating how, when, and where United Nations peacekeepers effectively protect civilians. Kunkel applies advanced methods of causal inference to uncover the effects of non-state actors on violence. They have presented their work at the Political Methodology Meetings, ISA, Peace Science, and other conferences. Kunkel recently presented "Who Keeps the Peace? Gendered Effects in UN Peacekeeping" at a September 25, 2023, Political Science Research Workshop. This work suggests that women peacekeepers play an important role in maintaining peace.

One Ph.D. is not enough for Owura Kuffour, who is pursuing doctoral degrees in both Political Science and Education. He is a regular recipient of the department's award recognizing graduate students who publish peer-reviewed research. He is continuing that success with a recent collaborative publication, "International Remittances and Political Participation in Ghana," in Scientific African. We are always pleased to see faculty and graduate students publishing open-access, peer-reviewed research! Kuffour also contributed to a collaborative publication in PS: Political Science & Politics. In the article, he discusses how participating in an undergraduate research lab helped prepare him for the next steps in his academic career. The article, "Undergraduate and Political Science Research: Insights from Research Assistants in a Minority-Serving Institution Lab," is open access and offers valuable perspectives on undergraduate research experiences.