Students Showcase Research at Conferences

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Public Policy Ph.D. students were active researchers this past year, presenting their work at regional and national meetings on a wide range of topics. JoEllen Pope and Kristine Canales were invited to present their collaborative research “Recovering Public Opinions from Social Media Data in the Wake of Catastrophic Natural Disasters: Blame and Hurricane Sandy” at a focused multi-day conference-within-a -conference on Disaster, Emergency, and Politics during the Southern Political Science Association Meetings in New Orleans in January. The conference drew top scholars in field of disaster policy to present their most recent research addressing complex challenges in governance and disaster response.

In the fall, fourth year student Katelin Hudak, took the lead in presenting a collaborative research paper on health policy titled “Nutrition and Health among Low-income Children: Estimating the Association with SNAP using a Quasi-Experimental Approach” at the national meetings of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. Katelin drew upon the program’s strong methods training to develop rigorous empirical tests to assess the causal effects of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) on health outcomes of children. APPAM’s annual conference brings together national and international scholars from multiple disciplines to present high-quality research on current and emerging public policy issues.

In the field of education policy, Mauricio Quinones-Dominguez presented his research “The Middle Class, Education, and their Relationship with Socio-Economic Mobility in Colombia” in a poster at the Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) annual meeting which with the theme Problematizing Inequality. This annual meeting attracts over three thousand researchers, scholars and policy makers from around the globe to share cutting-edge research on education and education policy.

Congratulations to Faith Butta for winning the Best Graduate Paper Award for her paper “Life after the uniform: Women veterans and voter turnout in presidential elections” presented at the North Carolina Political Science Association Meetings in 2017! The NCPSA draws students and faculty from universities throughout the Carolinas and nearby states.

The Public Policy Program and the UNC Charlotte Graduate School provides support for student travel to conferences. Below is a list of some of the recent conference presentations by our students.

Faith Butta 2017. “Life after the uniform: Women veterans and voter turnout in presidential elections” presented at the North Carolina Political Science Association Meetings in 2017

Cai, Tengteng, and Yang Cao. (2017, September). “News Competition in the Internet Era: Understanding Media Trust in China”. 2017 APSA (American Political Science Association) Annual Meeting (Poster Presentation)

Canales, Kristine, JoEllen Pope, Cherie Maestas. “Who gets the blame in catastrophic natural disasters?” Poster presentation at the Fall 2017 Conference of the Association of Public Policy and Management (APPAM), November 2-4, 2017

Canales, Kristine, JoEllen Pope, Cherie Maestas. “Recovering Public Opinions from Social Media Data in the Wake of Catastrophic Natural Disasters: Blame and Hurricane Sandy” Southern Political Science Association conference (SPSA) Conference within a Conference Disaster, Emergency, and Politics, January 4-6, 2018on

Canales, Kristine, Cherie Maestas, Martha Kropf, and Suzanne Leland “Are community amenities substitutes for local public services in residential choices? Revisiting the Micro-foundations of the Tiebout sorting model “Paper presented at the Southern Political Science Association conference (SPSA), January 4-6, 2018

Davalos, Eleonora* “Is there a balloon effect? Coca crops and forced eradication in Colombia” North American Meeting of the Regional Science Association International, Vancouver November 8-11.

Hudak, KM, Racine EF, Schulkind L, Zillante A. Nutrition and Health among Low-income Children: Estimating the Association with SNAP using a Quasi-Experimental Approach. Panel Paper. Association for Public Policy Analysis & Management. Chicago, IL.

Kropf, Martha, Mohr, Zachary, Pope, JoEllen and Mary Jo Shepherd.* “Administrative Capacity: The Case of Election Administration in North Carolina.” Paper submitted to The Carolinas Conference: 2017 Joint Meeting of The North Carolina Political Science Association & South Carolina Political Science Association, March 4, 2017.

Kropf, Martha, Mohr, Zachary, Pope, JoEllen and Mary Jo Shepherd.* “How Do County Budgets Affect Administrative Capacity and Election Outcomes? Evidence from North Carolina.” Paper submitted to the 2017 Southern Political Science Association Meeting, January 14, 2017.

McShane, Chuck “Economic Trends in the U.S. Micropolitan Areas” Applied Geography Conference, Port Canaveral, Florida, November 14, 2017

Mohr, Zachary, Pope, JoEllen, Kropf, Martha, and Mary Jo Shepherd.* “Election Administration Financing and Its Determinants in North Carolina Counties.” Paper presented at the 2017 Southern Political Science Association Meeting, January 2018.

Pope, JoEllen, and Suzanne Leland. “Isn’t a Flood a “Rainy Day? Does the Political Nature of Disasters Impact the Use of States’ Rainy Day Funds?” Conference-within-a-Conference – Disaster, Emergency, and Politics. Paper presented at the 2017 Southern Political Science Association Meeting, January 2018.

Quinones-Dominguez, Mauricio 2017 “The Middle Class, Education, and their Relationship with Socio-Economic Mobility in Colombia” poster presentation, Comparative and International Education Society (CIES) Annual Meeting.

*Program Alumnus