The public scholarship program is a remote fellowship that introduces political science graduate students to the intellectual and practical aspects of presenting academic scholarship to the public (https://connect.apsanet.org/centennialcenter/fellowships/public-scholarship-program/).
During the fellowship period, fellows focus on producing public-facing summaries of political science research. This involves communicating with journal editors and authors under the supervision of APSA staff. This work is shared via APSA’s blog, https://www.politicalsciencenow.com, as well as on APSA social media accounts.
The Public Scholarship Program was created in collaboration with the APSA Presidential Task Force for New Partnerships, and thanks to generous support from the Ivywood Foundation.
Our fellows write public-facing, accessible summaries of cutting-edge political science research published in the American Political Science Review. Recent articles covered include work on how new technologies have changed the way we track human rights violations and the effects of electoral quotas on minority populations. You can read all of our fellows’ posts at this link: https://politicalsciencenow.com/category/public-scholarship-program/.
KOMAL PREET KAUR
Komal Preet Kaur is a PhD candidate in the Department of Political Science, University of Colorado Boulder. Her research focuses on public policies and governance reforms aimed at reducing inequality. Specifically, she explores areas such as electoral quotas, property rights, and social policies. Her dissertation work, which investigates the impact of gender and ethnicity-based electoral quotas on group discrimination and electoral participation, has received the Carrie Chapman Catt Prize for Research on Women and Politics and a grant from the American Political Science Association’s Women, Gender, and Politics Research section. Her work has been published in Political Research Quarterly and Conservation Letters.
DIRCK DE KLEER
Dirck de Kleer is a PhD student in Social and Political Science at Bocconi University (Italy), where he studies political behavior and public opinion. His research focuses on understanding how citizens and politicians navigate the boundaries between moderate and extreme political attitudes and behaviors. In other work, he explores the implications of far-right parties in government. He holds an MA from Duke University, where he was a Fulbright graduate student (2018-2020).
IREM B. A. ÖRSEL
Irem B. A. Örsel is a PhD student in Political Science at Tulane University. She holds a bachelor’s in philosophy from Middle East Technical University (Turkey) and a master’s in political science from Eastern Illinois University. Her primary research interests are comparative political behavior, populism, judicial behavior, and computational social science methods. She focuses comparatively on Central and Eastern Europe, Middle East, and the United States of America. Irem is a first-generation student and an advocate of public service and public scholarship.
SAMANTHA CHAPA
Samantha Chapa is a PhD candidate at the University of Houston. Her National Science Foundation-funded research focuses broadly on the political rights and representation of migrants and people of color. Her dissertation examines the impacts of local, urban policies on immigrant and minoritized groups. Her work has been published in the British Journal of Political Science and East European Politics and Societies. Prior to graduate school, she worked at BakerRipley—a non-profit—for three years, where she engaged in immigrant legal defense work. She completed her bachelor’s in English and history at Rice University. ■
