The Centennial Center typically accepts applications for its three Winter Grants during between October and January. All APSA members are eligible to submit a project proposal online via the Centennial Center’s website. All proposals are reviewed by two APSA members—typically tenured faculty or senior Political Scientists working outside of the academy—recruited as judges by the Centennial Center staff, and the staff uses these reviews to guide its decisions on grant awards.
Growing Democracy
Project Title: “Misinformation, Vaccination, and the Role of Community-Based Organizations in a Republican Leaning Ethnic Minority Community.”
Amount: $9,700
Proposed Timeline: June 2022 – June 2023
Project Leads: Dr. Tuong Vu (University of Oregon); Dr. Y Thien Nguyen (University of Oregon)
Abstract: This project examines the role of community-based organizations in fighting against misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines. Our project focuses on the Vietnamese American community in Orange County, CA, an ethnic community long known to be Republican leaning but has very high vaccination rates. We partner with BPSOS-Center for Community Advancement (BPSOS-CCA), a Vietnamese American community organization centrally located in the heart of Orange County’s “Little Saigon.” BPSOS-CCA has served the Vietnamese American community for more than two decades. Our partnership will try to help BPSOS-CCA better engage with its community and encourage community members to participate in the democratic process. We hope to develop new approaches to serve community members more effectively. Additionally, the project will examine whether the party identification is connected to vaccine acceptance, the importance of community-based organizations in fighting misinformation, and how these efforts can impact the health of individuals in minority communities in the US.
Project Title: “Scholar Speak: An Academic/Community Scholar Forum”
Amount: $10,000
Proposed Timeline: Fall 2022 – Spring 2023
Project Leads: Dr. Ashley C.J. Fields (Black Girls Vote); Dr. Melissa R. Michelson (Menlo College); Nykidra Robinson (Black Girls Vote)
Abstract: In 2020, Black Girls Vote (BGV) and Menlo College initiated a successful working relationship for the Party at the Mailbox effort. This relationship spawned several positive outcomes in forging new get-out-the-vote (GOTV) research in political science, providing data for use in seeking additional funding to sustain the program, and supporting GOTV efforts in minority communities. Following this success, Black Girls Vote and Menlo College would like to host two workshop forums to share how the BGV and Menlo College dynamic works with 20 local academics and community leaders in the Baltimore area and how they can replicate this model. In these forums, we categorize the groups as two sets of scholars—academic scholars and community scholars. The forums will foster open dialogue between the groups for a better understanding of how they can help each other in the shared vision of empowering citizens, particularly Black women, to fully leverage their political power for positive change in their communities.
Peer-to-Peer Pedagogical Partnership (P4)
Project Title: “The Missouri Project for Shared Instructional Resources for Introductory Courses”
Amount: $35,000
Proposed Timeline: March 2022 – August 2022
Project Leads: Dr. James Endersby (University of Missouri, Columbia); Dr. John Messmer (St. Louis Community College); Dr. Nicole Foster Shoaf (Missouri State Southern University)
Abstract: This project proposes coordinating efforts among political science instructors and programs at the University of Missouri—Columbia (MU) and other public universities within the state of Missouri. The principal investigators will recruit representatives from other colleges and universities throughout the state for joint meetings on teaching, primarily for introductory political science courses taken within a student’s first two years. A particular emphasis will be on the introductory American Government course offered at all institutions due to state legislative mandate for all students to have a course on the American and Missouri Constitutions. Moreover, special efforts will be made to attract schools with a substantial number of students who come from first generation, disadvantaged, and under-represented minorities. An in-person meeting of delegates from these schools will be held in Columbia, Missouri, for a full day in late May or early June 2022. Selected presenters will discuss common efforts to motivate students and to improve instructional delivery. Attendees with discuss what resources and teaching strategies are likely to improve teaching performance. Following the meeting, in the summer and fall, these resources and description of strategies will be distributed (to attendees and their colleagues), maintained, and updated.
Research Partnerships on Critical Issues (RPCI)
Project Title: “Improving Bifocal Governance: A Comparative Assessment of Authoritarian/Democratic Regime Capacities to Manage the Short-Range Crises and Long-Range Goal Fulfillments Associated With Meeting the Imperatives of Climate Change”
Amount: $14,000
Proposed Timeline: April 2022 – November 2022
Project Leads: Dr. Michael Cornfield (The George Washington University); Luis Matos (The George Washington University); Mary Crannell (Idea Sciences); Dr. Natalia Dinello (The George Washington University); Dr. Ximena Hartsock (Phone2Action); Dr. Christopher C. Hull (Issue Management Incorporated); Roberto Izurieta (The George Washington University); Dr. Mauricio Moura (IDIEA Big Data); Dr. Meagan O’Neill (University of Maryland).
Abstract: The Bifocal Governance Project will compare the capacity of national governments to formulate and implement policies about climate change. The project is entitled "Bifocal Governance" because climate change presents both immediate and long-range challenges which sometimes involve difficult trade-offs. Today’s headlines offer a convenient example: should policymakers cut gas taxes to help citizens cope with inflationary prices, or increase them to reduce carbon emissions? Our team of political scientists, academics with other specialties, and political practitioners from five Western Hemisphere nations will pay special attention to the type of regime operating in the countries under study. Officials in democracies find it hard to look beyond the next election, especially when power is closely divided between parties. Officials in authoritarian regimes don’t have to be as sensitive to activists and voters, but suffer from rigidity, corruption, and lack of innovation. Our project’s end product will be a simulation game that citizens, businesses, and officials can play to learn about the short- and long-range consequences of their decisions. Game players’ decisions will be evaluated against a data-driven model that will estimate those consequences. And by varying the rules of the game according to how democratic or authoritarian a "home" nation is, we can answer the research question of how well each type of system can handle bifocal governance dilemmas. ■
