What attracted you to UGA?
GS: Many things! Athens is a desirable location and UGA has a great reputation as an institution committed to strong teaching and research. 快猫短视频 in particular is on an excellent trajectory and political science is building out their expertise in political behavior, which is what I study. The opportunity to be a part of building that area is really exciting.

What are you working on that you’re most excited about?
GS: Lots of projects. There are a couple of that stand out at the moment though. The first examines how much weight people place on different dimensions of public policies when deciding whether they support or oppose them. For instance, do people judge policies based on who they think benefits from the policy vs. the mechanism used to implement the policy, like cutting taxes.

The other project that I鈥檓 just starting on is a collaborative effort that looks at the content of people鈥檚 beliefs about voter fraud. We allow people to give in-depth open-ended responses after being asked to tell us what they think defines voter fraud. My collaborator and I think we are going to find a lot of depth here, including evidence that people have pretty diverse views about what voter fraud means.

What was your favorite part of your college experience?
GS: Being a part of a diverse community. I was able to grow with a cohort of other students from a variety of backgrounds.

Please tell us about your research interests.
GS: I study American politics and political psychology. In particular, my research examines how people make political decisions and the sources of their beliefs about politics. I also study political parties and polarization.

How do you like to spend your time when you’re not working?
GS: I have an 18-month old son, so most of my free time is spent trying to keep up with him. Otherwise, I enjoy cooking and hiking. I鈥檓 looking forward to exploring outdoor areas around Athens and in Georgia more broadly.

What is your favorite food?
GS: It鈥檚 very hard to pick just one. I really enjoy Vietnamese food, especially Pho.

What do you consider your greatest accomplishment?
GS: It will sound pretty cheesy, but I鈥檓 proud of my son. His growth is due to many people and I鈥檓 happy to have contributed!

If you could have one superpower, what would it be?
GS: Flight. Anything to avoid waiting for a plane at the airport.

What advice do you have for 快猫短视频 students?
GS: Explore. Take courses that sound interesting to you. Study abroad. Join student organizations. Complete an internship. College is a great opportunity explore your interests and to find out what really drives you.

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Dr. Crepaz was asked by Polity, a University of Chicago Press journal, to write an article as part of a symposium about Wiarda鈥檚 impact. 鈥淗e was a very influential academic, there鈥檚 no question about it.鈥� Crepaz鈥檚 article focuses specifically on Wiarda鈥檚 impact on the study of what is called neo-corporatism, which explores the relationships between labor, employer鈥檚 organizations, and the state in modern, industrialized democracies.

Wiarda conducted research by traveling to countries, interviewing a range of people such as politicians, journalists, taxi drivers and anybody else who was willing to answer his questions, and thus, attained a keen sense of the time and place of his research subjects. As Crepaz states, 鈥淲iarda was a researcher of the old school. However, his political culture perspective became eclipsed by a new approach that applied a more individualistic reasoning to the study of modern, industrialized democracies by the turn of the millennium.鈥� As a result, Wiarda鈥檚 inductive, qualitative approach to conducting social science with a strong emphasis on political culture research fell out of fashion and was replaced with a more deductive approach which relied much less on the rich tapestry of political culture and focused instead on a more parsimonious understanding of human behavior.

Crepaz鈥檚 article speaks to the changes in the field of comparative political economy and how that affected Wiarda鈥檚 work. However, it also discusses the more recent turn back to identity politics and illustrates that in a way, political culture actually still matters. Crepaz notes, 鈥淚f we are worrying more about which bathroom people can use, as opposed to what it takes for people to earn a living wage, then political culture is back on the map.鈥�

Crepaz sees the more recent turns toward identity politics as 鈥渁n expression of a renaissance of political culture.鈥� In that sense, Crepaz argues, Wiarda was right all along.

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As Grafstein explains, Newcomb鈥檚 Problem, also known as Newcomb鈥檚 Paradox, can help us understand why people choose to vote by helping us to view the decision not to vote as a rational choice. He mentions that this is only one of many social scientific applications of the thought experiment, 鈥淣ewcomb鈥檚 Problem isn鈥檛 an esoteric issue鈥� It actually relates to a lot of decisions that we make, including in politics and society, the most notable one being voting but there are lots of other ones as well.鈥�

Grafstein鈥檚 article will be a chapter in a Cambridge University Press book about Newcomb鈥檚 Problem coming out in October.

Another topic Grafstein has been researching gets to the core of recent voting issues in another way. 鈥淭he Problem with Polarization,鈥� recently published in Public Choice, goes deeper into the issue of polarization and extremism in politics. Keith T. Poole and Howard Rosenthal identified this problem in the 1980s, but Grafstein鈥檚 paper attempts to explain exactly why polarization is an issue today.

鈥淧olarization itself is not a problem as long as people can put aside their beliefs and shake hands at some point. But we鈥檙e seeing polarization that leads to extremism and dysfunctional politics, which is why it has become a problem,鈥� Grafstein explains.

What Grafstein has found is that income is an important source of the polarization that leads to extremist beliefs. This is rather groundbreaking considering extremist beliefs are often referred to by the media as the result of psychological or genetic issues. But as Grafstein explains, 鈥�20 percent of Trump voters voted for Obama, so it鈥檚 highly unlikely that those people just 鈥榮napped鈥� between elections. Rather, they鈥檙e making a tradeoff. People do not become polarized as a result of some psychological or genetic issue, they become polarized based on their reaction to risk related to their income.鈥�

So according to Grafstein, politics is a risky endeavor, but it鈥檚 more risky for people at the economic poles which is what leads to political polarization. People on the low end of the economic spectrum have a lot to gain compared to the risk of having their income drastically reduced. People on the high end of the economic spectrum risk losing their fortunes. This risk pushes people at the economic poles toward the political poles.

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CITS provides training on strategic trade compliance through a variety of training programs. The Export Control Fellows Program is the most advanced strategic trade compliance training CITS offers. Often, the Fellows in this program already have experience in strategic trade compliance and are planning to implement similar programs in their countries of residence.

During the Export Control Fellows Program, CITS hosted experts from all over the United States, including researchers from universities, the Department of Energy鈥檚 National Laboratories, and private industry. The program heavily emphasizes practical applications to industry, so CITS arranged for experts to come from a range of companies, including General Electric (GE), Raytheon, Tesla, and Smyrna-based Mirion Technologies.

Joshua Darnell, the Assistant Director for Training and Outreach, coordinated the program, and explained why CITS is so valuable. 鈥淯ltimately, compliance is something that eats into your bottom line, it isn鈥檛 a revenue generator, it鈥檚 a revenue consumer. 聽So these government agencies, around the world, have the challenge of convincing companies in their countries to listen to them and work with them.鈥� CITS offers the education and programs to make that challenge easier.

The Export Fellows program is only one of the many training programs CITS offers throughout the year. CITS also hosts a variety of programs both domestically and abroad, including the Security & Strategic Trade Management Academy (SSTMA), the longest-running CITS training program.

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In his book, Han discusses the sophisticated censorship system established by the Chinese government as well as the recruitment, training, and deployment of government-hired commentators popularly known as the 鈥渇ifty-cent army.鈥� 聽However, Han found that in China, the government control over online discourse is not completely successful as netizens (internet users) constantly outsmart state censorship. Even so, the internet has thus far failed to pose a viable threat to authoritarianism as one might expect.

The underlying reason, quite ironically, is precisely the pluralization of online expression. 聽Citizens voice a spectrum of views and issues ranging from staunch support of the government to criticism of the government, with the latter being neutralized and diluted by pro-government voices. To support his argument, Han details how nationalistic netizens who see themselves as patriots have fought against internet users who criticize the government. By discussing the surprising resilience of authoritarian rule in China despite the challenges of the internet, 鈥淐ontesting Cyberspace in China鈥� questions the democratizing power of the internet.

Dr. Rongbin Han has also started research for his next book which will look specifically at Chinese internet novels as vehicles of political experiences online and how the state has attempted to control, co-opt, and manage this process. Han explains that so far the state has been able to maintain control over internet novels to a large extent by making website editors responsible for censoring their authors鈥� writing.

However, some authors and readers circumvent the censorship to discuss political ideas by using coded language. In this way, the internet novels are being used as a form of political expression, despite censorship. However, the managed nature of the production and consumption of internet novels makes them instrumental for legitimizing authoritarian rule overall.

Han hopes to have this book complete in the next year.

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