Digital Commons Network^™

Professor Greg Shaw On Gerrymandering And The Effect On Local Races, Eric Stock

Interviews for WGLT

IWU Professor of Political Science Greg Shaw says he hopes McLean County's redistricting commission will draw maps that will keep neighborhoods, communities and voting precincts together. He tells WGLT's Eric Stock that gerrymandered districts have protected incumbents, even in county government.

Sanctuary Cities And Their Respective Effect On Crime Rates, Adam R. Schutt

Undergraduate Economic Review

According to the U.S. Center for Immigration Studies (2017), cities or counties in twenty-four states declare themselves as a place of “sanctuary” for illegal immigrants. This study addresses the following question: Do sanctuary cities experience higher crime rates than those cities that are not? Using publicly available data, this regression analysis investigates the relationship between crime rates in selected cities and independent variables which the research literature or the media has linked to criminal activity. Results of this research reveal that sanctuary cities do not experience higher violent or property crime rates than those cities that are not sanctuary cities.

Professor Greg Shaw On Politics And Our Knowledge Of Healthcare, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

IWU Professor of Political Science Greg Shaw discussing health care policy, and how his research shows the rhetoric around public health crisis affects what people know about it.

Kathleen O'Gorman On The Conditions At Us Immigration Facilities, Ryan Denham

Interviews for WGLT

IWU Professor of English Kathleen O'Gorman spent the summer of 2019 interviewing children being held at U.S. immigration facilities, as a volunteer on behalf of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law. She spoke about this experience and the conditions of these detainment centers with WGLT's Ryan Denham.

Meghan Burke Discussing Her New Book "Colorblind Racism", January 24, 2019, Jon Norton

Interviews for WGLT

Jon Norton, WGLT Radio, speaks to Professor Meghan Burke about her latest book Colorblind Racism.

Todd Fuist Discussing His Book, Religion And Progressive Activism, Eric Stock

Interviews for WGLT

Assistant Professor of Sociology Todd Fuist speaking with WGLT's Eric Stock about his book "Religion and Progressive Activism: New Stories about Faith and Politics."

Greg Shaw, March 8, 2017, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

Illinois Wesleyan University Professor of Political Science Greg Shaw speaks with Charlie Schlenker, WGLT Radio, about the attempt to repeal American Health Care Act established by President Obama’s administration. Professor Shaw’s book, "The Dysfunctional Politics of the ACA", will be released by Praeger Publishing in May 2017.

Kathleen Montgomery, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

Donald Trump's rise as the Republican Party standard-bearer is reminiscent of how some far-right, populist European leaders took power in the 1980s. IWU political scientist Kathleen Montgomery on Trump and how he compares to other far-right world leaders of recent past.

A transcript of this interview is available at the download link above and to the right on this page.

Elyse Nelson Winger On Religion And The Presidetial Race, Judith Valente

Interviews for WGLT

WGLT'S Judith Valente speaks to IWU Chaplain Elyse Nelson Winger.

More information from the WGLT interview is available at the Download link above and to the right of the page.

The Local American Voter: Mayoral Election Turnout In Midsize American Cities, Austin Aldag

Students' Professional Presentations and Publications

This poster was created for a presentation at the annual meeting of the Midwestern Political Science Association (MPSA) in Chicago, Illinois. The paper this poster is presenting is Austin Aldag's honor thesis, which will be linked here after his defense.

Megan Burke, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

Illinois Wesleyan University Sociologist Meghan Burke studies the way people talk and think about race. She has always been interested in how that shapes their desire to get involved in their communities. Her first book looked at that question among people in liberal diverse communities in the Chicago area. She has now focused on TEA party people in Illinois and neighboring states.

The book is "Race, Gender, and Class in the TEA Party." She tells GLT's Charlie Schlenker that the movement reflects much of America on these issues.

Greg Shaw, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

Illinois Wesleyan University Professor Greg Shaw talked to Charlie Schlenker about the federal appeals court ruling against several key parts of the new healthcare reform law. Shaw says the ruling is likely “only a bump in the road”, and the doubts the ruling will stand.

Beyond Fear And Loathing: Tea Party Organizers' Continuum Of Knowledge In A Racialized Social System, Meghan Burke

Scholarship

Making use of fieldwork and 25 open-ended interviews with Tea Party organizers in the state of Illinois, I argue that Tea Party organizers draw from a continuum of knowledge, combining personal knowledge and experience with a conservative corporate media and Tea Party network frame. I draw upon the work of Weber to show how this continuum connects to various types of rational social action. Widening this scope of analysis allows not only for a more complex analysis of how corporate interests are connected to the grass roots movement, but also how the core frames of the movement are located throughout …

Supreme Court Responsiveness: An Analysis Of Individual Justice Voting Behavior And The Role Of Public Opinion, Michael Browning

Honors Projects

This study aims to explain why the Supreme Court responds to public mood by analyzing individual justice liberalism and comparing it to public liberalism between the years of 1953 and 2005. Three theories suggesting why the Court may respond to public opinion are discussed, including the replacement, political adjustment, and the attitude change hypotheses. The argument of using Court reversals to determine the ideology of the Court is presented and implemented. Public reaction to Court decisions is analyzed along with the Court’s institutional legitimacy as means to determine the Court’s strategic behavior. Ideology, public mood, the parties controlling the House, …

Presidential Success In Congress: Factors That Determine The President's Ability To Influcence Congressional Voting, Christine Gibbs

Res Publica - Journal of Undergraduate Research

This study examines the factors that contribute to presidential success in Congress. Results show that, overall, presidential popularity, the president’s party’s control of Congress and the misery index positively and significantly affect presidential success in Congress, whereas party is not a significant factor. The study also demonstrates that the honeymoon period does not increase a president’s success rate. The results indicate that these variables interact differently within foreign policy compared to domestic policy and in the Senate compared to the House.

Greg Shaw, Charlie Schlenker

Interviews for WGLT

Charlie Schlenker of WGLT interviews Professor of Political Science Greg Shaw about his book, The Welfare Debate. (requires RealPlayer)

From Exceptionalism To Imperialism: Culture, Character, And American Foreign Policy, Meghan A. Burke, Laura Langman

Meghan A. Burke

Arthur Schlessinger (1983) suggested that the contradictions and paradoxes of American foreign policy reflected contradictions and paradoxes in the underlying character of the people. We would go further to suggest that the early years of colonial life, much like the early years of a person's life, had major consequences ever since. The intersection of Puritanism, available land, and eventually the rise of a commercial culture would forge a unique trajectory of what would be called “American Exceptionalism”, reflecting an “American character”, which itself is subject to three paradoxes or polarities, individualism vs. community, toughness vs. compassion, and moralism vs. pragmatism. …

The Economic Impact Upon Modern U.S. Elections, James Jackson

University Avenue Undergraduate Journal of Economics

Economic voting has been blamed for Bush’s loss in 1992, Carter’s loss in 1980, and attributed to Clinton’s win in 1996. I intend to dispel the myths against economic voting by showing that it does occur, and examining the four different manners in which it occurs: retrospective, prospective, pocketbook and sociotropic voting.

Editor's Note: The bibliography for this article is missing. We apologize for the inconvenience.