2025 - 2026 Research Conference

The Gardner Fellowship requires an independent research project with a faculty mentor in the spring semester. The fellowship year ends in an annual Policy Conference during the reading days in May. We have breakfast and lunch together and the Fellows generate poster presentations to summarize their research for fellows, alumni, faculty mentors, family, and other friends of the Gardner program.

An inside look at our Spring 26 Research & Policy Conference

2025-2026 Gardner Fellows 2025-2026 Gardner Fellows with Director Matt Matsuda Fellow Aden JordanFellow Jean SantiagoFellow Madison FitzgeraldFellow Jenna HamzaFellow Zackary KorczakFellow Ashley RodriguezFellow Chinmayi MaheshFellow Jane TeranFellow Joseph ReyesFellow Madeline KarlickiFellow Robert SwieczkowskiFellow Sabrina MoeFellow Alice Merolli Read More

Assessing the Economic and Social Outcomes of the H-2A Visa Program on U.S. Agricultural Laborers

Information: Fellow: Ashley Rodriguez; Advisor: Prof. Yanhong Jin

The H-2A temporary agricultural program has expanded significantly in recent years as U.S. producers increasingly rely on foreign labor to meet seasonal production needs. While the program is designed to provide a legal pathway for agricultural work, literature suggests that visa status alone may not be sufficient to mitigate the persistent socioeconomic vulnerabilities faced by H-2A farmworkers. This research investigates the difference in key market outcomes between H-2A and non-H-2A... Read More

Black Markets and International Actors: How State and Non-State Actors use Black Markets to further their Interests

Information: Fellow: Aden Jordan; Advisor: Prof. Ewan Harrison

The common understanding of the relationship between state actors and black markets is that state actors will curb black markets whenever possible to reduce their adverse effects on states’ societies and economies. Leading to interstate agreements and international norms that aim to combat black market trades for mutual benefit between states. While non-state actors will utilize the black market to subvert their state competitors. Upon closer examination of state behavior, it becomes evident... Read More

Competing Legal Narratives: Nation-State Power and their Interpretations of International Crimes within the Russo-Ukrainian Conflict

Information: Fellow: Robert Swieczkowski; Advisor: Prof. Dilafruz Nazarova

This research studies divergent governmental interpretation of alleged international crimes committed in the ongoing Russo-Ukrainian conflict. Focusing on China, Iran, the United Stated, and the European Union, it analyzes official government statements, media coverage, United Nations voting patterns, economic trade data, and democracy ratings to examine and explain such contrasting views. The central argument is that governmental interpretations of international law are conditioned by the... Read More

From Estrangement to Strategic Partnership: Tracing Evolution in U.S.-India Relations Through Presidential Rhetoric

Information: Fellow: Shyam Kumar; Advisor: Prof. Julia Stephens

This project examines the historical evolution of the U.S.-India relationship by analyzing how it has been described in U.S. presidential speeches from the Truman to Obama administrations.While existing scholarship shows that the relationship has been shaped by both cooperation and recurring tension, this study focuses on how those dynamics appear in political language over time. By building a focused archive of presidential speeches about India, this project identifies key patterns in word... Read More

Gentefication and Selling Ethnicity in Elizabeth, NJ's "Little Colombia"

Information: Fellow: Jane Teran; Advisor: Prof. Johana Londoño

My research analyzes Morris Avenue in Elizabeth, New Jersey, a two-block commercial corridor of Colombian-themed restaurants, boutiques, and salons known locally as “Little Colombia”, to ask how Latine-led gentrification, or gentefication (where “gentri” is replaced by gente, meaning “people” in Spanish), reshapes the material space of Little Colombia. While scholarship increasingly examines gentrification led by high-income people of color, little attention has been given to how gentefication... Read More

Interpreting Genocide in Real Time: Comparative Analysis of Ukraine v. Russia and South Africa v. Israel

Information: Fellow: Alejandra Afanador; Advisor: Prof. J.D. Bowers

This study examines why the 1984 Genocide Convention produces different evidentiary emphases under distinct political conditions by comparing Ukraine v. Russia Federation and South Africa v. Israel before the International Court of Justice (ICJ). While both cases invoke the same legal framework, the Court adopts divergent interpretive approaches. In Ukraine, the ICJ emphasizes procedural restraint, rejecting the use of genocide claims to justify force and requiring a high evidentiary threshold... Read More

Is Distance a Barrier or a Catalyst? Lond-Distance Nationalism in a Comparison Among the Indian and Italian Diasporas of New Jersey

Information: Fellow: Chinmayi Mahesh; Advisor: Prof. Jan Kubik

This research project examines the intensity of and the mechanisms by which long-distance nationalism persists in immigrant diaspora communities in the United States. Though some theories of nationalism emphasize territorial belonging, the effects of globalization and migration have allowed people to maintain strong attachments to their homeland/country of origin despite geographic distance. This project seeks to understand the conditions under which long-distance nationalism becomes... Read More

Kids and Copoganda: An Examination of How Children's Media Depicts Policing

Information: Fellow: Madeline Karlicki; Advisor: Prof. Lauren Feldman

Despite television's prevalence in children's lives, the sociopolitical themes in children’s media are rarely critically examined, often dismissed as unimportant or absent because of the audience’s age. This is especially evident in the theme of policing, which is present in a myriad of children’s media in varying degrees of intensity. To address this research gap, this study examines representations of police in three children’s entertainment TV series and films through a close viewing of... Read More

Producing the Screaming Girl: Media, Social Science, and the Pathologizing of Teenage Female Enthusiasm in the Age of Rock and Roll

Information: Fellow: Jenna Hamza; Advisor: Prof. Rachel Devlin

In postwar American culture, teenage girls’ enthusiastic responses to rock and roll music, particularly screaming, crying, and fainting, were widely represented as irrational and excessive. This paper examines how media and cultural discourse interpreted these behaviors and why they were framed through the language of hysteria, mania, and loss of self-control. Drawing on popular magazines, media coverage, and social scientific frameworks, this study situates these reactions within broader... Read More

Social Media Consumption and Political Polarization: Testing the Impacts of Echo Chambers and Cross-Cutting Viewpoints

Information: Fellow: Alice Merolli; Advisor: Dr. Katherine McCabe

As social media continues to evolve, the political influence of platforms such as TikTok grows alongside it. Increasingly, social media has become a primary source of communication and news collection, creating an environment of constant spread of political ideas and contestation. This study uses a survey experiment with over 900 respondents to analyze the impact of TikTok consumption on political polarization and people’s attitudes towards individuals with different political beliefs... Read More

The Blue Slip Project: An Analysis of the US Attorney Appointments and Constitutional Procedure Under the Trump Administration (2025)

Information: Fellow: Joseph Reyes; Advisor: Prof. Douglas Cantor

The power to appoint US Attorney candidates is delicately balanced across each of three branches of government. Under ideal circumstances, the President nominates a candidate who is confirmed by the Senate. When vacancies arise, interim-appointment authority is delegated to the Attorney General and District Court judges to select an interim-USA. However, under President Trump in 2025-26, a number of candidates have led USAOs, which have not been given approval by the legislature or federal... Read More

The Democratizing Threat of Organized Labor: A Cross-Regional Study of Newly Autocratic Regimes

Information: Fellow: Zackary Korczak; Advisor: Prof. Mark Anner

As organized labor developed in regions throughout the world, it became a prominent method by which typically disempowered economic and social classes galvanized their influence in societal affairs. This has contributed to the perception of organized labor as a democratizing force within the nations it inhabits. This asserted relationship between labor and democracy comes at odds, however, with countless examples of authoritarian governments coexisting with and even endorsing the presence of... Read More

Understanding the Use and Implications of Large Language Models on Gender-Based Discrimination and Violence

Information: Fellow: Sabrina Moe; Advisor: Prof. Eiman Ahmed

The advancement and integration of technology has raised concerns about technology-facilitated gender-based violence (TF-GBV). The incorporation of artificial intelligence (AI), specifically language learning models (LLMs) in daily life, could amplify gender-based violence and discrimination through the use of these technologies. This study explores how private conversations reflect harmful attitudes towards women. It also examines the degree to which AI could be used to promote gender-based... Read More

Visual Politics and Female Performance: The Pervasion of Sexuality in Conservative Discourse across Cyberspace

Information: Fellow: Madison Fitzgerald; Advisor: Prof. Talley Murphy

Since the birth of the film industry in American society, cinema has used the performance of women onscreen to codify their erotic imagery into our social consciousness. Traditional cinema achieves this cultural manipulation by reinforcing, and reframing images of women the individual spectator expects, as taught to him by the dominant patriarchal structure. Yet, cinema may only reflect and influence the political formations of women within the boundaries of its dimension. Cyberspace is... Read More

Who Writes the Law? Nonpartisan Staff and the Role of Third-Party Influence in State Legislatures

Information: Fellow: Jean Nicolas Santiago; Advisor: Prof. Kristoffer Shields

This study examines how variation in nonpartisan legislative staff capacity shapes state legislators' reliance on external policy actors. Detailing a historical account of the state legislative development, I argue that cycles of institutional weakening, alongside bouts of professionalization, have produced inconsistent and significant disparities in internal capacity across the states. In environments where nonpartisan staff is limited, external organizations, interest groups, and policy... Read More