Nearly 200 Rackham students gathered this Thursday, February 16, to paricipate in the Centennial Symposium:  Michigan Graduate Students in the World.  Poster and laptop presentations filled the 2nd and 4th floors of the Rackham Building from 3:00 until 5:00 PM. The Symposium highlights the global impact that graduate students make through their research, and displays the quality, breadth, and diversity of graduate education at Michigan.  

    The Department of Political Science took part in this exciting symposium.  Three graduate students presented their ongoing projects:  

  • Jean Clipperton, Altered Perspectives: Institutional Path Dependence and Behavioral Outcomes,
  • Vanessa Cruz, Typical Scapegoats: Demonstrating the Extent of Counter-Mobilization when Targeting Immigrants, and 
  • Mario Puccio, Gender Quota Diffusion, Adoption, and Sincerity.  

"I found out about this through the emails from Rackham and thought it would be a really interesting opportunity to meet other graduate students to see what they are working on.  I also wanted to get feedback from disciplines outside of Political Science," remarked Jean Clipperton, a third-year Ph.D. student who employs the tools of agent-based modeling to explore how political institutions can shape behavior under different circumstances.  

    A number of Political Science graduate students attended the Symposium to learn more about their colleagues' work.  The research presentations were followed by a panel discussion with leaders of three nationally prominent foundations:  

  • Mark J. Cardillo (Executive Director, The Camille and Henry Dreyfus Foundation
  • Carol Goss (President and CEO, The Skillman Foundation
  • Edward Henry (President and CEO, The Doris Duke Charitable Foundation)

Form more information about the Rackham Centennial events, click here to visit their Website.