University of Michigan Political Science Undergraduate Emily Russell is U-M's newest Knight-Hennessy Scholar at Stanford University!

In building towards this exciting next step, Emily has worked closely with the U-M Political Science community. Emily researched international human rights law with Professor Barbara Koremenos and worked as a research assistant for Assistant Professor Christopher Fariss tracking the influence of NGOs on international environment policy diffusion through big data analysis. Additionally, Emily worked in Delhi, India studying security force violence at the Trivedi Centre for Political Data under the guidance of Dr. Priyamvada Trivedi (PhD, U-M Political Science, 2018). Emily is also affiliated with numerous projects of Professor Christian Davenport’s, including examining state repression for inclusion in his “Disturbing Spells” book project, and as an assistant on his project, Consequences of Contention.

Emily is excited and hopeful as she faces the next chapter in her academic career. “I applied to Knight-Hennessy because I care about research being used for tangible change,” she said “and I know it takes a lot of experts, across fields, to accomplish that. I wanted to join a cohort of experts across disciplines to collaborate on making a better world.”

Emily Russell is the recipient of the 2019 University of Michigan Department of Political Science Kleinman Student Essay Award. The Kleinman Award recognizes the best essay written by a student on the ways the study of political science has shaped their goals. The award is generously funded by a gift from U-M Political Science alum Sidney Kleinman

Learn more of Emily's academic journey here.