Originally initiated and endowed by the Inglehart family, in memory of pioneering CPS scholar and mentor, Ronald F. Inglehart, this fund supports research and travel by early career scholars to study comparative politics, with a preference for graduate students traveling internationally.
Ron’s research transformed the way that social scientists understand the role of human values and cultures in societies worldwide, and his ideas have been central to our understanding of public opinion and cultural change. In addition to his impressive research accomplishments, Ron was known to be modest and down-to-earth, generous with his time, and an excellent citizen of the university. The fund honors his professional legacy and his many contributions to students and fellow political scientists.
Application Process
Information about the competition, award amount, and eligibility, along with links to apply, will be available on this website at the end of the calendar year.
Please email any questions to [email protected].
Award Winners
By Hood Ahmed
Project Description
My project investigates the causes and consequences of social reforms in autocracies, with a focus on the Arab countries of the Gulf. It first analyzes what explains the marked but uneven adoption of social reforms in the region. It then explores why some of these reforms succeed in changing social norms but not others, especially when these reforms seem to conflict with prevailing norms.
Historically, the political and cultural developments in Arab countries of the Gulf posed a paradox to modernization theory. This theory, which was heavily influenced by Inglehart’s work, posits that, as countries experience economic growth, they undergo cultural shifts that facilitate the emergence of democracy. The Arab countries of the Gulf defied this process, as they have undergone rapid economic growth, yet have not experienced cultural changes or democratization. This was attributed to the resource curse, which explains that economic growth that relies on natural resources, in this case oil, is unlikely to result in this pattern of modernization.
My project revisits this debate. In recent years, some countries in the Gulf have sought to diversify their economies away from oil. However, rather than leading to political liberalization, this has coincided with increased autocratization. Meanwhile, while major social and cultural changes have taken place, they have been introduced from the top-down through controversial social reforms that have been embraced by some segments of the population while leading to a backlash from others.
In investigating this, my project builds on Inglehart’s work by exploring how different cultural traditions interact with modernization to lead to different patterns of value changes. Moreover, in exploring how authoritarian regimes can shape the everyday lives of ordinary citizens, my project can contribute to understanding the conditions under which elites can reshape mass attitudes and behaviors. Historically, the ISR has played a central role in advancing our understanding of how human values and cultures change, and I hope to contribute to this rich legacy.
By Charlotte Boucher
Project Description
My work has always been focused on understanding the role of state violence, and how different populations process this violence. My dissertation project seeks to investigate the relationship between living in neighborhoods with high police and interpersonal violence and the subjective citizenship of neighborhood residents, through a comparison of two neighborhoods in Chicago and Saint Denis, France. This project engages in particular with the important and contemporary debate within American political science, that seeks to establish the relationship between carceral contact (in particular police violence) and civic participation. I argue that our current understanding of police violence and the resulting engagement or withdrawal from the state is overly simplistic, and that residents instead perform different forms of negotiated engagement with the state, influenced by the broader perception of state responsiveness or negligence as informed by their experiences with the police.
By Peter Carroll
Project Description
My research is focused on the impact of poverty on politics, with a focus on East Africa. This work has brought me to urban and rural settings in Tanzania and Uganda where I have considered how economic conditions influence how citizens interaction with political officials. Through these observations I gained some intuition about how the field of political science might better account for the realities of poverty in our study of political behavior. My work seeks to push the discipline to consider the dynamic nature of poverty, that is, how fluctuations in levels of hardship over time produce a sense of precarity that shapes political action. It is my view that this lived experience among the poor has been under-appreciated in our understanding of poverty and political engagement. I aim to make both theoretical and empirical advances in this area.
The Inglehart Award was established to honor the remarkable legacy of Dr. Inglehart by supporting emerging scholars in the study of comparative politics. I am a Ph.D. Candidate in the Political Science department studying the political economy of development in Africa. As a graduate student at the University of Michigan, I have had the opportunity to engage with the Institute of Social Research through the mentorship of scholars at the Center for Political Studies and workshops, and now through the support of the Inglehart Award. My research and career trajectory has been deeply impacted through this engagement, for which I am sincerely grateful.
Donations
The Ronald F. Inglehart Scholarship was originally initiated and endowed by the Inglehart family. If you are interested in making a contribution, you may do so by clicking the “Give Online” button below. Thank you!