Ivan Allen College Announces Winners of 2021 Graduate Paper Competition

Posted January 21, 2021

Five graduate students from the Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts – two from the School of Public Policy, two from the School of Economics, and one from the School of History and Sociology – were named winners of the College's Graduate Paper Competition at the annual conference of its Graduate Student Advisory Board.

The contest's winners were unveiled on Jan. 22 after participants presented their papers and findings to panel members. The papers were judged by an interdisciplinary group of 17 College faculty members.

First place ($1,500 prize): Daniel Schiff, School of Public Policy, "The Liar's Dividend: How Misinformation About Misinformation Affects Politician Support and Trust in Media"

Schiff's paper examined "indirect effects" of misinformation on political discourse, and how politicians can use doubt about the legitimacy of news sources to maintain power, even in the face of damaging stories that are true.

Second place ($1,000 prize): Archana Ghodeswar, School of Economics, "Trading One Waste for Another? Unintended Consequences of Industrial Ecology Policy in the Indian Electric Power Sector"

Ghodeswar explores the concept of industrial ecology, the practice of "utilizing industrial waste by-products as productive inputs," in the context of coal-powered electrical plants in India, finding that reusing fly ash in the generation process can have injurious effects such as increased CO2 emissions.

Third place ($750 prize): Vikrant Kamble, School of Economics, "The effect of air pollution on labor force participation of married couples in India"

Kamble's research delived into one particular externality of pollution: The effect of pollution-induced health complications on a worker's spouse. He finds that pollution illness can lead to loss of work hours due caregiving and potential overwork due to the need to "compensate for this loss of household income."

Special prize ($200): Aubrey DeVeny Incorvaia, School of Public Policy, "Becoming an End of Life Doula: An Analytic Autoethnography"

DeVeny Incorvaia employed the technique of "analytic autoethnography," where she participated in the study as a member of the group of interest, in studying the roles and functions of end of life doulas, a "rising profession" that can be used as a "complement to hospice care."

Special prize ($200): Sharon Rachel, School of History and Sociology, "A Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Everyday Sexism Project"

Rachel analyzed written experiences of sexism from EverydaySexism.com, the website of the Everyday Sexism Project, using random sampling to categorize overarching themes of sexist treatment and how it can negatively effect women's health. 

The full list of entries: 

Philip Walker Carnell (PubPol): "Reframing Clean Cookstove Interventions From a Technological Intervention to one of Sustainable Energy Security"

Sharon Rachel (HSOC): "Feminist Critical Discourse Analysis of the Everyday Sexism Project"

Shubhangi Gupta (DM/LMC): "Politics of Safety in India: Technology and perpetuation of gendered discourses"

Marjorie Hall Snook (HSOC): "The Stain-Resistant Black Box: The visibility of PFAS compounds and impacts on regulatory efforts"

Archana Ghodeswar (ECON): "Trading One Waste for Another? Unintended Consequences of Industrial Ecology Policy in the Indian Power Sector"

Jennifer Wilson (PubPol): "Understanding the Impact of State-Level Financial Incentives on the Deployment of Renewable Energy at Colleges and Universities through Program Identification, Review, and Correlation"

Gloria Calhoun (HSOC): "Entrepreneurs and Technological Change: Inventing Underground Infrastructure (1871-1910)"

Kera Allen (HSOC): "'A Castle on a Hill': The First Microcomputer Public Access Center"

Suon Choi (INTA): "Science and Technology as Strategic Assets in North Korea"

Lenny Stendig (ECON): "German U-Boats in WW II: Race to the Bottom of the Atlantic"

Wesley Meredith (INTA): "US and Chinese Great Power Competition in Africa: How it is playing out in the form of aid and development finance"

Hee Jun Yoo (INTA): "The Belt and Road Initiative, Transition to a New International System"

Jay Kancherla (PubPol/Cyber): "Future Re-identification of Health Data"

Daniel Schiff (PubPol): "The Liar's Dividend: How Misinformation About Misinformation Affects Politician Support and Trust in Media"

Pooja Casula (DM/LMC): "Twitter, Twitter on the wall, to remove these tweets who should I call?"

Olga Churkina, Luísa Nazareno, and Matteo Zullo (PubPol): "The Labor Outcomes of Bilinguals in the United States"

Aubrey DeVeny Incorvaia (PubPol): "Becoming an End of Life Doula: An Analytic Autoethnography"

Vikrant Kamble (ECON): "The effect of air pollution on labor force participation of married couples in India"