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Faculty-Student Research Collaborations make Political Science real for students

January 7, 2026


Associate Professor Eric Juenke has long been interested in what drives people to run for office in the US. For some of his latest work, on candidacies for local office here in Michigan, he turned to Mikayla Stokes, a Political Science Pre-Law major through the Professorial Assistantship Program of the Honors College. Together, they collected data on candidates’ genders and win rates. Their analysis showed that, when women are on the ballot in local races, they win just as often as men do. However, fewer women run as Republicans as Democrats for local office in Michigan. This creates partisan imbalances in representation. Stokes presented these findings at MSU’s University Undergraduate Research and Arts Forum (UURAF), winning first place in her category. She went on to graduate school in Gender & Politics at Rutgers University, which is a top program in the country in that field.  
 
According to Stokes, being in a long-term project meant she was entrusted with more and more opportunities, particularly as she proved her capabilities.  
 
“I got to work on everything from data collection, to coding, to dealing with bureaucrats, and I also got experience presenting at a professional conference,” she said.  
 
This type of collaborative research between faculty and students has become a defining strength in PLS. In just the last year, 16 faculty members—about two-thirds of the Department—reported working with students on research projects, with several supervising multiple collaborations at once. These projects span topics from representation to international conflict and public opinion, and they show how shared inquiry deepens learning for both students and faculty. They take many forms, including co-authored papers in peer-reviewed journals, joint data collection, and mentoring relationships that develop as students move from coursework into independent research. 
 
Many students and faculty are understandably interested in political polarization, given the state of current discourse in countries like the US. Professor Sarah Reckhow is collaborating with two —Public Policy major Benjamin Lowen and Grace O’Malley, a History major—to study how actors from different ends of the political spectrum are pushing for changes to civic education at the state and local levels.  Benjamin and Grace presented findings on how partisan actors’ goals for these changes differ, as well as possibilities for common ground or shared goals, at the recent UURAF.  
 
Another topic that many students and their parents are paying close attention to is policy around student loans in the US. Two PLS faculty—Assistant Professor John Kuk and Associate Professor Nazita Lajevardi—worked with a PhD candidate, Kelsey Osborne-Garth, to explore how debtors’ perspectives affects public attitudes about student loan forgiveness. Through an experiment, the researchers found that, when study participants were asked to consider debtors’ perspectives, they became more likely to support student loan forgiveness, especially if they never had an experience with student loan debt themselves. They have presented their work at multiple professional conferences, and a paper with their findings is currently undergoing peer review.  
 
“I have worked with Kelsey Osborne-Garth (and Sandra Håkansson, Uppsala) on a book project measuring the levels and consequences of political violence against local politicians. This is a mixed methods project (involving surveys and interviews). Currently we have a book under review and under contract with Cambridge University Press Elements,” Dr. Lajevardi said. 
 
Other researchers are looking overseas. As civil wars grow in number and intensity around the world, Assistant Professor Andy Halterman has teamed with Tosin Salau, a PhD candidate studying International Relations, on several projects. Prof. Halterman received a prestigious grant from the National Science Foundation to develop automated techniques to more efficiently study how rebels govern territories and people they control. In addition to collaborating on this project, Tosin and Prof. Halterman are also studying reprisal violence against civilians in civil wars. 
 
 
Many of these collaborations were made possible by internal MSU support, from sources such as the Provost’s Undergraduate Research Initiative. Such funding allows students and faculty to devote time to research, while also facilitating things like data access and opportunities for students to present at professional conferences.  
 
Faculty–student collaboration reflects a broader departmental commitment to integrating research and teaching. For faculty, collaboration brings new perspectives, methodological innovation, and the satisfaction of mentoring students as they grow into colleagues. And when students work alongside faculty on projects that produce conference papers, journal articles, or policy insights, they develop the analytical and writing skills central to the discipline.  
 
For students, these experiences can be professional game-changers. As Stokes put it, “My work with Dr. Juenke completely transformed the trajectory of my professional aspirations. Not only did he guide me through hands-on research experience, he taught me how to advocate for myself and the work that I believe in. He has truly gone above and beyond for me.” 
 
 
 

Other examples of recent faculty-student research collaborations in PLS 

  •  Assistant Professor Marco Morucci & PhD student Sophie Sunderland: Deep learning methods and the use of images in causal inference 
  •  Associate Professor Eric Juenke & Political Science – Prelaw major Heba Awamleh: Candidates’ demographic backgrounds and choices to run for state legislative elections in the US 
  •  Associate Professor Nazita Lajevardi and PhD student Kelsey Osborne-Garth: Consequences of political violence against local politicians 
  •  Assistant Professor John Kuk & PhD student Nara Kang: Drivers of support for redistributional policies in South Korea 
  •  Associate Professor Michael Wahman & PhD student Sophie Sunderland: Effects of election competitiveness on spending in legislative campaigns in Malawi and Zambia 
  •  Associate Professor Ian Ostrander & PhD student Iliya Liampert: Demographic representation in President Joe Biden’s high-level bureaucratic appointments and comparisons to predecessors’ 
  •  Associate Professor Shahryar Minhas & PhD student Ha Eun Choi: The effects of US military engagement in the Middle East and South Asia on other countries’ diplomatic alignments