MSU PLS PhD students honored with Spring Graduate Awards

June 9, 2025 - Karessa Weir

This Spring, five Political Science doctoral students were recognized for their excellent work in writing, research, and teaching.  

The 2025 Best Paper award was shared between two projects. Li-Hong Weng was nominated by Prof. Eric Chang for his work on major threats to vertical and horizontal accountability in contemporary democracies. entitled “Distinguished Threats to Accountability under Democratic Erosion: A Supervised Learning Approach to Text Data.”  
 “The paper provides useful insights to counter democratic backsliding,” Chang wrote. “I believe this paper has strong potential to be published in a major journal.” 

Additionally, Alejandra Lopez-Villegas and Ben Yoel were nominated by Prof. Erica Frantz for their paper, “Leader Tenure and Women’s Representation in Cabinets in Authoritarian Regimes.”  

The paper “explains the ways in which authoritarian leadership considerations influence whether women will be allotted cabinet positions,” Frantz wrote. “The authors persuasively demonstrated that authoritarian leaders will be more likely to appoint women to cabinet positions early on in their tenures as a means of appearing favorably to international audiences.” 

Overall, “the paper makes an important contribution to the growing literature devoted to authoritarian political dynamics and women’s representation,” Frantz wrote.  

Kelechi Amakoh received the Rhode Fellowship for his research on negative campaigning in Nigeria. This fellowship is endowed in memory of Dr. William Rhode, the first person to receive a Political Science PhD from MSU. 

“Kelechi’s dissertation breaks new ground by investigating how negative campaigning—often with ethnic and religious undertones—shapes voter attitudes and polarization in Nigeria. By combining media analysis and survey experiments, his research promises to deepen our understanding of political messaging in Africa’s most populous country and its impact on democratic engagement,” said PLS Chair Jeff Conroy-Krutz, who nominated Amakoh. 

 “The Rhode Fellowship is an opportunity to push to the front my research interests in understanding how elite communication affects voter perception of candidates,” Amakoh said. “I am grateful to the funders for the fellowship and honored to be among the worthy past recipients and the first African to win the award. Thank you to Jeff for writing the recommendation and to my committee. I am looking forward to how this fellowship improves my work.” 

Matt Cota received the PLS Teaching Award. Prof. Ryan Black, PLS Associate Chair, nominated Cota, citing his significant teaching burden this past academic year. Cota taught PLS 321 American Constitutional Law, one of the most in-demand courses in the Department. 

“Teaching is hard. Being a good teacher is harder. But what is hardest is being a good teacher while also being a productive researcher,” Black said. “Matt, despite being disgustingly young, is already a good teacher. But what is also important to know is that he’s been no slouch on the research side of things while he was running his own class.” 

Cota said he was honored with the award that also serves as motivation for him.  

“I am very grateful to receive the PLS Teaching Award. The Department’s affirmation motivates me to continue teaching in a way that advances my students’ understanding of political science while ensuring they have a fulfilling college experience,” Cota said.