Government & Sociology Events

Government & Sociology First Friday Faculty Colloquia

September 6, 2013
Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Location to be Announced
Presenter: Roger Coate, Ph.D.

“Identity Politics, Mobilizing Structures, and the Effects of Policy Framings on Global AIDS Cooperation”

The paper sets out the theoretical and analytical framework of a project that explores the roles of identity politics and issue framing in international cooperation. This project builds on an earlier transnational collaborative research program that sought to explore the evolving global AIDS regime from an interorganization theory perspective. Growing out of the research findings of that project was a realization of the important role played by identity politics, issue framing, and agenda setting in facilitating or, conversely, frustrating cooperation. The framework for the new project is designed to explore a number of important questions. Under what conditions, how, and why do identity politics come to the fore? Under what conditions, how, and why are they subordinated to other values and interests? What role does issue framing play in this regard, and how and why? And finally, to what extent has a securitization framing of AIDS facilitated international cooperation in response to AIDS across the divides that inhibited effective cooperation in the early years of the pandemic?

October 4, 2013
Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Location to be Announced
Presenter: Brandy Kennedy, Ph.D.

Representative Bureaucracy: Exploring the Context

While the field of representative bureaucracy has advanced theoretically and empirically, important questions and limitations remain. Defining the term representative bureaucracy has proven an elusive goal, with contemporary work providing multiple and inconsistent definitions.  Additionally, contemporary studies are contextually circumscribed.  Driven in part by theoretical restrictions and data availability, most work focuses on descriptive representation of race and gender, street or executive level bureaucrats, and redistributive agencies (Kennedy, 2012). In order to overcome these limitations, this project relies on focus groups and interviews to qualitatively explore bureaucratic role perception addressing three major questions.  How do bureaucrats perceive their role as representatives?  Further, what effect does descriptive representation have?  Finally, how does the organizational context influence role perception?  Findings suggest scholars should refine and expand the definition and measurements in order to fully understand representative bureaucracy.

November 1, 2013
Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Location to be Announced
Presenter: Ruth Carter, Ph.D.

December 6, 2013
Noon - 1:30 p.m.
Location to be Announced
Presenter: Min Kim, Ph.D.