Chris Hale receives NSF Doctoral Dissertation Award in Political Science

Chris Hale, a Ph.D. student in Political Science, has been recommended to receive a prestigious NSF dissertation research grant by the NSF Political Science program officers.* Chris is focused on the question: Why do religious organizations facilitate secular political participation in some settings and not others? His project examines the relationship between religious organizations and political participation in a democratic context, as measured through 1) voting, 2) associational activity, and 3) involvement in political protests. Chris’s research is focused primarily in Mexico. He will employ a research design utilizing: A) a dataset comprised of 13,500 data observations constructed from the nationally representative National Survey of Political Culture and Citizenship (ENCUP) and other Mexican statistical databases; B) field research of nearly 6 months in the Diocese of San Cristóbal de las Casas in the Mexican State of Chiapas and the Archdiocese of Yucatán in the State of Yucatán; and C) a simulation matching predictions against empirical data. Chris believes where religious institutions shift decision-making, monitoring, and sanctioning authority to laity, citizens develop capacities to become more political active in their communities. A more precise understanding of how and when organized religion plays a role in political mobilization can help us better gauge the prospects of citizen participation in countries involved in the global “third wave of democratization.”

Professor Carolyn Warner in the School of Politics and Global Studies is supervising Chris’s research. Congratulations Chris!
 

*  Pending formal approval by the Director of the Division of Social and Economic Sciences and the Division of Grants and Agreements of the NSF.