Archaeology as Hyperlocal Practice 

Emma Gilheany is an Anthropologist, postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University, and a 2023-24 Dissertation Fellow, and 2018-19 Lloyd & Susanne Rudolph Field Research Fellow. In a recent paper, Gilheany examines the environmental politics of Inuit people in Labrador, Canada and relevant implications for archeological methodology. In existing archaeological research, Nunatsiavut, Labrador is a site to examine climate change and intertwined colonial legacies. Gilheany poses that archaeologists have a methodological opportunity to examine local environmental histories. Nunatsiavut's melting sea ice, Gilheany explains, is a direct manifestation of colonial and industrial legacy. Archaeology's local histories can provide a roadmap to understand broader arguments about colonialism, climate change and industrialization's legacy, rooted in material objects left behind. This project, Gilheany argues, ought to be accompanied by relationship building with community members. Gilheany employed a multimethodological survey to document detritus at the site of a former U.S. military base, contributing to a new understanding of imperialist legacy in the community. By paying attention to local discourse, Gilheany writes that her assumptions about melting sea ice serving as a paramount concern for the community were challenged, overshadowed by remnants of a Cold War-era American military base that presented environmental concerns. 

Read the article here.

Toward a Qualitative Study of the American Voter

Anna Berg's recent paper, "Toward a Qualitative Study of the American Voter," was published in the American Political Science Association journal Perspectives on Politics. Berg is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at the Central European University, and a 2021-22 Lloyd and Susanne Rudoph Field Research Fellow. In her recent paper, Berg argues that methodological adherence to surveys in the study of American political behavior leaves out important information to be gained by robust qualitative research methods. Berg goes on to suggest ways that qualitative methods could be meaningfully incorporated into American political behavior research to reap their comparative advantages. Through a review of recent articles on American political behavior in top journals, Berg concludes that a small minority employed interviews or ethnography as a primary method. The lack of qualitative research in American political behavior flattens the possible conclusions and creates gaps in understanding in the literature. Berg traces the mid-Century debates underlying the introduction of statistically robust survey methodology and arguments among scholars about the potential for community representativeness in qualitative studies. Citing the cost-prohibitiveness of robust interviews, and the goal of generalizability, Berg explains that quantitative national surveys won out. Berg identifies four types of interventions qualitative research can contribute to the field: innovation through surprising findings, innovation through research design, contextual meaning-making, and tracking changing processes. In addition to Berg's strong case for renewed use of qualitative methods as a primary methodological tool, she identifies some key limitations such as the ability to identify causal effects that underscore the necessity of quantitative research. Based on the findings, Berg proposes remedies for the dearth of qualitative investigation in American political behavior research. 

Read the article here. 

Lessons from Latin American Referendum Voting

2021-2022 and 2025-26 CISSR Faculty Fellow Susan Stokes explores the intricacies of direct democracy and various democratic election methods in an article published in Latin American Research Review. Stokes acknowledges that certain mechanisms of direct democracy (MDD), such as government-initiated referendums and citizen-led initiatives are common among democracies worldwide. However, past scholarship primarily focuses on European politics, which has caused a large gap in the research and literature on MDDs in other parts of the world. Stokes works to bridge this gap, highlighting the unique conditions within key countries in Latin America and the internal factors that impact their democratic processes. The lack of voter turn out for referendums prompts a larger issue for the stability and legitimacy of direct democracy. Stokes argues that the lack of citizen participation in MDDs holds the same significance as the incentives of political parties’ efforts to mobilize referendums. The article categorizes the primary political parties into two groups; the first being clientelistic and office-oriented, highlighting political candidates and leadership change, and the second being programmatic, focusing on mobilization and incentivizing voter turnout. Stokes finds that programmatic parties tend to have a higher voter turnout for referendums, as leadership change is rarely, if ever, a referendum voting issue. The article explores how these findings might help voter turnout for referendums in Latin America to strengthen political institutions and support mechanisms of direct democracy, and set the foundations for future scholarship to continue trying to raise referendum voter turnout.  

Read the full article here.. 

Stabilizing Civil Wars Without Peacekeeping: Evidence from South Asia

In a 2024 edition of the journal International Security, Paul Staniland, Professor of Political Science and a 2023-24 & 2019-20 Faculty Fellow, published a paper on internal conflict and peacekeeping mechanisms. Staniland examines potential methods of peacekeeping in internal conflicts including civil wars amidst a projected downturn in international peacekeeping measures such as United Nations peacekeeping operations. In a comparative examination of South Asian internal conflicts, Staniland shows that conflicts may be stabilized despite a lack of traditional international intervention. Two trajectories, state incorporation/disarmament and long-term limited cooperation, can provide analytical frameworks for remediation without traditional methods. The existing literature leaves out a broad range of options that could successfully end internal conflict, beyond military intervention. Certain internal conflicts are not likely to attract international peacekeeping operations, because of domestic and international political conditions. Using both qualitative and quantitative methods, Staniland examines these types of conflicts and accompanying prospects for stabilization in the context of the political conditions at hand in differing internal conflicts. 

Read Staniland's recent article here.