The 10th Annual First-Year Graduate Student Poster Session
The 10th Annual First-Year Graduate Student Poster Session was held on Tuesday, December 10th, 2019 on the second floor of the Ketchum Hall West Wing.
Based on faculty voting, this year’s award winners are:
1st place: Sarah Brown
Project Abstract: In The Punitive Society, Foucault argues that in the late 18th century, capitalist society became concerned with property-based crimes and attempted to discipline individuals into workers through imprisonment. Feminist scholars contend that Foucault’s theory of punishment fails to account for women’s experiences in the criminal justice system during this period. Furthermore, feminist researchers suggest there is likely variation among women based on how they perform their proscribed gender roles. In order to investigate the feminist critique of Foucault, I conducted two ordinary least squares (OLS) regressions with interactive terms to discover whether imprisonment for property crimes in England from 1791-1805 was conditional on gender and, for women, marital status. Results indicate that the likelihood of being sentenced to prison for a property crime is conditional on the gender of the defendant. Women who commit property crimes are more likely to receive a prison sentence. However, there is no statistically significant difference in prison sentences between married and unmarried women.
2nd place: Jack Nickelson
Project Abstract: Are there state-level attributes that impact a legislature’s decision to be an early adopter across the population of state policies? I argue that the strictness of norm enforcement is a state-level characteristic that causes a legislature to take an early adopter or “wait-and-see” approach during policy adoption. The results indicate that the strength of norm enforcement within a state, indeed, influences legislature decision-making, with strict norm enforcing states choosing a “wait-and-see” approach and more permissive states engaging in the early adoption of policy innovations.
3rd place: Tyler Garrett
Project Abstract: How does a former career as a prosecutor influence a federal appellate judge’s vote on a death penalty appeals case? Contrary to the first hypothesis, judges on the United States Court of Appeals that were former prosecutors vote to reverse death penalty cases at a higher rate. Interestingly, when former career as a prosecutor is measured conditional on party, Democrats and Republicans have an inverse reaction. This study utilized data from the Federal Judicial Center and replication data from a study conducted by Deborah Beim and Jonathan P. Kastellec. These findings should be worthwhile for parties involved in death penalty appeals cases and those involved in the nomination and confirmation processes of judges to the United States Court of Appeals.
Thanks and congratulations to all of our first-years for putting together some wonderful posters this year!