Past Fellows at the Institute of International Studies

John L. Simpson Memorial Research Fellows, 1992-1993

Orville Lee, Sociology: Culture in the Construction of an Agrarian Ideology in Wilhelmine Germany, 1871-1912. This research involves a sociological investigation of the relationship of the development of political ideas and discourse to social structure and the sphere of culture, specifying processes through which political ideologies are developed. The German Second Empire, a period of crisis in German agriculture, provides the example of the construction of a conservative agrarian ideology, especially the rural "public sphere" which played a mediating role between external social conditions and the content of agrarian political language.

Matthew Marostica, Political Science: Pentecostals and Politics in Argentina. Now constituting nearly one-tenth of the Argentine population, Pentecostal churches emerged as an important social force in Argentina during the 1980s. Mr. Marostica's research will focus on the interaction between these churches and the state, the mobilization at the grass roots/congregational level, and the political activity and attitudes of individuals, particularly women) in the congregations.

Nils Muiznieks, Political Science: The Baltic Popular Movements and the Disintegration of the Soviet Union will examine the origins, evolution, and impact of the ethnopolitical movements in Gorbachev-era Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. The Soviet regime-imposed system of ethnic stratification reinforced the strength of ethnic affiliations and politicized them by favoring the dominant Russian group in critical ways. The research focuses on how and why political movements in the Baltic republics, which posed the earliest and most sustained challenge to this system, played the role of catalyst and model for movements throughout the USSR.

Boatamo Yvonne Nthabu, Anthropology: The Impact of Changes in the Former Soviet Union on South African Regional Conflict. This inquiry will center primarily on the discord between the Nationalist Party and the African National Congress and will investigate personal views of ANC members who were exiled in the former Soviet Union prior to and during the time of perestroika. Ms. Nthabu will investigate the following: Did the NP's fear of communism through the ANC lessen during this period? Did perestroika eliminate the major external support of the ANC armed struggle? To what extent did the experience of ANC exiles to the Soviet Union during this period change ANC policies?

Frederick Schaffer, Political Science: Political Discourse in Senegal: Wolof Conceptions of Démokrasi. This is Mr. Schaffer's second year as a Simpson fellow. His research explores contemporary Wolof discourse to understand the assumptions that shape the practice of Senegalese democracy. Because concepts such as "democracy" and "politics" have no direct equivalents in the dominant indigenous language of Wolof, the Senegalese have created a new political vocabulary either by projecting Wolof words into the new political context or by adapting French or Arabic words. He hopes to uncover the hidden connections inherent in these borrowed words and concepts and explore how they shape political practices, ideals, and institutions.

Kenneth Shadlen, Political Science will examine the relation between economic liberalization and political change in Mexico from the early 1980s until the present, with an emphasis on the governing party's changing relations with small industry, a large sector that is not favored by recent development strategies of rapid economic liberalization.

Silvia Weyerbrock, Agricultural and Resource Economics: Trade Policy and Market Structure: A General Equilibrium Approach. This dissertation addresses trade policy questions under various market structure and behavioral assumptions in a general equilibrium setting. The first part of the thesis will address problems that agriculture poses for integration in Europe; the second part will develop theoretical and empirical approaches to representing imperfect competition and strategic trade in a general equilibrium model.