Phelan US Centre PhD Summer Research Grants

Pratap Jayaram, Department of Sociology

As individual homeownership has grown increasingly out of reach for Americans, the role of rental property owners in the country’s housing landscape has never been more prominent. Owners of all sizes, from corporate institutions to “mom-and-pop” landlords, dictate the shape of the housing market and thereby the experiences of the country’s growing renter population. However, relatively little is known about the financial decision making processes of these different types of rental property owners.

My study asks: how do rental property owners make decisions regarding their portfolios, properties, and tenants, and what is the impact of political and economic conditions on these decisions? Of particular interest is how these owners use credit to acquire and maintain properties, and how lending institutions and economic policy shape rental property owners’ borrowing practices. New York serves as an ideal location to study this interaction, as both the State and City legislative bodies are heated battlegrounds between real estate and tenant interests, as epitomised by the recent mayoral election. I hope to identify what new patterns of real estate investment and management have emerged in this environment, and whether local policy is adequately reining in any overly speculative practices.

Jocelyn Harrison, Department of International History

My project interrogates the role of economic class in shaping how Americans thought about and engaged with the wider world as the United States emerged from the Civil War in 1865. It does so through a little-known case study – the Thayer Expedition, an American scientific expedition to Brazil in 1865-66 led by Swiss-American naturalist and racial theorist Louis Agassiz.

William James – a 23-year-old volunteer on the Thayer Expedition – recorded his experiences of Brazil in a series of letters, a diary, and a draft travel narrative. In these writings, James hinted at as yet unexplored class dynamics animating the expedition. By interrogating the impressions that participants of different class backgrounds formed of Brazil and investigating the economic interests behind the expedition (which were largely excluded from its official published narrative), the project offers a window into how class shaped how different Americans engaged with the wider world in the post-Civil War period. This will enable historians to rethink the US’ role in the world as a function of individuals’ sense of their class interests – such as those of middle-class travellers and wealthy financiers – rather state-level political and economic interests.

Allison Reilly, Department of Geography and Environment

The U.S. reversal on climate policy in the wake of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) of 2022—the country’s most significant investment in climate action— raises concerns about the prospect of climate policies to meaningfully improve communities and sustain political popularity. Literature in human geography and sociology indicate that post-haste analyses concerned with the potential shortcomings of implementing and messaging the IRA aren’t looking deep enough. Research into the IRA’s fundamental politics is needed.

Central to meeting the IRA’s ambitious goals are policies that make losses actionable for climate progress in “frontier” communities; I call these “climate policies of abandonment”. These programs create abandoned space to reduce climate risk and locate infrastructure for the clean energy transition in areas where abandoned practices have created a primed canvas.

My research is concerned with how climate policies of abandonment are impacting people’s everyday lives in precarious communities. Through a deep analysis of domestic governance of coal communities, this study will shed light on how these policies may be contributing to local and national politics that reject both domestic and international climate policy efforts.

Lara Charlotte Kuberka, Department of Government

The 2024 Presidential election drastically illustrated America's geographic polarization, with Trump dominating rural counties while Harris won the cities. This urban-rural divide fundamentally challenges American governance: climate legislation, infrastructure investments, and healthcare reforms struggle to bridge geographic constituencies, yet democratic legitimacy requires all Americans feel represented. Understanding variation within rural America, why some rural residents hold intense anti-urban attitudes while others don't, is crucial for governing in an era of geographic polarization.

We know that the presence of partisan ‘echo chambers’ significantly increases affective polarization since exposure to like-minded people reinforces shared perspectives, while cross-cutting exposure moderates attitudes. Place-based networks may function through a parallel mechanism. I argue that place-based identities form through shared spatial experiences and that their strength varies based on the geographic diversity of individuals' social networks and their degree of social closure.

My research attempts to show that social network geography determines who internalizes place-based grievances. This directly informs policymaking by identifying persuadable constituencies and suggesting interventions that facilitate cross-cutting urban-rural ties, enabling coalition building and reducing place-based polarization in American democracy.

Alexander Davies, Department of International Relations

My research tackles how American alliances – which underpin the international order of post-Second World War era – are susceptible to domestic currents and the impact that these domestic currents could have on the future of American alliances. In doing so, it explores how exactly America’s role on the international stage changes as a direct result of events at home, and how this role has historically been facilitated. This research has not been conducted in a systematic fashion before, despite how crucial it is to understanding the straws in the wind for America's role in the world going forward.

Taking a broad lens from the moderately-calm 1950s all the way into the turbulent contemporary period, my research provides a new look at just how sensitive alliances are to domestic politics, a link that has not previously been explored in this detail yet is becoming arguably the central discussion point of a changing world order. In doing so, insight is provided into how foreign policymakers have reacted (and are reacting) to the shifting American landscape even in a realm once thought far removed from domestic pressures.

Chris Cai, Department of Psychological and Behavioural Science

Immigration has long been central to America's strength, fueling innovation and economic growth. Yet deepening polarization and politicization of immigration has led to growing intolerance—manifesting in discriminatory policies, social exclusion, and public discourse increasingly shaped by misinformation.

Intergroup contact is one of the most robust and well-established methods for reducing prejudice—decades of research confirm that meaningful interaction with outgroup members fosters empathy, reduces anxiety, and shifts attitudes. However, physical contact interventions are fundamentally impossible to scale; they are costly, logistically complex, and require physical proximity to function.

Recent research on AI anthropomorphization and AI-driven persuasion, suggests that conversational AI may offer a viable alternative. People readily empathize with AI chatbots, perceiving them as warm and patient listeners. AI chatbots also excel at generating personally tailored arguments for correct misconceptions. Taken together, these capabilities allow AI chatbots to simulate key elements of intergroup contact—perspective-taking, rapport-building, and belief correction—at a fraction of the cost of traditional alternatives and with far greater reach. My research explores whether such chatbots can effectively reduce prejudice against racially, ethnically, and religiously distinct immigrants in the United States.

Constance Viehbeck, Department of Health Policy

My research examines how the US Food and Drug Administration shapes health equity outcomes through regulatory decisions and policy priorities. Specifically, it quantifies whether women and ethnic minorities are underrepresented in expedited drug approvals and measures whether representation gaps correlate with higher adverse drug reaction rates. It further investigates why diversity policies have advanced more slowly and less forcefully than industry-friendly reforms.

I address core governance questions: How do institutional incentives, organisational priorities, and external stakeholder pressures shape regulatory agency behaviour? Why does the agency respond swiftly to industry interests while lagging on public safety concerns? By linking empirical evidence of demographic representation gaps and adverse drug disparities to qualitative analysis of FDA institutional politics, this research explains a critical governance gap in 21st-century America and contributes to understanding how US institutions can be reformed to advance health equity.

Stephanie Rodriguez, Department of Media and Communications

This project seeks to understand the experience of an ethnic minority group’s relationship to civic empowerment during a time in which immigration and ‘otherness’ are highly fraught. Its objectives are to understand how an ethnic minority community, Filipino Americans, come to see themselves as active members of American civil society, or in other words, as having civic agency, in the digital age. This is operationalised into two core questions: What role might a highly immersive and visual social media platform play in affording Filipino American youth the ability to engage in civic practices? And how might such practices contribute to a civic becoming?

Philipp Gagel, Department of Management

This project investigates a critical puzzle in digital financial systems: when does transparency shift from stabilising to destabilising? The United States is trailblazing comprehensive stablecoin regulation through the GENIUS Act, establishing disclosure requirements that will shape global standards through regulatory diffusion. With over $300 billion in global circulation now subject to these emerging rules, US regulators are implementing transparency frameworks without sufficient available empirical evidence on how different disclosure formats affect user behaviour.

My research examines how federal regulatory design choices shape financial market stability and public trust, two central concerns in the government business relationship governing America's digital financial infrastructure. The GENIUS Act, mandates stablecoin disclosure requirements but leaves format decisions to implementing agencies. My study directly informs these decisions by demonstrating that identical risk information can stabilise or destabilise markets depending on presentation format. Understanding when transparency builds versus erodes trust is essential for designing regulations that protect consumers without triggering the instability they aim to prevent.

The timing is opportune: throughout 2026, federal agencies will detail GENIUS Act implementation through further rulemaking. My findings can inform these decisions before they take final effect, providing an empirical foundation for evidence-based policy innovation.