Politics and Global Affairs Research

Politics and Global Affairs

Research

WIDE-RANGING SCHOLARSHIP

Our faculty, such as Dr. Birol Yeşilada, have contributed to diverse areas of scholarly work and employ a plethora of research methods. Dr. Yeşilada's work on power transition, cybersecurity/cyber defense policy, the European Union, and world values earned him the 2024 PSU Presidential Career Research Award.

CUTTING-EDGE TOPICS

Politics and Global Affairs faculty examine issues that are shaping today's world. For example, Dr. Shawn Smallman studies the cultural and political aspects of global health pandemics such as HIV/AIDS and avian influenza. 

Safia Farole

REAL-LIFE IMPACTS

Our faculty study topics that have important policy implications in the US and abroad. For instance, Dr. Safia Farole is studying how gender interacts with previous political experience in pathways to mayoral positions in South Africa by conducting the first ever survey of mayors on the continent.

Lindsay Benstead

Global Reach

Dr. Lindsay Benstead's latest research study investigates female leadership in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA). The study reveals that female politicians are seen as more capable than their male counterparts, partly due to dissatisfaction with traditional leadership and corruption. 

Read More About Politics & Global Affairs Faculty Research

Sari-Genc E. Symbolic Leverage: Nominating (Non)veiled Women as an Electoral Competition Strategy in Polarized Turkey. Politics & Gender. Published online 2025:1-29. doi:10.1017/S1743923X25000200

Do party elites strategically nominate (non)veiled women? While research exists on Muslim-minority countries, little is known about the dynamics of such strategies in Muslim-majority contexts, where the interplay of Islam, secularism, gender, and veiling is complex. To address this gap, I examine electoral competition in Turkey, investigating whether parties strategically nominate (non)veiled women for mayoral seats in opposing party strongholds to capitalize on the political symbols associated with women’s identities — a strategy I term “symbolic leverage.” Using an original dataset, elite interviews, and electoral discourse analysis, I find that parties leverage the symbolic value of veiled and nonveiled women candidates to appeal to rival party voters. Moreover, interviews with Islamist party elites show that nominating nonveiled women serves multiple objectives for them: signaling tolerance for secular lifestyles, assuaging concerns about Islamization, attracting swing voters, and projecting a democratic image. These findings illuminate how parties utilize women’s inclusion in polarized contexts.

“Economic Voting in Latin America: Rules and Responsibility,” with Michael Lewis-Beck. 2018. American Journal of Political Science. 62.2: 410-423.
 

The impact of institutions on the economic vote stands as a well-established proposition for the advanced democracies of Europe. We know less, however, regarding the institutional effects on the economic vote in the developing democracies of Latin America. Carrying out an analysis of presidential elections in 18 Latin American countries, we offer evidence that the usual Eurocentric conceptualization of the clarity of responsibility is not ideal for understanding the economic vote in this region. There does exist a powerful effect of institutions on the economic vote within Latin American democracies, but one uniquely associated with its presidential regimes and dynamic party systems. Rules for these elections—such as concurrence, term limits, and second-round voting—suggest that we should reconceptualize the notion of the clarity of responsibility in Latin America, focusing more on individuals in power and their constraints, and less on the political parties from which they hail.